Today with Lindsay set ten new Lindgren funnel traps; five along northern perimeter fence of OWP from NW corner entering from Chautauqua; three along southern perimeter service road entering through old compost facility to Blower building; one on Pipeline Trail; one on South Boundary Trail. Bait for traps = six pack of cheap beer & one pound of brown sugar mixed with a cup of decomposing mulberries allowed to steep twelve hours.
Power now available from Blower Building at south end of N-S Trail. Should set up light and sheet tonight if overcast.
Ralph Arnett super at Water Pollution Control Facility provided power and James Jones at new compost facility provided key for old facility gate. South service road not bush-hogged yet.
Last night Lindsay Lacroix and parents ran two banana trails for carabids along Escarpment Trail and South Boundary Trail. Bananas set out between 7-8 and checked between 9-10. Results averaged about 2-3 beetles per slice.. mostly mid sized Carabus, Agonum etc.. one or two large Carabus.
Some goals & questions:
1) what is the diversity of carabids and moths in the Woods
2) how does diversity change through the season
3) what is the seasonality of abundance patterns for different species
4) how do species abundances change year to year
5) how do wood boring insect populations change with forest ice storm damage / breakage
6) what exotic invasive insect species (scolytids, others) are in Woods
7) how does species activity/ abundance change with weather
8) construct species accumulation curve
Evening 8:30-9 PM set up mercury vapor light and black light. Checked at 11. Couple of Megaloptera females, one luna moth, one woolly bear moth, not too many moths.. maybe 30? Several hundreds (>1,000) of beetles big and little..mostly little. I scooped up a few hundred like scooping up sand and froze. They mostly are small grain of rice sized harpaline(?) carabids (associated with grass?).. also many small paederine(?) staphylinids, some Trox trogids, a few Carabus and Clivinia(?). Few to no cerambycids, curculionoids.. a few chrysomelids, notonectids, tenebrionids(?) I need to mow 30-40 square feet of operation space, work on my sheet hanging.. and think how different this might be if I go 100-200 feet into the Woods away from the grassy service road. Best to set bucket trap? Heavy abundance small beetles tonight. Moon soft yellow orange.. light overcast, warm 78F still.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Sweet Woods
The Woods today were suffused with pockets of sweet odors from honeysuckle, Ligustrum and Eleagnus. Ticks seemed as plentiful as ever; although now there are fewer of the tiny seed ticks, and more of the larger adult size. Recent powerful near tornadic thunderstorm Wednesday the 19th had brought down a few more trees - dead elms and dead branches suspended since the winter ice storms. The trails are in pretty good shape after the inch of sudden rain. The Elm Bridge was thrown down stream two feet and jumbled. Needs to be reset. The SW quarter, predictably has flooded again within about 50 feet of the big burr oak tilted across the trail. Poison ivy despite my best efforts still crops up here and there close to the trail..although there is now not much.
We now have power available along the south boundary, courtesy of helpful Mr Ralph Arnett, Superintendent of the City of Norman Wastewater Treatment Plant, from the blower building via extension cord. This will allow black lighting for moths, beetles and the rest. It will be interesting to see what is there.. a la Jerry Powell.. a mini ATBI all taxa biotic inventory. The south boundary of the Woods opens up to lands extending down to the much larger Canadian River corridor.
Lindsay may begin an intensive collection of carabids via banana slices on trails in different sections of the Woods.. ultimately it would be good to run an insect survey there for a few years and try to get a fairly comprehensive survey of the moths, beetles and miscellaneous other groups by black light. Spotted 2-3 of the bright green Cicindela tiger beetles in sun flecks along the North South Fence Line trail. The ragweed wetland ellipse is now a meter high in new growth. Everything is growing at a terrific rate with the water and warmth. Red clay wash flowed over from the earthmoving / construction along most of the eastern half of the South boundary Trail.
We now have power available along the south boundary, courtesy of helpful Mr Ralph Arnett, Superintendent of the City of Norman Wastewater Treatment Plant, from the blower building via extension cord. This will allow black lighting for moths, beetles and the rest. It will be interesting to see what is there.. a la Jerry Powell.. a mini ATBI all taxa biotic inventory. The south boundary of the Woods opens up to lands extending down to the much larger Canadian River corridor.
