From 10 to noon I was on the northeastern Escarpment Trail leading from the North Gate 175 meters to the big walnut above the Burr Oak bridge. With a tape measure I flagged with masking tape 25 meter intervals along the trail.
Green pecan nuts are beginning to come down. I found many in patches along the trail.
A few landmarks:
35 m (or 114 ft) the funny Y-shaped old iron fence post
41 m (or 136 ft) old tin bucket used for vertebrate studies??
100 m young blackjack oak
125 m hawthorn?
One three-toed box turtle at the top of the slope down to the Burr Oak bridge near the walnut. Flocks of robins down by the walnut and the stream crossing.
The Trans OWP Trail was in surprisingly good condition from the Burr Oak Bridge westward.. not overgrown..still clear. Lots of Micrathena spiders along that section.
Need to measure and flag distances along that.. and complete the leg on out to the West Ponds Trail.
One tiny tick.
(A few early monarchs have been flying south through open fields around Norman last couple of days.)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Trail Blazing with Turtle and Bugs
I went to Olivers Woods this Sat. morning 10 to noon and it was pleasant.
I blazed the normal trail from the SW gate with big swatches of temporary masking tape stuck to the trees where I will paint blue blazes.
Saw a yearling white tail deer sprinting from near the Chautauqua side eastward into the Woods and one 3 toed box turtle and lots of Micrathena spiders.
The regular perch for the four libellullid dragonfly (siblings?, conspecifics at least) was occupied again but this time there were only three. They may be falling off with old age or being picked off by predators.
This species of dragonfly could be named the "patriot". It is red white and blue. The labial mask and front frons are increasingly turning a nice powder blue. The anterior portion of the abdomen is a handsome bright red and there are white stripes on the dark thorax.
I found two cicadas, one fluttered down in front of me seemingly exhausted. Green and black like Tibicen. Ants had found one recently deceased. I expect their singing (still loud) will begin to lessen from now with summer drawing to a close. I had not considered the effect of inundation on this population in their subterranean habitat.
I did not find the trail angling north east flagged with yellow flags. Sun blotches through the forest were the same color. I'll look again at a darker time early or late or cloudy.
Only two ticks (tiny).
I blazed the normal trail from the SW gate with big swatches of temporary masking tape stuck to the trees where I will paint blue blazes.
Saw a yearling white tail deer sprinting from near the Chautauqua side eastward into the Woods and one 3 toed box turtle and lots of Micrathena spiders.
The regular perch for the four libellullid dragonfly (siblings?, conspecifics at least) was occupied again but this time there were only three. They may be falling off with old age or being picked off by predators.
This species of dragonfly could be named the "patriot". It is red white and blue. The labial mask and front frons are increasingly turning a nice powder blue. The anterior portion of the abdomen is a handsome bright red and there are white stripes on the dark thorax.
I found two cicadas, one fluttered down in front of me seemingly exhausted. Green and black like Tibicen. Ants had found one recently deceased. I expect their singing (still loud) will begin to lessen from now with summer drawing to a close. I had not considered the effect of inundation on this population in their subterranean habitat.
I did not find the trail angling north east flagged with yellow flags. Sun blotches through the forest were the same color. I'll look again at a darker time early or late or cloudy.
Only two ticks (tiny).
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Hellgrammite Lazarus
Sunday Aug 16 at 8 AM I came again to the SW gate on Chautauqua. The Clematis virgins bower growing on top of the fence was just beginning to open its white flowers. I walked north into the Woods to the old overgrown main west gate (now closed and blocked by young trees) then east about 600 feet through the sedges and moribund dense young ash stand to a huge old cottonwood tree fallen perhaps in the ice storm two years ago.
Under a small older rotten log by the cottonwood I was surprised to find a hellgrammite! Curled up under the moist log, it sprang into action twisting around when I picked it up. It appeared to be a last instar full-grown larva. The nearest water was probably 100 meters north. This iconic aquatic immature insect had hunkered down and was waiting for the area to be inundated again .. pretty amazing! I was reminded of finding in October 2008 a half grown diapausing belostomatid under another dry rotten log further south in the Woods.
It occurred to me that the habitat of these insects was defined not just by spatial distance to water but also by a time dimension to the recent water and the future return of water.
The rotten log was near a small depression, 2-3 m in diameter that looked to have retained water longer than the surrounding soil. In this depression there were the shell remains of hundreds of the small fingernail clams Sphaerium(?)Sphaeriidae bivalves and two other completely different bleached aquatic shells as well (Helisoma Planorbiid rams-horn snails and Physa (sinistral shell).
