Following Quercus garryana

I am making another attempt to be a tree follower (squirrelbasket/tree-following). My effort last year HERE was a fail. The problem was the tree was on a long vacant property that shortly shortly became not vacant. The tree remains, but I was unable/unwilling to trespass to get a good look to identify the tree. 

I have plenty of trees on our own property and I am only just beginning to get my head around the nuances of the forest. For this year I will follow a new tree.  

Quercus garryana 

Garry oak or Oregon oak or Oregon white oak 

I planted this tree last spring. The fence is to keep the deer from nibbling the tree. The soil is very hard glacial till. In western Washington oaks grow in the excessively well drained prairie sites, but there are patches in drier areas of the San Juan Islands as well as the Columbia River Gorge and valleys on the east slopes of the Cascade Range.

Samish Island is within the rain shadow of the Olympic Range and hence a bit on the dry side. There are oaks on the south facing bluffs of the island and I noted a small stand across Samish Bay on the lower slopes of Chuckanut Mountain. The biggest challenge to the oaks is shading out by taller evergreen trees - particularly the Douglas firs.

Not much to report at this late winter early spring time. Waiting for the leaves to come out and seeing if the tree tolerated saturated ground conditions from the very wet winter.