This Sunday morning may be one of the finest days of the entire year in the Woods. The air was soft and warm - high 50's. The sky a low overcast. After the 10 inches of snow (1 inch of water) this month and subsequent quarter inch of rain Thursday the 24th, the ground was soft and springy .. alive with new growth. Where there is bare soil, the early low growth of Stellaria chickweed, Galium bedstraw, something like Erodium heron's bill with dissected leaves and something like Lamium henbit.. all are just beginning ..not over an inch high. Patches of new Festuca fescue? are growing bright green and somewhat taller along the northern portion of the ragweed delta.
The leaves of last year, until a month ago still crunchy dry and brittle, are now matted down on the soil and soft. A small drift of oak leaves behind a fallen log up on the slope gave a rich fragrance of old oak, old barrels, or an old wooden barn in the spring.
Elm flower buds are breaking open. Tapping the branches I released a small puff of pollen. The Lonicera honeysuckle area west of Hackberry alley is visibly greening with the earliest low leaves. Small foraging spiders the size a pea are out moving around on the leafy forest floor. I walked through one strand of gossamer and walked into one small orb web.
South along the N-S fenceline trail I was delighted to find a striped skunk Mephitis mephitis trundling north up the path unaware of me. It stopped 40 feet away from me at Barney Jct. and headed east. I followed it and after a couple hundred feet the skunk looked up and noticed. Up went the tail and after another moment by the big cottonwood it was visiting, it headed east towards, I presume, its home in the cliff of old logs, broken culverts and other junk at the western edge of the old compost facility. Beautiful animal.
I returned south along the N-S fence line trail and found the good-sized area 30-40 square meters.. where the skunk had been hunting.. burrowing under the leaves and into the top inch or two of soil hunting for grubs, beetles and other insects or worms.
West of there, a small group of three deer trotted off towards the beaver dam.
Yesterday, Saturday the 23rd at 4 P.M. there had been two groups..maybe 10 deer total north and east of the SW Gate. There had also been the dog pack crossing the northeast Woods N of the Northern Loop. The same five: two yellow retriever like dogs, two black lab type dogs and the one German shepherd type mutt.
I sat for a while by the tall stump and watched the Woods. I listened to the various birds foraging and singing and noticed the woodpeckers. The Woods there are in a transition. Well distributed, (75-120?) yr old large diameter, pecans, elms and hackberries are breaking down. Their large diameter spreading trunks and limbs weakened by fungi and broken by wind, ice and age - are falling among a thicker growth of small diameter 5-40 yr old green ash, elm, hackberry oak and shrubby viburnums.
Eventually the new smaller diameter trees should become the new canopy and fill the Woods. Disturbance, including borers removing species like the green ash, will alter the succession. Eventually the large open grown trees that once stood in a grazed open floodplain until 1960, will succumb and provide the large snags and hollow down logs used by a new generation of wildlife.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Bright Woods
In the mid afternoon Saturday walked in via the NW gate. Time to go slow and explore..see what the cold and snow of the past fortnight have done. Woods were full of light, and warm. It felt like the first day of spring temperatures.. in the 60's.
By the East Pond a woodpecker drilled several (7-8) holes in a large living grapevine. Each hole is the size of an acorn. I wonder if grapevine wounds are particularly likely to bleed sugary sap and attract insects for the bird.
The East Pond still 95% frozen but all the perimeter has melted. The southern third of the West Pond was frozen.
Heard a kingfisher in the SW Woods and a flicker. Somebody ate a female cardinal. The feathers had fallen from a broken hackberry branch across the trail SE of the bird feeder. At the base of the largest old (oak?) snag just NW of the Pound.. there lay a freshly dead junco..still soft and flexible. The cold and lack of food may have killed it and others..
Fresh spring onions were up 3 inches and longer by the ditch crossing W of the Elm Bridge.
The early new reddish multiflora rose leaves beginning to flush.
Under old rotten log near Elm Bridge a two inch centipede crawled slowly into the cold wood.. under same log, two hibernating snails; and a quarter-sized patch of gold slime mold sporulating. Some new gossamer in the Woods with warm temp.. amazing spiders!.. and one green bottle blow fly out at fence corner.
Water flowing slowly to Elm Bridge and beyond.. the ragweed delta not flooded; but water held in channels there slowly moving.