The depression was ringed by modest diameter (10-15 cm DBH?) green ash and elms. The bases of all these trees were each well equipped with lots of trunk roots or pneumatophores(?) that may have allowed them to survive longer and deeper inundation. The dry soil in the center of the depression had a whitish tinge of (calcium ?) as though a sort of leachate had formed ..like a floodplain caliche.
Clambering up on to the enormous old cottonwood log I found an egg sized lime encrusted fresh plasmodium of a Physarum? slime mold.. recently crawled up there and drying, forming a fruiting body, sporulating.
Down at the base of the massive log I stared at the broken stump and wondered why cottonwoods like this do not stump sprout. It could very possibly have quickly grown enough new stems and leaves to support the rest of the tree.
Nearby there were the first golden fallen mulberry leaves on the ground .. the first real fall colors.
Just east of the base of the big cottonwood there was a sharp transition or break in the forest vegetation. At that point the ground was maybe an inch higher and had not flooded. The vegetation changed abruptly. There was a general ground cover of Lonicera Japanese honeysuckle, Cornus dogwood, Symphoricarpos buckbrush/ coral berry, Rhus, and a
sparse but general cover of a tall stemmed grass, now dead and bleaching yellow.
East of the transition to higher drier ground a dry still hard small hackberry log had dozens of millipedes.. and under another similar log I counted 80 of the same species all clustered together. Why? Protection? Habitat preference?
Under the logs there was also a fourth snail species - this one terrestrial.. name??
The logs in the drier woods were covered with the black encrusting Loculoascomycete.. not as evident in the area of the previous inundation.
Under the dry logs there were also hundreds of pill bugs and a few colonies of very small ants. Why pill bugs and ants so often cohabit? Why no scorpions here? Too wet?
Spiders:
Under the same small rotten log there were a quick running large wolf spider.. half the bulk of a tarantula, carrying a large egg sac under its abdomen.. and a pair of daddy long legs. Walking through the knee high sedges I found a pair of Argiope the black and yellow garden spider. The female was huge. And scattered through the Woods I am starting finally to see more of the cinnamon colored Araneus. Plus there are still many of the Micrathena.
Under a small older rotten log by the cottonwood I was surprised to find a hellgrammite! Curled up under the moist log, it sprang into action twisting around when I picked it up. It appeared to be a last instar full-grown larva. The nearest water was probably 100 meters north. This iconic aquatic immature insect had hunkered down and was waiting for the area to be inundated again .. pretty amazing! I was reminded of finding in October 2008 a half grown diapausing belostomatid under another dry rotten log further south in the Woods.
It occurred to me that the habitat of these insects was defined not just by spatial distance to water but also by a time dimension to the recent water and the future return of water.
The rotten log was near a small depression, 2-3 m in diameter that looked to have retained water longer than the surrounding soil. In this depression there were the shell remains of hundreds of the small fingernail clams Sphaerium(?)Sphaeriidae bivalves and two other completely different bleached aquatic shells as well (Helisoma Planorbiid rams-horn snails and Physa (sinistral shell).
The depression was ringed by modest diameter (10-15 cm DBH?) green ash and elms. The bases of all these trees were each well equipped with lots of trunk roots or pneumatophores(?) that may have allowed them to survive longer and deeper inundation. The dry soil in the center of the depression had a whitish tinge of (calcium ?) as though a sort of leachate had formed ..like a floodplain caliche.
Clambering up on to the enormous old cottonwood log I found an egg sized lime encrusted fresh plasmodium of a Physarum? slime mold.. recently crawled up there and drying, forming a fruiting body, sporulating.
Down at the base of the massive log I stared at the broken stump and wondered why cottonwoods like this do not stump sprout. It could very possibly have quickly grown enough new stems and leaves to support the rest of the tree.
Nearby there were the first golden fallen mulberry leaves on the ground .. the first real fall colors.
Just east of the base of the big cottonwood there was a sharp transition or break in the forest vegetation. At that point the ground was maybe an inch higher and had not flooded. The vegetation changed abruptly. There was a general ground cover of Lonicera Japanese honeysuckle, Cornus dogwood, Symphoricarpos buckbrush/ coral berry, Rhus, and a
sparse but general cover of a tall stemmed grass, now dead and bleaching yellow.
East of the transition to higher drier ground a dry still hard small hackberry log had dozens of millipedes.. and under another similar log I counted 80 of the same species all clustered together. Why? Protection? Habitat preference?
