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.