Think Green Thursday.....dead trees

Are dead trees green? Yes and no. In the traditional colorful sense, they are not green. But in the environmental sense, they are very "green". Dead trees provide habitat for birds that like to nest in tree cavities. They also provide bugs for food and perching space. Most of us don't want a dead tree in our yards. Last week, Kelly at "Red and the Peanut" posted her half dead willow tree. I told her about my dead dogwood and she suggested we start a "Dead Tree Society". LOL! What we both have in common is that we don't want to get rid of our dead trees.
My dead Dogwood grows right by the front door and is where I hang all my bird feeders and take photos. I was devastated when I realized last year that the tree had died! I didn't want to cut it down and start from scratch waiting for a new tree to grow. So.....I planted a vine next to the tree and turned my dead dogwood into a "Vine Tree"!

Don't ask me the name, because I have forgotten what it is, but it drapes itself all over the tree and has these lovely white flowers. The bees love them. The Goldfinches will eat petals from them later. (NOTE: I think I found a name for it...Silver Lace Vine)
Another "volunteer" vine....a believe it is a honeyvine....also grows on part of the tree. These vines give the birds the feeling of safety that they want while they come to the feeders.

I have placed a couple of shepherd crooks to hold feeders in the area, also.

The vine sometimes makes it hard to get a good photo now! I had to trim away a few dead bits and redrape some of it.

But you can see that the birds will perch on the dead branches quite happily while looking for food.

At the base of the tree, I have placed a small Dogwood volunteer that I found elsewhere and as it gets larger, I will eventually cut away parts of the old tree and finally all of it. But in the mean time the birds and I can enjoy my "dead Dogwood" in its disguise as the "Vine Tree"!
Think Green! Save a tree....even a dead one!

Thanks to Rambling Woods for hosting the Think Green Thursday blog. For more "green" blogs click on the icon at the top of this post.

I have a few other photos that I want to get posted, and they are "green" also.

This is at the wetland's meadow. Mike captured this little butterfly enjoying the flowers.

A little frog in the duckweed.

A turtle peeking up out of the same duckweed. Everything about the Howell wetlands is green in every sense of the word :-)

Well.....except the ducks.

Getting organized before diving through the railings to get away from us.