Under the logs there was also a fourth snail species - this one terrestrial.. name??
The logs in the drier woods were covered with the black encrusting Loculoascomycete.. not as evident in the area of the previous inundation.
Under the dry logs there were also hundreds of pill bugs and a few colonies of very small ants. Why pill bugs and ants so often cohabit? Why no scorpions here? Too wet?
Spiders:
Under the same small rotten log there were a quick running large wolf spider.. half the bulk of a tarantula, carrying a large egg sac under its abdomen.. and a pair of daddy long legs. Walking through the knee high sedges I found a pair of Argiope the black and yellow garden spider. The female was huge. And scattered through the Woods I am starting finally to see more of the cinnamon colored Araneus. Plus there are still many of the Micrathena.
Tiger swallowtail burning bright
Sunday Aug 9 late afternoon and evening I took a weedwacker and reduced the luxuriant grass in front of the gate. In the forest one bright yellow tiger swallowtail (big female?) floated in the understory shade. The cicadas were singing loudly. On a damp log a golden streaming slime mold plasmodium was crawling up. East of inundation line the widespread sparse grass stems were yellow and laying over, through for the season. The trail down the dry wash above the dune trail showed by piling of litter that water moved west along the wash instead of east, surprise! The polygonum smartweed is growing abundantly more than knee high in the wash east of the Dune Trail.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Hot, humid and a south wind blowing
Hot afternoon 97 F, humid, under a bright sun with a south wind blowing. I wanted to see what life was like under the trees at the Woods. I entered from the southwest gate off Chautauqua. The first 100 yards the south wind was still noticeable but beyond that the shade and shelter of the bigger trees made all still and quiet and maybe 5 degrees cooler. The same species of light honey colored libellulid dragonfly perched again on the twig I held to clear spider webs.The cicadas were singing. There were a few more mosquitoes but not bad. Fresh patches of green ash seeds were on the ground. No deer observed. Couple of hackberry butterflies and a large beautiful Catocala moth with red and black underwings. Nice red sporulating slime mold and assortments of fungal sheets.. yellow, red, white.. spore producing reproductive tissue or just fungal tissue?
At the eastern end of the trail north of the dunes there were fresh sand eddies.. fine yellow sand had accumulated in the lee of small branches down on the ground. First time I've observed this. The line of sand deposits had a SE - NW orientation perpendicular to the prevailing southwest wind.
I stopped north of the big cottonwood near the orange post to cut a large poison ivy vine off a mature green ash tree. I started observing the leaves of the poison ivy and other low tree leaves and the degree to which they had been fed upon by herbivores.
I think I am ready now to mark some trails with paint blazes. First I'll finalize the southwest gate trail and mark trees along the route with masking tape for blazes. Blue paint. Double blazes for trail junctions or abrupt turns.
Along the southwest trail I may now be able to blaze the yellow flagged trail heading northeast out of the flood area past the big decaying pecan snag to the honeysuckle part of the Woods. (Can we map the spread of the honeysuckle with remote sensing?)
At the eastern end of the trail north of the dunes there were fresh sand eddies.. fine yellow sand had accumulated in the lee of small branches down on the ground. First time I've observed this. The line of sand deposits had a SE - NW orientation perpendicular to the prevailing southwest wind.
I stopped north of the big cottonwood near the orange post to cut a large poison ivy vine off a mature green ash tree. I started observing the leaves of the poison ivy and other low tree leaves and the degree to which they had been fed upon by herbivores.
I think I am ready now to mark some trails with paint blazes. First I'll finalize the southwest gate trail and mark trees along the route with masking tape for blazes. Blue paint. Double blazes for trail junctions or abrupt turns.
Along the southwest trail I may now be able to blaze the yellow flagged trail heading northeast out of the flood area past the big decaying pecan snag to the honeysuckle part of the Woods. (Can we map the spread of the honeysuckle with remote sensing?)
Monday, August 3, 2009
New North Trail
The Escarpment Trail from the new North Gate was looking good this morning after our brief 15 hundredths of an inch of rain overnight. The cicadas were singing loudly and there was a wonderful wet decomposing fertile litter smell in the air. There were maybe a dozen Micrathena spider webs across the trail but otherwise the trail was in good shape. The trimmed brier and other forbs had not retaken the trail.. still clear walking all the way south to the big walnut above the Burr Oak Bridge. Removed 4 ticks when I returned home.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Sunday mornings are the best time in South Olivers Woods
After a few weeks away I was curious to see what changes there were in the Woods. I entered the southwest Chautauqua gate at 9 am.
