Autumn brings along surprises with native Poison Ivy. The plant’s leaves become beautiful, luminous colors.

Some reach out from tree trunks disguising the fact that it is a vine and one that humans should avoid. It’s not a tree but a climbing vine. Easy to think as the vine wraps round and climbs the tree that those leaves are innocent.

While the plants on the ground will impersonate not a vine but a small bush.

Those leaves mainly turning a rich crimson or a vibrant yellow. The crimson bringing back memories of the new plant’s spring emergence with shiny new red leaves.

You may not have noticed. Poison Ivy has berries. As the leaves turn color, and then, as they fall to the ground, the berries will become more obvious.

If you’re really fortunate you may live next to a patch of woods, or you might even be surrounded by forest. That’s the case for me. My yard is totally encircled by woods. This will give you the ultimate opportunity to see birds enjoying an important wildlife food plant, Poison Ivy. Yes, remove it from your formal gardens but leave it in the woods. Let those birds reap the benefits of the berries. I’ve been fortunate to see many different species of woodpeckers enjoying the berries, along with many other birds like this Chickadee.

Birds you might see: Bobwhite Quail, Brown Thrashers, Mockingbirds, Wild Turkeys, Crows, Red-headed Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Pileated Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Northern Flickers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Chickadees, Blue Grosbeaks, Eastern Bluebirds, and Catbirds. And mammals too will benefit from the Poison Ivy. Deer, Bear, Raccoons, and Muskrats, just a few of the many that will eat leaves, stems and berries.

And then there are the butterflies that I pursue for my photographs. They invariably choose to land on Poison Ivy rather than some other less offensive plant. Here a Northern Pearly-eye is teasing me, landing on Poison Ivy and daring me to reach out.