Lindsay may begin an intensive collection of carabids via banana slices on trails in different sections of the Woods.. ultimately it would be good to run an insect survey there for a few years and try to get a fairly comprehensive survey of the moths, beetles and miscellaneous other groups by black light. Spotted 2-3 of the bright green Cicindela tiger beetles in sun flecks along the North South Fence Line trail. The ragweed wetland ellipse is now a meter high in new growth. Everything is growing at a terrific rate with the water and warmth. Red clay wash flowed over from the earthmoving / construction along most of the eastern half of the South boundary Trail.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Islands
Morning of Wednesday 12 May, I returned to the Woods to check on the status of the main SW trail. It was delightful, dry and green. The water was gone. Where the forest had been flooded or soggy there was now a light sparse mantle of inch high verdure from the rounded cotyledons.. now in the hundred's of thousands, if not more. The slightly raised areas of forest floor were noticeably more green with a greater density of the new sprouts. Along the trail where water had been an inch or two deeper, there was a contrasting darker brown with less growth.
Scattered through the Woods here and there were small islands of white on the ground; shed catalpa flowers lighting the understory, like graceful skirts around their trees. A great time to walk through the woods and locate every mature catalpa, maybe a dozen trees in 70 acres.. if that many.
At the crest of the Dune Trail there was a broken bumelia blocking the trail. I cleared enough with just the loppers but the hanging broken snag will fall and need a saw to clear.
The next day rain began..a half inch followed by another full inch over night.
I returned to the Woods Saturday afternoon and the water had fully retaken the southwest quarter. There were standing pools 20 feet beyond the tilted burr oak along the SW trail. There was water flowing through the dam in the lower Woods at a pretty good pace. I entered the NE gate and walked down to the Pipeline Trail stopping to clear a patch of poison ivy there. Then across the wash over to the Northern Loop.
All the leaves of trees and shrubs along the path were wet with the previous rain and bending low over the path. I cleared more snags and branches and new green shoots where they narrowed or blocked the trail.
In the south Woods below the dam I followed the main flow of the current and pulled aside the logs that blocked the flow. The water sped up briefly but likely returned to the same initial flow rate thirty minutes after .. a new equilibrium. If the level of the remaining water west of the dam drops a quarter inch, I will have had a useful effect.
Scattered through the Woods here and there were small islands of white on the ground; shed catalpa flowers lighting the understory, like graceful skirts around their trees. A great time to walk through the woods and locate every mature catalpa, maybe a dozen trees in 70 acres.. if that many.
At the crest of the Dune Trail there was a broken bumelia blocking the trail. I cleared enough with just the loppers but the hanging broken snag will fall and need a saw to clear.
The next day rain began..a half inch followed by another full inch over night.
I returned to the Woods Saturday afternoon and the water had fully retaken the southwest quarter. There were standing pools 20 feet beyond the tilted burr oak along the SW trail. There was water flowing through the dam in the lower Woods at a pretty good pace. I entered the NE gate and walked down to the Pipeline Trail stopping to clear a patch of poison ivy there. Then across the wash over to the Northern Loop.
All the leaves of trees and shrubs along the path were wet with the previous rain and bending low over the path. I cleared more snags and branches and new green shoots where they narrowed or blocked the trail.
In the south Woods below the dam I followed the main flow of the current and pulled aside the logs that blocked the flow. The water sped up briefly but likely returned to the same initial flow rate thirty minutes after .. a new equilibrium. If the level of the remaining water west of the dam drops a quarter inch, I will have had a useful effect.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Tornado trees
Yesterday, Monday 10 May a tornado hit east Norman. Quick look at Olivers Woods driving down south Chautauqua and east on Bratcher Mine Rd revealed nothing dramatic. A couple of medium size cottonwoods were pushed over in a northeastward direction but had not come down. I parked at the NE gate and walked the Escarpment trail to the Elm bridge. One small dead elm had blown eastward across the trail. Along the EW Fence Line trail all was clear. Through the Woods there were dead snags that had blown down. The Trans OWP trail was blocked by the leafy canopy of a largish broken green ash. Next to it, a tall straight pecan had blown over eastward, snapping at the base. A box turtle was enjoying the wet leaves at the base.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Honeysuckle and roses, emerald tigers
Out to the Woods at 1:00 today; in via the SW Gate.. a soft suffused sweet early summer smell of the Japanese honeysuckle and white multiflora rose there. Up the main SW trail, the previous standing water was completely gone and the trail underfoot dry or drying. I stepped over the big bur oak tilted across the trail. The tops of the branches of the big tree are producing small green leaves. I hope the tree survives..although it looks unlikely.
North and east is now one large sunny light gap where the oak's canopy once blocked the sun. Beyond the oak, the forest floor was littered with ten thousand young pairs of green rounded cotyledons, just beginning growth. Profligate reproduction.. all the same species..but what? Not the green ash cotyledons abundant last year with elongate green leaves. The green ash this week dropped here and there clusters of green seeds..or they were torn from the trees by winds.