Ligustrum privet leaves browsed heavily on some plants.. must be survival food in snow. Some rose hips left.. not many. Odd that hackberry berries are all suddenly coming down now after the melting snow especially along the south boundary.. maybe evolved strategy as starvation/ survival food for dispersers after cold or snow when all else is gone?? Some Euonymous leaves look to have died in the cold - the most exposed.. while those slightly more sheltered below are still green.
Idea: measure the aerenchyma butt swell of green ash at ground level vs circumference at 1 meter.. as indicator of frequency of flooding.. should increase to a maximum and then percentage tree mortality should increase where flooding is more common than trees can handle.
No evidence of dog or dog tracks. Four or five deer moving north from the South Boundary across the Dune.
Disturbances in the Woods: Dec. 2000 big pecans, elms and other trees west of the wash between Burr Oak Bridge and Island Crossing down in ice storm.
Dec 2007 ice storm hit all of Norman heavily.
By the East Pond a woodpecker drilled several (7-8) holes in a large living grapevine. Each hole is the size of an acorn. I wonder if grapevine wounds are particularly likely to bleed sugary sap and attract insects for the bird.
The East Pond still 95% frozen but all the perimeter has melted. The southern third of the West Pond was frozen.
Heard a kingfisher in the SW Woods and a flicker. Somebody ate a female cardinal. The feathers had fallen from a broken hackberry branch across the trail SE of the bird feeder. At the base of the largest old (oak?) snag just NW of the Pound.. there lay a freshly dead junco..still soft and flexible. The cold and lack of food may have killed it and others..
Fresh spring onions were up 3 inches and longer by the ditch crossing W of the Elm Bridge.
The early new reddish multiflora rose leaves beginning to flush.
Under old rotten log near Elm Bridge a two inch centipede crawled slowly into the cold wood.. under same log, two hibernating snails; and a quarter-sized patch of gold slime mold sporulating. Some new gossamer in the Woods with warm temp.. amazing spiders!.. and one green bottle blow fly out at fence corner.
Water flowing slowly to Elm Bridge and beyond.. the ragweed delta not flooded; but water held in channels there slowly moving.
Ligustrum privet leaves browsed heavily on some plants.. must be survival food in snow. Some rose hips left.. not many. Odd that hackberry berries are all suddenly coming down now after the melting snow especially along the south boundary.. maybe evolved strategy as starvation/ survival food for dispersers after cold or snow when all else is gone?? Some Euonymous leaves look to have died in the cold - the most exposed.. while those slightly more sheltered below are still green.
Idea: measure the aerenchyma butt swell of green ash at ground level vs circumference at 1 meter.. as indicator of frequency of flooding.. should increase to a maximum and then percentage tree mortality should increase where flooding is more common than trees can handle.
No evidence of dog or dog tracks. Four or five deer moving north from the South Boundary across the Dune.
Disturbances in the Woods: Dec. 2000 big pecans, elms and other trees west of the wash between Burr Oak Bridge and Island Crossing down in ice storm.
Dec 2007 ice storm hit all of Norman heavily.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Evening Walk, Snow Going
Out at six for a half hour across the Woods and back at sunset. In the SW Gate and along the Southern Boundary Trail. Snow melting and the Woods 20% uncovered. No dog under the hollow cottonwood.. no fresh tracks there either.
Up the South Creek Trail, the water now drained from all the delta and washout plain, remaining only in the deeper pools of the main channel. No flooding anywhere. At the Elm Bridge no water flowing, only pooled there covered with a white sheet of ice.
The Woods, after six months of increasing drought, have had a good inch deep drink of melting snow... about 10 inches of snow or about 1 inch of water.
Back across the E-W Fence Line trail. Few tracks the entire route.. back to the western sedges. One yearling deer bounded away across the western end of the dune in the near dark. Before, interesting track of (that?) young deer dragging the front of its hooves leaving light lines in the old snow between each hoof print.
Late sunset color on the horizon at 6:30.
The past few days have been the coldest, down to 1F. Tomorrow up to 60F.
Up the South Creek Trail, the water now drained from all the delta and washout plain, remaining only in the deeper pools of the main channel. No flooding anywhere. At the Elm Bridge no water flowing, only pooled there covered with a white sheet of ice.
The Woods, after six months of increasing drought, have had a good inch deep drink of melting snow... about 10 inches of snow or about 1 inch of water.
