Well, I don't know for sure what happened in the mid-Atlantic states last year, but here in the Detroit area, 2011 was the wettest year on record, and the only period of drought we had was a minor 3-4 week drought from very late June to late July. The rest of the season had abundant rain, moderate to warm temps, really ideal growing conditions. And it showed in this spring's bloom and general vegetative growth, which is lush and profuse on everything this year.

Unfortunately, though, unlike your area, we had killing freezes in April after record March warmth, and many, many trees and shrubs lost all or most of their crop. So, I'm not really sure what that will mean for animals and birds this fall, but I think many of them will face hardships.

Yeah, the usual lilac blooms failed to appear here too. Ditto for pagoda dogwood.

Overall, it seems like a poor-fruiting yr. Sugar maples last yr were so loaded w/seeds that their foliage was noticeably scant -- but no seeds this yr. Black cherry flowered well, but none of the cherries developed (pretty typical). However, young Burr & Swamp white oaks have OK acorn crops & perhaps from the mild winter, my 'Victoria' southern mag has already had several flowers -- very early.

Dzitmoidonc, I'm on the Mason-Dixon line too -- well west of you.

One thing that was able to fruit with profusion was silver maple. The trees were loaded, turning straw colored as the crop matured, it they fell about 4 weeks ahead of schedule, around the 10th of May instead of the normal early June.

Those are a short term food source for some animals, squirrels, chipmunks, but they don't store. I've found many a chipmunk's cache of these seeds stuffed into a flower pot or garden bed, in the process of sprouting into a miniature forest of silver maple seedlings.

Some conifers (Picea) around here are loaded with cones.

White Oak is incredibly abundant this year, I just couldn't help myself. I picked these up in a local park in about 3 minutes. I hate to see (and hear) the cars drive over them.
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What'd'ya mean, Sam? Just bring your flat shovel and scrape up all that delicious nut butter!

+oM

It's been weird around here. Last year, we had 55 inches of rain, plus the dryest July on record. This year, we had the worst drought in 130 years (in other words, it's never been so dry) from May through Early August. Now, though, we've had 11 inches of rain since the beginning of August! We are right around normal rainfall. I'm not complaining, of course! Our climate is a fairly moist one, for the Midwest - Indiana seems to have it's own climate. Where we are, we get weather from the Ohio Valley, as well as from the north. Excellent tree climate, though - Mostly Beech-Maple-Elm forest. Usually I don't have to water anything, maybe once for establishment. This year, I was watering all summer! Now that I think about it, it was worth it to keep everything watered. I would have felt awful if I let everything die only to see tons of rain return in August - NOAA was predicting drought to last through the end of October.

It's a mediocre year around here - Not a mast year, but not a total lack. I'm collecting a bunch of acorns today for planting. Can never have too many trees!

This is quite an unusual tree, at least for us in eastern Maryland. My previous seed tree was blown over by Katrina. This is from Delaware's champ. The nuts are sweet and delicious. For some reason this tree reminds me of Austin Powers. Do you ever use the nuts? Can you name this tree?
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Carya ovata?

+oM

shagbark hickory (also) ?

Shagbark. We have tons of it around here on higher ground; it's replaced by shellbark hickory on low ground. I actually prefer shellbark for the nutmeat.

sam_md, gotta be shagbark. I don't think shellbark's native range covers the MD eastern shore.

Shagbark is at home here in the MD mountains too, but never common. Bitternut is the most common hickory here, a capable competitor in the oak/maple forest. Mockernut was the most common in the SW VA mountains.

Interesting tree, the shellbark (Which this^ is not). We've got them in, as you say, some moister situations. At least some range maps I've seen don't show the species occurring this far north, but I am certain they're here. I even cut some down once to grow shiitake mushrooms on, back in the day when I was embarking on that hobby. The shrooms fruited well on that species, BTW.

+oM

I defer to the infinite wisdom of my fellow posters and the shagadelic hickory it is and remains.
Has anyone seen how variable the nut size is on this species? I hope to gather some C. ovata next week with larger nuts.
How is it possible that people cut these exquisite trees down to make skis out of?

In keeping with the shagbark hickory theme, I collected many nuts recently from a tree in Chevy Chase. Many nuts are still on the tree. Compared to the tree in Delaware the CC tree's bark is not as shaggy and the nuts are bigger. I had to open them with a vice. They were delicious but alot of work. Also, some of the leaves of the CC tree had 7 leaflets. Are these differences to be expected as natural variation or is something else going on?
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Bark on the Chevy Chase tree.
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Are we in for another mast year? You tell me.

Here fruits of Red Maple Acer rubrum. They're really abundant, the trees are loaded with them. They mature next month and germinate shortly thereafter.

Hoping for a good acorn year so the squirrels leave my persimmons alone.

Sam, once or twice my sugar maples have done that & the subsequent foliage is somewhat sparse -- I assume because of so much energy going into the seeds. Watch that red maple to see if you notice that.

We had a mast year on the White oaks. Acorns were everywhere.

I also noticed all the White cedars (Thuja occidentalis) around town are loaded with cones.I just picked some from this tree today (sun was dim so not great pic, tree looked almost yellow today).

Earlier today:

Does this mean we'll have a bad winter this year? :-0

I sure hope not! We’re due for an easy winter, but I say that every year.

Definitely a mast year here — Reds & Whites. It’s a crunchy walk across the lawn. I think it has to do with the hard freeze we experienced in May a couple years back. The acorn crop was decimated and they’re now bountiful. I have no idea what I’m talking about, but it’s as probable as your Thuja crop theory. ;)

We always have a bad winter up here. Some are just worse than others. Wish I knew why. Maybe the zone? It can't be because the trees are expecting to be winter killed, that would take a zone 1 for Thuja. Oh well, just a theory, we'll have to wait and see. lol