Walk in the Rain

Overnight, the skies delivered a much needed full inch of rain.. and this morning the rains began again with another third of inch by midday. I decided to go walk in the Woods. I entered the SW Gate at 10 am.. walked up the Main SW trail to the Two Friends Trail; east on that a short ways to the Two Friends Cut-off. A large tangle of branches and larger trunks has blocked that and I'll need the saw there. At the Two Friends, the big broken top of the cottonwood (#99) has fallen further .. an impressive ruin. SE to the OWP rusty sign on the South Border trail then east to the G0 stake; north on the Dunes Trail across the dam. There was no water by the dam but it was clear that flood water had moved west upstream through the dam and traveled west towards the big hollow cottonwood.. stopping and settling into the soil in a sort of reverse delta about a hundred feet east of the big cottonwood.
I walked east off trail to the NS fence; east into the tall ragweed and more open young ash/ willow stand there, east across the braided streams and longer pools south of Elm Bridge. The next few weeks would be a good time to find and mark a trail or two in this SE quarter of the Woods. West from the Elm Bridge to Fence Corner, then SW to the Barney Jct trail, north past Tall Stump up Hackberry Alley. There I disturbed 3 whitetail deer. They ran away to the SW. The East Pond was refilling but still low. Round eastward along the Northern Loop to the levee. There was continuous water flowing slowly in the wash. South to the Trans OWP.. and by now I was getting pretty wet even through my raincoat; so I took the Two Elm Trail back to Fence Corner, out the cutoff trail back to the Main SW trail and out at the SW gate at 12:30.
The rain had brought down maybe 60% of the green ash leaves..now yellow..mixed on the forest floor with fallen yellow hackberry leaves. In several places there were nice fresh displays of Auricularia ear fungi.. often on dead elm. Interesting I don't see elm disease in the Woods. Along the SW Main trail from an old very decayed stump (willow?, elm?) there was a nice growth of fresh Polypore .. a broad band of cream colored new growth added to the older brown cinnamon lacquer conk of last year's growth. Here and there a few other other fresh large agaric clusters were pushing up through the leaves. The Coprinus shaggy mane of a few days ago are melted and gone. The light velvet red of Symphoriocarpos fruit were maturing. The green fruit of Ligustrum privet were full formed but not ripening to black yet.

Shaggy Mane and Dry Leaves Falling

Noon today, low 80's F, I went for a walk in through the SW Gate. The last of the white clematis flowers on the fence were still blooming - only a half dozen left now. The red full berries of Cocculus snail seed or coral berry were on the fence too. Inside the Woods the forest floor is covered with new dry fallen leaves <5% of the full canopy down.. but leaves are falling. It has been very dry this autumn. OKC departure from normal rainfall for Aug-October is about 5 inches below average. (Need data for SE Norman). Two tenths of an inch of rain Sunday 10/10/2010. Two hundred feet up the trail I disturbed 5 whitetailed deer - dashed away north.
Along the main SW Trail near the big green ash leaning to the north near CCarpenter marker, there is an approx 100 m. long gold line strung through red and white loop stakes. IanR. and botany class doing 2 m wide tree transect and soil. West of big hollow cottonwood a large dark dog in the Woods (size of a lab or golden retriever) barked a bit then retreated south towards the trash transfer station.
Wonderful populations of shaggy manes..mostly fresh.. some deliquescence 10 of them with another 8 tops eaten north of the grandfather cottonwood.. and scores of them (>100?) in a long arc 30-40 m east from cut in dam..under young elm canopy.
East pond had shrunk to deepest pool maybe 12 m by 4 m. Upper Island Crossing was dry but pool just above there. Elm Bridge crossing was dry but upstream a 30-50 m long pool had lots of dark stained water. Need George's help with bridge.
Few if any spider webs. Abundance of webs seems to be correlated with rainfall. Russet brown wool fungi (slime mold?) on broken walnut trunk hanging across levee trail. One lonely katydid singing in the tree tops, unanswered. Red berries ripe and full, of double trunked large shrub -Lonicera(?) near jct Trans OWP trail and Creekside Trail.
The Woods are ready for the storm rains of autumn.