Cicadas were thrumming prominently. Several were singing in synchrony. Their sound began at a low pitch which increased in a wave of sound that then repeated after a few seconds.
Mosquitoes were essentially absent. I heard only two in two hours.
Ticks were also gone from the open shaded woods where I walked. I stayed in the closed canopy section, away from the beds of sedges. I found no ticks after two hours.
Small flock of robins (3-5 birds) were foraging in the woods near and northeast of the gate .. as they often are. Robins are the bird I see most commonly there and often the only bird I see.
Hackberry emperor butterflies were flitting about and courting in sun breaks north of the dune trail.
Orb web spinning spiders (Micrathena and others) were moderately abundant and their webs, illuminated by morning light filtering through the forest canopy, were beautiful in the shaded forest understory.
A honey-colored libellulid dragonfly perched with me for 2-3 minutes (on a stick I was carrying to clear webs). I wondered if any odonates, birds or other predators in the Woods would pick spiders out of their webs like the big Pseudostigmatid helicopter damselflies in the neotropics.. or chameleons. The spiders are a juicy bit of food, totally exposed.
It might be interesting to follow 30-50 webs for few days. Spend the days walking from one web to the next noting the position of the spider and any activity. What hours was it in the center of its web? Did the web last through the full day or was it destroyed?
Also might be interesting to look at size of web.. for a given species, does web size vary depending on size of the spider, food density of the micro habitat, architectural constraints of anchor points, or randomly? Did individual spiders tend to spend webs in the same location each day using the same anchor points?
One nice damselfly held its wing like a spreadwing lestid .. could have been ?
Two or three damp rotten logs laying on the forest floor had prominent fresh piles of frass beside them. I wondered if this might be from immature Dynastes Hercules beetles. Lifting one of the logs I found a couple of passalid beetles: one dark black (i.e. mature) adult and one late instar larva. This is a subsocial species with overlapping related generations occupying the same space.
New white bleached snail shells rested on logs which had been in the flooded zone.
I saw no deer but found a recent (?) track of a young faun.
Of the thousands of young seedlings (mostly green ash) that were abundantly growing after the spring inundation receded, I found none remaining.
Several nice displays of fungi: big fleshy Auricularia eared fungi the color of dried blood growing on a recently dead tree trunk perched off the ground. A dozen small pleurotid oyster mushrooms were growing from the first log across the trail (with saw cuts). The large polypore tower-like conks on the log by the big broken cottonwood snag had produced new conks of similar size from the same log. A nice patch of Marasmius-like agarics light gray brown was along the trail. Covers of white, yellow and orange decay fungi thalli were common under damp logs and around the base of standing dead snags.
Persimmons scattered through the woods had dropped abundant, green, full-sized fruit in patches. Some of the fruit had recently been chewed open (by rodents? opossums? raccoons? deer?)
Around the base of a few green ash and many elms there are evident small roots, half inch to one inch in diameter growing out of the trunk of the tree above the soil. I wonder how the prevalence of these roots correlates with the depth and longevity of inundation. Appears trees growing in the more flood prone sites had more of these adventitious or aerating roots (pneumatophores?); the rooting pattern could be a rough index of flooding.
Along the southwest Woods trail the Polygonum smartweed and sedges were growing well in sunny breaks.
At the north end of the cross dune trail Acer boxelders (several young canopy trees) had dropped their leaves, now bleached beige on forest floor.. (Caused by number of 100 + degree F days in July?) The trees were growing new leaves.
In the same spot Smilax green briar had fully formed clusters of fruit – still green; and a beggars’ lice Bidens, had yellow orange flowers beginning.
Along the dune trail weedy regeneration was dominated by compound leaved low shrub Rhus.
West of the north end of the cross dune trail the Woods trail had been cleared of all litter by water flowing from the east, leaves and twigs down to the soil along a 100 meter length, 2 meters wide. The litter was piled an inch or two deep along the side of the trail and in small debris rifts. Consequences for habitat patchiness for decay biota, arthropods etc.. are interesting.
In area of bare soil 2-3 inch (?) deep crevices have formed as soil dried with clay content. Crevices produced should serve as refugia for microarthropods and microflora and add diversity to forest floor biota.
Does the National Weather Service have an observing station across the highway that would give very accurate rainfall and patterns of temperature? Rainfall here is often very localized.