Back across the E-W Fence Line trail. Few tracks the entire route.. back to the western sedges. One yearling deer bounded away across the western end of the dune in the near dark. Before, interesting track of (that?) young deer dragging the front of its hooves leaving light lines in the old snow between each hoof print.
Late sunset color on the horizon at 6:30.
The past few days have been the coldest, down to 1F. Tomorrow up to 60F.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Woods Winter Floods
Sunday Feb 6 late in the day I went to see how the Woods were faring with the melting snow.
I walked in the SW entrance and found the Western Wash draining the Lloyd Noble parking lot was running full. At the Elm Bridge the water was a couple feet deep, just below the blue blazed log on the bridge. Walking south along the new South Creek Trail water depth was over the 17 " top of my knee boots and I had to walk a bit west of the trail.
Water had flooded the 100 m long ragweed delta stretching north from the south central boundary; but did not extend to Barney Jct. West the water extended up the wash toward the Beaver Dam but had not reached it. Along the south boundary water drained out towards the main south culvert under the service road. At the culvert it had backed up and had flooded back into the Woods in a 10 " deep pool extending back towards the Dune. Need to clear the vegetation and recent slash/ debris partially blocking the culvert.
Across the flooded area there were scores or hundreds of robins busily foraging in the shallow moving water. I wondered what they could be finding. I also wondered what was happening in the soil, around the roots of the trees, around their mycorrhizal caps with this first flooding water in seven months. What was happening to soil fauna earthworms, insects, mites, millipedes, microarthropods etc..
Southeast of Carpenter's post on the SE corner of the East Pond I found a beautiful dead armadillo in the snow. It looked like it had just died hours earlier. I was surprised at how pink all of its undersides and limbs were. I could see the track it had bulldozed to where it lay, perhaps vainly seeking food under the snow.
I walked in the SW entrance and found the Western Wash draining the Lloyd Noble parking lot was running full. At the Elm Bridge the water was a couple feet deep, just below the blue blazed log on the bridge. Walking south along the new South Creek Trail water depth was over the 17 " top of my knee boots and I had to walk a bit west of the trail.
Water had flooded the 100 m long ragweed delta stretching north from the south central boundary; but did not extend to Barney Jct. West the water extended up the wash toward the Beaver Dam but had not reached it. Along the south boundary water drained out towards the main south culvert under the service road. At the culvert it had backed up and had flooded back into the Woods in a 10 " deep pool extending back towards the Dune. Need to clear the vegetation and recent slash/ debris partially blocking the culvert.
Across the flooded area there were scores or hundreds of robins busily foraging in the shallow moving water. I wondered what they could be finding. I also wondered what was happening in the soil, around the roots of the trees, around their mycorrhizal caps with this first flooding water in seven months. What was happening to soil fauna earthworms, insects, mites, millipedes, microarthropods etc..
Southeast of Carpenter's post on the SE corner of the East Pond I found a beautiful dead armadillo in the snow. It looked like it had just died hours earlier. I was surprised at how pink all of its undersides and limbs were. I could see the track it had bulldozed to where it lay, perhaps vainly seeking food under the snow.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Snow melting. Deer's Foot
Russell and I went out at end of day Saturday. The drift by the Ponds Trail entrance was waist high on Russell but all across the south face of the escarpment the snow had melted and thinned to reveal the brown leaves, leaving a patchwork of 60% snow cover and 40% open leaf litter. The flood plain forest floor was still well covered in snow and the two ponds were solid enough to walk across..although thinning around the edges.
Everywhere there were trails of deer. We found new deer beds on the Northern Loop, melted snow where the deer had slept.
Interesting that there was no water flowing in the main Western Wash despite the 0.6 inch of water held in the recent snow and the beginning of the melt.
We walked to the South boundary Trail and there by the old 1960's OWP sign we found a fresh hoof and 4 inches of lower leg of a young deer. A predator or scavenger had brought it there.
The deer continue to be located primarily in the thicker forest east of the east pond.
Many more small passerine birds out foraging than two days ago. Forecast rain should strip away much of snow before more cold and snow arrive later midweek.
Everywhere there were trails of deer. We found new deer beds on the Northern Loop, melted snow where the deer had slept.
Interesting that there was no water flowing in the main Western Wash despite the 0.6 inch of water held in the recent snow and the beginning of the melt.
We walked to the South boundary Trail and there by the old 1960's OWP sign we found a fresh hoof and 4 inches of lower leg of a young deer. A predator or scavenger had brought it there.
