The various berries that wildlife depend upon for winter survival are especially abundant this year, including native red chokeberries such as these. I think that the large numbers of fruits have more to do with this year’s warmer and wetter weather so far than with the old yarn of a prediction about “the more autumn berries, the more winter flurries.”
Red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) is a shrub in the rose family that is native to eastern and central United States. Its name (“chokeberry”) describes what you’ll probably do if you eat the little, highly-acidic fruit raw. However, those berries reportedly can be used to make delicious jellies and jams. (The berries look like cherries, but this is not chokecherry [Prunus virginiana], which also has very bitter fruit that will make you gag.)
Wildlife don’t gag on these berries. They’re a winter favorite of American robins, bluebirds, and other thrushes; grosbeaks; woodpeckers; blue jays; catbirds; kingbirds; grouse; mice; voles; chipmunks; squirrels; skunks; foxes; white-tailed deer; bear, and moose. The deer reportedly also browse on the shrubs’ branches.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 6 and 8, 2023.)