The oak in full leaf with New Forest ponies underneath

The leaves are come now. Over the next few weeks the only changes that will be seen is the slow darkening and toughening of the leaves. Little seedling oaks springing up under the big one, only to be eaten by the caterpillars that fall from the tree canopy when it rains. Acorns that fall rarely live beyond a year. Those that produce oaks are normally transported elsewhere by jays or other birds or animals. Come the middle of August oaks bring out more leaves the "Lamas Growth."

I will try to photograph that and will follow the progress of the oak apples from time to time. See a previous post for more about them. Soon I hope to put up a slideshow of the changes since last October. Meanwhile you can follow other trees in the sister blog Treewatch.