Along the Chautauqua fence Campsis trumpet vines were in abundant full orange bloom.
Cicadas were thrumming prominently. Several were singing in synchrony. Their sound began at a low pitch which increased in a wave of sound that then repeated after a few seconds.
Mosquitoes were essentially absent. I heard only two in two hours.
Ticks were also gone from the open shaded woods where I walked. I stayed in the closed canopy section, away from the beds of sedges. I found no ticks after two hours.
Small flock of robins (3-5 birds) were foraging in the woods near and northeast of the gate .. as they often are. Robins are the bird I see most commonly there and often the only bird I see.
Hackberry emperor butterflies were flitting about and courting in sun breaks north of the dune trail.
Orb web spinning spiders (Micrathena and others) were moderately abundant and their webs, illuminated by morning light filtering through the forest canopy, were beautiful in the shaded forest understory.
A honey-colored libellulid dragonfly perched with me for 2-3 minutes (on a stick I was carrying to clear webs). I wondered if any odonates, birds or other predators in the Woods would pick spiders out of their webs like the big Pseudostigmatid helicopter damselflies in the neotropics.. or chameleons. The spiders are a juicy bit of food, totally exposed.
It might be interesting to follow 30-50 webs for few days. Spend the days walking from one web to the next noting the position of the spider and any activity. What hours was it in the center of its web? Did the web last through the full day or was it destroyed?
Also might be interesting to look at size of web.. for a given species, does web size vary depending on size of the spider, food density of the micro habitat, architectural constraints of anchor points, or randomly? Did individual spiders tend to spend webs in the same location each day using the same anchor points?
One nice damselfly held its wing like a spreadwing lestid .. could have been ?
Two or three damp rotten logs laying on the forest floor had prominent fresh piles of frass beside them. I wondered if this might be from immature Dynastes Hercules beetles. Lifting one of the logs I found a couple of passalid beetles: one dark black (i.e. mature) adult and one late instar larva. This is a subsocial species with overlapping related generations occupying the same space.
New white bleached snail shells rested on logs which had been in the flooded zone.
I saw no deer but found a recent (?) track of a young faun.
Of the thousands of young seedlings (mostly green ash) that were abundantly growing after the spring inundation receded, I found none remaining.
Several nice displays of fungi: big fleshy Auricularia eared fungi the color of dried blood growing on a recently dead tree trunk perched off the ground. A dozen small pleurotid oyster mushrooms were growing from the first log across the trail (with saw cuts). The large polypore tower-like conks on the log by the big broken cottonwood snag had produced new conks of similar size from the same log. A nice patch of Marasmius-like agarics light gray brown was along the trail. Covers of white, yellow and orange decay fungi thalli were common under damp logs and around the base of standing dead snags.
Persimmons scattered through the woods had dropped abundant, green, full-sized fruit in patches. Some of the fruit had recently been chewed open (by rodents? opossums? raccoons? deer?)
Around the base of a few green ash and many elms there are evident small roots, half inch to one inch in diameter growing out of the trunk of the tree above the soil. I wonder how the prevalence of these roots correlates with the depth and longevity of inundation. Appears trees growing in the more flood prone sites had more of these adventitious or aerating roots (pneumatophores?); the rooting pattern could be a rough index of flooding.
Along the southwest Woods trail the Polygonum smartweed and sedges were growing well in sunny breaks.
At the north end of the cross dune trail Acer boxelders (several young canopy trees) had dropped their leaves, now bleached beige on forest floor.. (Caused by number of 100 + degree F days in July?) The trees were growing new leaves.
In the same spot Smilax green briar had fully formed clusters of fruit – still green; and a beggars’ lice Bidens, had yellow orange flowers beginning.
Along the dune trail weedy regeneration was dominated by compound leaved low shrub Rhus.
West of the north end of the cross dune trail the Woods trail had been cleared of all litter by water flowing from the east, leaves and twigs down to the soil along a 100 meter length, 2 meters wide. The litter was piled an inch or two deep along the side of the trail and in small debris rifts. Consequences for habitat patchiness for decay biota, arthropods etc.. are interesting.
In area of bare soil 2-3 inch (?) deep crevices have formed as soil dried with clay content. Crevices produced should serve as refugia for microarthropods and microflora and add diversity to forest floor biota.
Does the National Weather Service have an observing station across the highway that would give very accurate rainfall and patterns of temperature? Rainfall here is often very localized.
Along the Chautauqua fence Campsis trumpet vines were in abundant full orange bloom.
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