The deer continue to be located primarily in the thicker forest east of the east pond.
Many more small passerine birds out foraging than two days ago. Forecast rain should strip away much of snow before more cold and snow arrive later midweek.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Deep cold, deep snow.
Out late morning for a foray into the Woods from the NW Entrance by the Ponds Trail. February first brought deep cold hovering in single digits for a few days and blizzard conditions with several inches of snow. The snowdrift at the trail head was 20 inches deep, over-topping my knee boots. The snow depth along the trail was 3-5 inches.
The west pond was frozen solid enough to allow me to stand in the center and contemplate the trees on the northern edge from a novel perspective. Around the edge of the pond there was an inch of open water as there was at the northwest seep feeding the pond.
I saw numerous deer in the Woods; maybe a dozen or more..moving in small groups of 4-5. Lots of deer tracks in the northern center of the Woods, east of the East Pond.
I found several clusters of deer beds, four or five roughly elliptical beds with the snow melted.
Interesting to see the degree to which the deer are using the blazed trails. I wonder if it is because the trails are open.. or if they recognize and follow the blue paint blazes. No deer tracks at all south of Barney junction along the N-S Fence line trail.
The East Pond is also frozen solidly enough to walk across. I saw no robins, one lone sparrow on the ice at the East Pond. One other human track west of the Western Wash.
The snow reveals the tracks of animals using the base of hollow standing snags for shelter. Need to get Nick to help figure out what they all are.
I encountered the same wild dog in the Woods along the South Boundary Trail and followed it to its den under the big cottonwood log. It ran away barking.
The west pond was frozen solid enough to allow me to stand in the center and contemplate the trees on the northern edge from a novel perspective. Around the edge of the pond there was an inch of open water as there was at the northwest seep feeding the pond.
I saw numerous deer in the Woods; maybe a dozen or more..moving in small groups of 4-5. Lots of deer tracks in the northern center of the Woods, east of the East Pond.
I found several clusters of deer beds, four or five roughly elliptical beds with the snow melted.
Interesting to see the degree to which the deer are using the blazed trails. I wonder if it is because the trails are open.. or if they recognize and follow the blue paint blazes. No deer tracks at all south of Barney junction along the N-S Fence line trail.
The East Pond is also frozen solidly enough to walk across. I saw no robins, one lone sparrow on the ice at the East Pond. One other human track west of the Western Wash.
The snow reveals the tracks of animals using the base of hollow standing snags for shelter. Need to get Nick to help figure out what they all are.
I encountered the same wild dog in the Woods along the South Boundary Trail and followed it to its den under the big cottonwood log. It ran away barking.
Deep cold, deep snow.
Out late morning for a foray into the Woods from the NW Entrance by the Ponds Trail. February first brought deep cold hovering in single digits for a few days and blizzard conditions with several inches of snow. The snowdrift at the trail head was 20 inches deep, over-topping my knee boots. The snow depth along the trail was 3-5 inches.
The west pond was frozen solid enough to allow me to stand in the center and contemplate the trees on the northern edge from a novel perspective. Around the edge of the pond there was an inch of open water as there was at the northwest seep feeding the pond.
I saw numerous deer in the Woods; maybe a dozen or more..moving in small groups of 4-5. Lots of deer tracks in the northern center of the Woods, east of the East Pond.
Interesting to note the degree to which the deer are using the blazed trails. I wonder if it is just because the trails are open.. or if they are following the blue paint blazes that guide humans. No deer tracks at all south of Barney junction along the N-S Fence line trail.
The East Pond is also frozen solidly enough to walk across. I saw no robins, one lone sparrow on the ice at the East Pond. One other human boot print west of the Western Wash.
The west pond was frozen solid enough to allow me to stand in the center and contemplate the trees on the northern edge from a novel perspective. Around the edge of the pond there was an inch of open water as there was at the northwest seep feeding the pond.
I saw numerous deer in the Woods; maybe a dozen or more..moving in small groups of 4-5. Lots of deer tracks in the northern center of the Woods, east of the East Pond.
Interesting to note the degree to which the deer are using the blazed trails. I wonder if it is just because the trails are open.. or if they are following the blue paint blazes that guide humans. No deer tracks at all south of Barney junction along the N-S Fence line trail.
The East Pond is also frozen solidly enough to walk across. I saw no robins, one lone sparrow on the ice at the East Pond. One other human boot print west of the Western Wash.
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