Before the storm

Storm coming tonight. It may snow for Christmas Eve. Perfect.

Nice long afternoon, walking all over the Woods today. I entered via the SW gate and took the chain saw to clear a double trunked elm across the path running north from the D0 survey stake on the South Boundary Trail. East on the S. Boundary Trail I was surprised to come upon an area with numerous shells from fingernail clams. I guess water does stand there long enough.

Walking north between E0 and F0 I found a well used game trail crossing over the dune and clipped briers out of the way to see if it could be a good new path. It emerged on the north end near just west of the old grandfather hollow cottonwood.. but I don't think it is a trail worth clearing. Too thorny and congested.

Afterwards I wandered freely off trail through the Woods. If I am there with loppers clearing trail, I miss seeing new things. It is better to observe, with no set path to follow.. and it is nice now to have the marked paths so I can know approximately where I am as I wander.

I slogged NW up through the bottlebrush sedge west of the dense young ash stands. They are still quite wet even with no rain for weeks. Pools of standing water are mostly all gone; but the ground is wet enough so you can't walk far without getting wet feet. Not an area I think that is very attractive for a board walk. Too close to the traffic noise off Chautauqua.

The deer and game trails are particularly well developed now in the soft wet soil. Following a deer trail skirting the southern edge of the dense young ash I discovered another small steel survey rod (near the other flagged one - 200 ft east maybe). I painted it blue. These rods date from the early tree studies?

Further east I watched a pileated woodpecker inspecting one of the big dead snags.. first time I have seen one of those in Woods for a while. Further east still I came to the long, wandering ragged edge of the inundation zone.. marked by the end of honeysuckle ground cover. Further north and east I come to the massive ruin of the giant cottonwood blown down.. maybe the largest in the Woods. Came down in the ice storm of December 2007. North of there and east..just SW of the East Pond there is the big tree cluster. The largest standing cottonwood in the Woods.. and a big pecan, big double trunk green ash..etc. I should have a contest for students to find and measure the largest diameter tree of each of the several species: burr oak, ash, hackberry, elm, pecan, juniper, cottonwood, bumelia, sycamore, mulberry, catalpa, willow, coffee tree, shumard oak, post oak, blackjack oak, walnut, soapberry, cypress(?!), persimmon, boxelder, etc.

East of there I found 5 small ellipses of flattened boxelder leaves where deer had bedded down for their winter night. With the long nights of the winter solstice the Eleagnus through the woods is beginning to drop its leaves.. silver ellipses standout on the bed of the earlier fallen leaves.

In the southeast corner of the Woods 2-3 of the largest new generation of cottonwoods along the southern boundary have recently come down. How can I use them for study of decomposition.. and when beetles emerge.

Who makes the "potholes" through the Woods.. big mystery. I need to consult Carpenter's turtle papers and see if he mentions this. (Probably left over from uprooted rotten snags.)

Green ephemerals in the south in the weeds include Stellaria chickweed, Viola, Lamium, (not amplexicaule), Avens? Euonymus?, others. I need to start a leaf herbarium for ID's. Note exotic shrub in Woods = Nandina.