Bambi is here

8 July

Walk with Jeff H. in through the north gate. The Northeast Escarpment Trail and the Trans OWP Trail all the way to the Ponds Trail had many, many Micrathena spider webs across the trail. They looked to be all the same species from a quick glance..no Araneus.

There is still good water below the Burr Oak Bridge in the wash. The trail down from the gate is in good condition. Nick Cz came to the wash below the bridge Wed 1 July and heard deer and owl close at hand..but heard no bats even with ultrasound equipment.

He writes: "saw raccoon and deer tracks in the mud along the creek in the preserve, and at dusk I heard a yellow-billed cuckoo, cardinals, and some other bird call I didn't recognize. Later as I sat there in the dark, sweating in the heat and humidity, a barred owl was hooting very near by part of the time, fireflies were everywhere, hundreds of mosquitoes kept me company as I tried to sit still, there were so many gray tree frogs and insects calling that it was very loud, and at one point a deer startled me when it snorted just a few feet behind me in the dark. It snorted at me three more times as it moved off somewhere to the north.."


Jeff and I spooked a spotted fawn of a white tail in the flat weedy woods west of the Burr Oak Bridge.

Through the southwest gate small tapering leaf bits of green twigs are rising from the previously flooded -- now good and dry forest floor.. maybe young 1-2 yr old persimmon?

The green sedges along the main path are full grown.