Hi Cindy:
That youngster is certainly an oak seedling from the Red Oak group of
Quercus sp. As you've noted, it has the giveaway ID of bristle tips on the leaf lobes.
Which of the Red Oak group? Fair question, and hard to absolutely ID on such a young plant of which you've only divulged a bit of info in those pictures. Being able to see the buds would help, which begin to separate similar species.
**It could be a Northern Red Oak (
Quercus rubra), though it doesn't seem as "plump" through its leaf's midsection as a normal Red Oak leaf.
**It could be a Pin Oak (
Q. palustris), which has the thinner midsection but typically has longer lobes relative to leaf length.
**It could be a Scarlet Oak (
Q. coccinea).
**It could be a Shumard Oak (
Q. shumardii), though that species has more "scalloped" sinuses between lobes.
**It could be Black Oak (
Q. velutina).
**Finally, depending on where in VA you are, it might even be Southern Red Oak (
Q. falcata).
Know also that species within the Red Oak group can hybridize, and produce seedlings with intermediate traits - just to confound you. The best way to reduce the field of possibilities in this kind of situation is to identify nearby trees from which the acorn may have come. If you live in a regular residential neighborhood where all the trees are planted, this will be an easy exercise to determine which trees it could have come from. If you live by a woodland or forest where there are many kinds of trees, then it may be more difficult.
Here is a great reference which I will always offer to those interested in oaks:
https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthe...
I'd put the oak in the prime spot, and move the Sun Valley Red Maple to somewhere that your rainfall drains by. That way, you don't have to preferentially water it as much. The oak is likely going to do just fine, as it had to have arisen from a nearby tree which has grown old enough and successfully enough to produce acorns. Every native species of tree (or any plant) will have some sort of insect or pathogen that wants to bother it occasionally - that is the balance of life that keeps any one species from overwhelming its environment.
Which makes me want to mention - and not as being preachy, but worth noting:
Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy is a book every gardener should read. It will help everyone understand that an insect bite or two is not the end of the world for plants, but trying to eliminate every insect could be the end of the road for many birds and other fauna that rely on those insects to live and raise their young.
