No more do raucous flocks bob through the trees, calling excitedly. Instead they flow in steady, stately flight high over the brightening forest canopy, silent as the monarch butterflies that share their airspace. Most will spend the winter in the southern United States, and some will find refuge by drilling their way into vacant buildings. Unlike other woodpeckers, flickers spend much time on the ground, foraging for insects, especially ants. One flicker's stomach contained about 5,000 ants, two others 3,000 each.
Tree texts have it that quaking aspen is short-lived.
Aspens, however, should be thought of not as trees but as root systems. Inject a radioactive isotope into one clone, and it will show up in another 100 feet away. A root system may underlie a whole hill and weigh 32 tons to the acre. If so, aspen could be earth's oldest living thing. When swamp and lakeshore flush with ripeness, there's a stirring in surrounding sandy soil.