Woods thawed and waking

After the past few weeks of deep cold and snow, this afternoon the Woods gradually warmed to 52 or so. It felt like normal warm winter weather returning. I saw two small spiders: a red brown almost lycosid body shape and light yellow brown recluse body shape.. and encountered two separate strands of gossamer.

I saw one white-tail deer south east of the big tree grove near the triple split mulberry blow down with the cottonrat(?) nest up on the stump. The triple split has new thriving upright trunks growing from former young branches..maybe 10 years old..maybe snowstorm of Dec 2000?

With the one third inch of rain yesterday and the melting snow the western Woods are full of water. The ponded inundation along the lower stretch of the SW Trail looked like it had pollen skim on it this afternoon.. but I think it is just decomposing organics.

Some projects:
1) What's green? Each week from January on, document what is green and growing. Take samples, ID, make small herbarium. Consider ranking or estimating abundance.

2)Lichens. Samples and photos of lichens.. which spp? .. on what host substrate? and what microniche ? base of tree, mid bole, North side, South ?

3) Berries what fruit is available and and estimate abundance of Symphoricarpos, Smilax, Ligustrum, Ilex, Toxicodendron, Juniperus etc..

4) Where do vines grow? Virginia Creeper vs Poison Ivy preference for same host trees - or different? Two different Smilax spp? Grapes? All vines?

5) Leaf litter decay rates.. different leaf species and locations in litter bags. Cottonwood vs elm, oak, sycamore etc..

6) Who is in the pond? bugs, frogs, turtles. Micro skimmers (Gerrids?) and other insects on the East pond. Gambusia or other minnow(?) stirring the water in the West Pond.

7) Water quality in wash draining from Lloyd Noble.

8) Up hill and down. Importance of hummocks from blow downs for regeneration and small pools below blow down root wads.

9. Who is under that log? Document fauna under logs ..what diameter, species, condition?

10) What happened here? Reading the Woods for clues to the past. Lines of dead cedars with abundant low branches. Lines of hackberries along old fence lines, now gone. Fallen logs with bracket fungi showing different orientations to the horizontal. (Nice Hydnum? on moribund cedars).

11) What made the meter square holes ??!!