Eleagnus Blooming Mid Spring and Tiger Swallowtail

End of day walk in the Woods..in the SW Gate at 6:30. It has been dry and warm.. many days in high 70's/low 80's this month. The understory shrubs Cornus dogwood, young elm, green ash, are beginning to open leaf buds with leaves peaking out..maybe 5-10% of the way. On either side of Hackberry Alley there is a general profusion of early spring green. The Woods are filling again with this year's new leaves.
On the east side, Eleagnus Russian olive is coming into full bloom and the Woods are profused with a subtle lemon scented sweet odor. One female tiger swallowtail flitting by with its broad blue band above the black on the handwing. The earlier wild hawthorn Crataegus viridis flowers are almost all gone now. There is an interesting clump of several old hawthorn at the north end of Hackberry Alley - why? Their heavier musky chaparral odor is now gone.
Along the Creekside Connector trail two morels (regular light mocha color caps) fresh and in good shape. Farther south on the Creekside trail lavender and purple violets with arrow shaped leaves are out with abundant bloom.
No water anywhere in the washes except the small pool above Island Crossing.
Colony of 20 ant lion larval pits 450 feet south of the big walnut at the junction of the Escarpment Trail and the trail down to Burr Oak Bridge. Why so many there?
Skunks or armadillos or both have been foraging extensively turning over the leaf litter on the SW end of the North South fence line. Midway along the South Creekside Trail there is a dead raccoon with Thanatophilus? black carrion beetles and blowfly larvae. The exposed ribs are like a row of wishbones.
Crossing over the crest of the Dune trail the young German shepherd is back and barks at me from 50 away in the brush, then runs away.
At 7:30 there is a marvelous hanging ball of the sun over the horizon.. a brilliant fiery red orange.
The growing season is beginning again in the Woods.

New Morels

Entering via the SW gate I encountered two hefty morels up by tree #45 an old oak snag.. never seen that color before.. the stem chalky white not yellow and the cap a handsome cordovan red brown, not the dark mud brown. The 15/100 inch yesterday damped the soil enough to get them going. No water in the wash, though.. except the small pool above Island Crossing. 6:30-7:30 no deer for recent few excursions. Sun setting at 7:30 with time change last night.

Two weeks of spring

First two weeks of March have been mostly mild, warm and dry. Today at 6 PM I walked from the SW gate along the S Boundary Trail and up across the Western Dune Trail. Approaching from the Dune crossing from the southwest there are a series of small hummocks of soil that are curious. I need to ask Katie K and Jason J what they might be. At the top of the dune two cottontail rabbits sprinted or loped away. At the top of Hackberry Alley there are three hawthorn blooming. Eleagnus Russian olive leaves are more fully out on NE Escarpment Trail. One yellow lab sized dog..no collar with large red sore on left back emerged from under the base of the Burr Oak Bridge.
On the north side across the SW trail I found an old green ash log and sat to observe.
This past Tuesday 8 March Mike and I walked through much of the Woods.. Found Lamium pupureum (not henbit) in bloom by Elm Bridge.. first flower in the Woods for spring. We checked a herp array bucket left open west of the western pond. Three crayfish had fallen in. Liz identifies as Procambarus arcutus. One pulled from bucket went walking away over dry leaves. Interesting that they disperse by walking across dry habitat. Also in the bucket were live Scincella lateralis little brown skink and several millipedes: long thin Julid? and stout Polydesmid; black Meloid beetles Epicauta (?)
Along the trail Mike found Tridopsis (?) snails and several white-tailed deer.