Water World Woods

Out in the Woods Friday (22nd Jan) twice. I walked out with Victoria to tour the Woods where we met Ramin, Will and two friends. We entered via the SW Gate and headed up the main trail but the water had crept southwestward beyond the cut-off to the Two Friends trail so we stayed south along the South Boundary Trail to the Dune Trail across to the Beaver Dam and north into the drier central and northeastern Woods. We found several nice discrete patches of invasive Liriope monkey grass and discussed how they could be mapped and measured. We also found exotics Eleagnus Russian olive, Ligustrum Privet, Lonicera honeysuckle - some discrete patches some general cover, Hedera ivy and Rosa multiflora.

It was a wonderful warm afternoon (>60F) - a beautiful time to be out in the Woods before the next cold front. It felt like spring would be arriving any day. On the way to the Woods from Sutton Hall we encountered Charles Carpenter in the parking lot who commented that Pseudacris streckeri chorus frogs would be calling soon in the Woods maybe a week or two and Ambystoma texanum salamanders would be active there shortly after.

On the EW Fenceline trail looking south we could see all the water flowing down the East Wash was spilling over a large area of the south central Woods where the willows, Polygonum smartweed and tall ragweed grow. The water in the East Wash was bright clay red and carrying a heavy load of suspended clay..likely from the OU campus north on Jenkins where the old motor pool building has been removed and a large patch of red ground leveled. The water from the West Wash (between the Aquatic Research Facility and the model plane air strip) was still clear.
Water was also flowing fairly abundantly through the cut in the beaver dam and all along the broad drainage of the main southwest trail, now under water along almost its entire length.

Over the past month including the Christmas Eve blizzard we've had about 2 inches of water.. first 14 inches of snow (= ~ 1 inch water) followed last week by one inch of overnight rain. It had been a fairly dry late winter prior to that.
Now the Water World of the Woods is fully charged.. ponds are full and stump holes and small pools at the base of blown down trees are all full - ready as breeding grounds for frogs, salamanders and the rest.

Up by the NW ponds we met Will and Ramin gathering fungi and doing reconnaissance for their project.. and without knowing, we were following an hour or two behind Matt and Doug who had been in the Woods scoping out their project and thinking about large trees. Great day to be there.

We saw moderate sized flocks of robins 20-30.. but we saw little or no other wildlife. Maybe we were too loud.

I brought Russell and Sarah back an hour before sunset and we entered via the Ponds Trail. Russell trekked across the Ravine Trail while Sarah and I headed east along the Trans OWP to the East Pond.. Sarah found a watch on the Northern Loop and we went south to the EW Fenceline trail. Across the Elm Bridge Russell climbed the debris slope exploring and Sarah found a swing vine..perfect for her but not strong enough for me.

With the sun setting we headed out back west towards the car. Along the way walking north in the dark along Hackberry Alley Russell and Sarah saw the sudden startling white flags of two white-tailed deer running north ahead of us towards the Northern Loop and the Escarpment.

No more adventures; we made our way out by the light of the half moon. The light blue blazes work well at night. They are a visible light patch on the darker tree trunks.