A hundred meters in, I disturbed a herd of five or more deer as they made their way briskly eastward along the south border of the sedges.I followed slowly behind them and saw them again before they moved off north. Along the shaded path one red-spotted purple flew a short distance away. South and east, the green "bath tub ring" of young woody stems, and leafy shrubs still defined a sharp border between where the previous flood had stood and the higher ground with surviving green understory.
The small deepest pool by the young elm was completely dry. The aquatic life there had either returned north to permanent water or had died and likely been consumed by foraging raccoons whose tracks were along the edge.
Returning, I took the southward path past the big hollow log. Lying on the forest floor a beautiful white catalpa flower caught my eye. The white ruffled lip of the flower tube decorated with maroon and yellow dots of color. I looked up to find the good sized catalpa standing near the hollow log.
Along the south boundary trail out to the G zero post exit the Woods were filled with the roaring of bulldozers, trucks and the big earth mover; moving clay from one location to another; preparing for the new trash station.
I left the Woods and drove to the NE Gate off Jenkins. I stepped through the gate and walked along the newly cleared path in the dappled shade. All the way down to the Elm Bridge and across to Fence Corner on the E-W Fence Line trail. There, inhabiting a small patch of sunlight was a bright living emerald. A brilliant green tiger beetle Cicindela sexgutata? It moved a short few inches, not leaving the light but checking potential prey, small gray brown flies touching down for a second in light. The beetle likely could have taken one of several. What was it waiting for..just the right choice species? Did it recognize the flies it did not pursue and know they would not be tasty? For a brief interlude that sun patch was the tiger beetle's world and it did not stray beyond the border out to the shadow.
Returning eastward along the E-W trail at the big pecan blow down there was a larger active light gap with another bright green tiger and four widow skimmer Libellua lydia dragonflies.. one with the chalky white male pruinosus on the abdomen and three with the females' extra brown patches on the wings. Two last gems on my outing, two more emerald tiger beetles on the open path through the cedars where the poison ivy was cleared away in a patch of sun.
Now at 5 PM remembering with the first tornado clouds of summer moving across the campus and rain flying in driven diagonal streaks from the southwest.
Yesterday Russell and Sesough found box turtle up by the old pipe south of the big walnut. They fed it a Duchesnea indian strawberry west of the oak bridge. Most of the Woods paths are mowed. There was knee to thigh high thick green grass by the fallen pecan at the north end of the two pecan trail.
North and east is now one large sunny light gap where the oak's canopy once blocked the sun. Beyond the oak, the forest floor was littered with ten thousand young pairs of green rounded cotyledons, just beginning growth. Profligate reproduction.. all the same species..but what? Not the green ash cotyledons abundant last year with elongate green leaves. The green ash this week dropped here and there clusters of green seeds..or they were torn from the trees by winds.
A hundred meters in, I disturbed a herd of five or more deer as they made their way briskly eastward along the south border of the sedges.I followed slowly behind them and saw them again before they moved off north. Along the shaded path one red-spotted purple flew a short distance away. South and east, the green "bath tub ring" of young woody stems, and leafy shrubs still defined a sharp border between where the previous flood had stood and the higher ground with surviving green understory.
The small deepest pool by the young elm was completely dry. The aquatic life there had either returned north to permanent water or had died and likely been consumed by foraging raccoons whose tracks were along the edge.
Returning, I took the southward path past the big hollow log. Lying on the forest floor a beautiful white catalpa flower caught my eye. The white ruffled lip of the flower tube decorated with maroon and yellow dots of color. I looked up to find the good sized catalpa standing near the hollow log.
Along the south boundary trail out to the G zero post exit the Woods were filled with the roaring of bulldozers, trucks and the big earth mover; moving clay from one location to another; preparing for the new trash station.
I left the Woods and drove to the NE Gate off Jenkins. I stepped through the gate and walked along the newly cleared path in the dappled shade. All the way down to the Elm Bridge and across to Fence Corner on the E-W Fence Line trail. There, inhabiting a small patch of sunlight was a bright living emerald. A brilliant green tiger beetle Cicindela sexgutata? It moved a short few inches, not leaving the light but checking potential prey, small gray brown flies touching down for a second in light. The beetle likely could have taken one of several. What was it waiting for..just the right choice species? Did it recognize the flies it did not pursue and know they would not be tasty? For a brief interlude that sun patch was the tiger beetle's world and it did not stray beyond the border out to the shadow.
Returning eastward along the E-W trail at the big pecan blow down there was a larger active light gap with another bright green tiger and four widow skimmer Libellua lydia dragonflies.. one with the chalky white male pruinosus on the abdomen and three with the females' extra brown patches on the wings. Two last gems on my outing, two more emerald tiger beetles on the open path through the cedars where the poison ivy was cleared away in a patch of sun.
