maackia - looks like northern spicebush - any berries

I would guess spicebush too. Woods around my lot are loaded w/them, and some volunteer on my lot from those.

I'm not familiar with Spicebush. However, as a complete ignoramus, those two pictures don't seem to show the same plant to me. Are you sure they're the same?

They are the same, but there could be another shrub mixed in with them. It’s not Lindera, which is not hardy this far north. It’s Dirca palustris.

Just for kicks, how about this seldom seen conifer:

That’s it!

I see that all the time. ;-)

But nothing like being in the woods this time of year.

Thanks maackia!

That is a nice thicket of Taxus c.

Deer populations have nearly wiped it out in many of its native areas.

But places with deep snow protect it from the deer.

Hurley is in that area between both lakes, Superior and Michigan with 155 inches annual snowfall.

Speaking of deer, some stuff has already been rubbed/damaged on my lot. And over about 20 yrs where I had been in the southwest VA woods, the whole understory of whatever was there was mostly wiped out by deer, including all the remaining Amer chestnut sprouts and all the cinnamon ferns.

Although seeing signs of deer in my personal area of the world, is seemingly a thing of the past, I've had enough 'surprises' over the years that I don't take any chances with my slender trunked trees.

This Celtis occidentalis, which is on its last year for deer protection, is typical of what I use on trees that no longer require sun scald protection. One stake and ~two feet of chicken wire and small hammer.

I was running out of cw so JIC I placed sun scald/rabbit tube on the Crataegus Chrysocarpa.

There's no fear of sun scald anymore because of its thick, fissured bark but a tube works just as well as anything to deter deer bucks from rubbing.

When it's a smaller plant like my P. densata, I totally surround it with wire.

Even though deer don't generally bother spruce, I've had them take a chomp out of a branch or trunk of various kinds of my trees, just to be 'Sassy' as they pass by. It doesn't kill the plant but causes damage that has to heal and maybe gives an entry way to some sort of pathogen.

It's not hard work and I'm getting to the point most of my trees are too big for deer to bother. That's made my Fall work much easier this season than in the past.

Most of my protection this season was simply cw surrounds of my newer acquisitions, mostly to deter rabbits and a fair amount of burlap for sun protection.