If an oak is going to make acorns (not all do this reliably)....it does it in the fall only. If the squirrels do not knock them off efficiently, they will remain longer on the branches. Then one would see them fall off into winter and spring. Usually where there are lots of oaks, there are lots of squirrels.


The spring pollen blows around so wind is necessary. As I stated above, our old oaks don't make acorns every year. When they do it is a quite an avalanche of them!

If the squirrels eat them in place, instead of carrying them off, then sharp bits remain and if you walk barefooted, you may damage your feet.

My husband was working on the stump yesterday, sealing it with wood preserver. We are going to put plant pots on it for summer and use it as a bird feeder shelf for winter. He tried to count the rings, and came up with 125-150. We counted back to when this house was built--- 1915... and he determined the tree then was 8 to 10 inches in diameter back then

So from your photo of that balcony... that tree appears much older than ours. It was of course not so close the the railing either in the past.