Now at 5 PM remembering with the first tornado clouds of summer moving across the campus and rain flying in driven diagonal streaks from the southwest.
Yesterday Russell and Sesough found box turtle up by the old pipe south of the big walnut. They fed it a Duchesnea indian strawberry west of the oak bridge. Most of the Woods paths are mowed. There was knee to thigh high thick green grass by the fallen pecan at the north end of the two pecan trail.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Woods Projects
Sunday evening I went to the NE entrance gate to the Woods and walked the trail down to the Elm Bridge. The trail is still open and easy to follow but it could use some clearing with a weed whip to keep a meter wide swath clear of the taller grasses and honeysuckle. The path that time of the evening would be good to use for a banana slice trail to sample carabid ground beetles. Maybe interesting contrast of beetle populations along each of the different principal segments of the Woods' trails. Maybe mark with paint and look at recapture rate. Down by the stream there was a large swirl of water about right for a water snake taking a frog.. not a splash. Elm bridge could use some engineering intelligence.
I also drove the route along the north fence line of the Woods from Chautauqua heading east. I need to get the Lindgren traps set up with fermenting bait and see what cerambycids are flying. Maybe this weekend or next.
I also drove the route along the north fence line of the Woods from Chautauqua heading east. I need to get the Lindgren traps set up with fermenting bait and see what cerambycids are flying. Maybe this weekend or next.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Turtles on the move
(Very) light rain falling this morning 2/100ths inch. I decided to go finish some projects in the Woods when the ticks might be not as active. I entered via the NW entrance by Rudy's and took a saw. I hiked into Hackberry Alley and cut through a broken tree top partly blocking the trail there. The previous three days we had had strong winds and some old dead tree tops had fallen. The cottonwood cluster along the dry wash levee had the largest. I walked most of the trails to see what new things there were to see. I found two three-toed box turtles moving around.. one in the drainage below the dam; one along the northward extension of the Dune trail.
The acres of water spread across the southwest Woods had abruptly dried up except for the deepest part now a small pool a few inches deep and maybe a meter or two in diameter. All the life in the previous broad wetland was either concentrated in that small pool or stranded dormant or dead in the soft drying muddy forest.
I cleared three logs/ trees blocking the drainage out of the Woods.
Walking the trails, the paint blazes were good because the understory herbaceous layer had grown so abundantly it had almost re-covered the trail. Still it was never difficult to follow the trail.
Time to work with a student and measure all the trails off in marked 50 meter increments with yellow heavy duty tent stakes, or some other numbered markers at each interval. Then start a more detailed trail guide with information about interesting features of particular trees, unusual vines, plants, game trails etc.
I cleared some more of the new connector trail along the west side of the wash between the E-W Fence Line trail and the Trans OWP trail.
No deer, no deer tracks. Armadillos had been digging in the soft wet soil along the trails. There were bright scarlet small gasteromycete earth cups out in several places. Some tall straight trees along the Northern Loop puzzled me: compound leaves with rounded leaflets..like locust but bark wasn't right(?) like coffee tree but compound leaves were too small(?) nearby was tall catalpa (unusual for OWP). Have to get Wayne to walk around with me again or Bruce.
Saw no insects, dragonflies, mosquitoes, crane flies, butterflies etc..
The acres of water spread across the southwest Woods had abruptly dried up except for the deepest part now a small pool a few inches deep and maybe a meter or two in diameter. All the life in the previous broad wetland was either concentrated in that small pool or stranded dormant or dead in the soft drying muddy forest.
I cleared three logs/ trees blocking the drainage out of the Woods.
Walking the trails, the paint blazes were good because the understory herbaceous layer had grown so abundantly it had almost re-covered the trail. Still it was never difficult to follow the trail.
Time to work with a student and measure all the trails off in marked 50 meter increments with yellow heavy duty tent stakes, or some other numbered markers at each interval. Then start a more detailed trail guide with information about interesting features of particular trees, unusual vines, plants, game trails etc.
I cleared some more of the new connector trail along the west side of the wash between the E-W Fence Line trail and the Trans OWP trail.
No deer, no deer tracks. Armadillos had been digging in the soft wet soil along the trails. There were bright scarlet small gasteromycete earth cups out in several places. Some tall straight trees along the Northern Loop puzzled me: compound leaves with rounded leaflets..like locust but bark wasn't right(?) like coffee tree but compound leaves were too small(?) nearby was tall catalpa (unusual for OWP). Have to get Wayne to walk around with me again or Bruce.
Saw no insects, dragonflies, mosquitoes, crane flies, butterflies etc..
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