Measuring and Mapping the Woods

This afternoon Lance and I began measuring and mapping the Woods trails. Beginning at the NE gate, foot-long stakes cut from cedar branches were placed every 50 meters down to the Elm Bridge (`290 m).. across the orange E-W Fence Trail; past Tall Stump (another 200 m) to the end of the orange trail and the jct with the yellow Main SW Trail (~650 m total).
Then on to the SW Gate for a new zero point and we placed stakes out to the end of the yellow trail at the Beaver Dam (500 m).
Then on to the S Boundary and a new zero at Carpenter's G10 post. We placed stakes north across the white Dune trail to the Dam (100 m) .. then up Hackberry Alley to jct with green Trans OWP trail (340 m total).
We saw no large animals but I thought I heard two deer moving off west of Hackberry Alley. The pools of water along the Main SW trail were almost entirely gone but the soil was quite damp and there was plenty of water all along the Western Wash.
Four tiny seed ticks < 1 mm and one larger young tick.

Owl, Canada Geese and Big Bird

6 PM entry via NE Gate. I took my saw and cleared two large fallen logs from orange trail. Also cut away hackberry tree leaning/ laying over the NS Fence Line Trail.
West Wash was full but still. Water largely drained away from the Main SW Trail.. although there remain some large disconnected pools. No water at Beaver Dam. Up on Dune Trail encountered (heard) large bird taking off..but did not see. Sounded like GB Heron or T Vulture. Earlier I heard owl in the south of the Woods. Canada Geese flying over..
Next day, Friday.. what a difference the wind can make. Strong 20-30 mph winds all day and warm 80+ rapidly dried almost all the open water along the Main SW trail..only one or two small pools left.. and the wind continues tonight. I cleared the path to the big log from the Main SW trail and painted new blazes to clarify. Sweet honeysuckle perfume at SW Gate and elsewhere scattered through the Woods.

Snake Skin Elm Tree

At 6 PM I entered the Woods by the West Pond. After 2.5 inches of rain the Woods are full of bright green new growth. Japanese honeysuckle Lonicera was beginning to bloom, producing its sweet odor in the Woods. I walked to the Ravine Trail and up along it to the East Pond trimming growth along the trails.. Out at Island Crossing, water flowed slowly in the western wash. Floods swept over the island yesterday.. one fresh dog track since then. (Subsequently heard one dog barking in the Woods on the dune near the Grandfather Cottonwood). All the paths were clear, good walking. A hundred feet from the SE end of the Northern Loop I spotted an interesting snake's skin up a meter high on the bark of an elm tree with Virgina Creeper. Odd to think of a snake shedding its skin up in a tree.
From Barney Jct walking east the trail crossed over the braided course of the flood as it entered the Ragweed Delta.. some pools and riffles remained in the Delta.
Upstream to the Beaver Dam, water was flowing slowly the entire distance. Above the Dam, the Woods were slowly draining; but the water was still several inches deep.. all the way to the Grandfather Cottonwood and beyond. For the entire distance the water was covered with rafts of floating debris.. mostly seeds of green ash and elm, old leaves and bits of bark. I wondered about what biological processes were jump started in all this organic debris floating in water.. colonization by oomycetes? Who would the first colonists be? What effects would they have? The soaked organic debris will be piled in rafts when the flood water recedes and will create an interesting mosaic of decomposing damp debris (and associated micro-arthropod population booms) .. and clear bare sandy soil.

Rain Returns

Easter Morning and we awoke with light rain falling.. a miracle of sorts.. after weeks and weeks of drought. The rain gathered and grew heavy at times .. two and a half inches altogether in the day. At five I ducked quickly in the SW Gate to see what it had done in the Woods. Three white tailed deer were in the west side forest near Chautauqua.. looked like young deer. The Auricularia fungi were thick, heavy and fleshy on the hackberry down a short ways in from the gate. The Woods had a wonderful smell of fresh damped leaves as all the soil microbes returned to life by the rain were busy decomposing dead leaves and producing wonderful earth smells. The path was clear almost to Dragonfly corner where there was standing water moving my way. I walked on, in shallow water east until it became too deep. The whole drainage along the main SW Trail was filled with water flowing west from across the Beaver Dam.. flood waters from the Lloyd Noble parking area.. but the water was not red clay colored from the trash transfer site construction. It was turbid but only reasonably so.. mostly clean water moving across the forest floor. Looking out over the slowing filling/ flooding Woods I thought again of the huge change for soil organisms: millipedes, snails, ants, centipedes, ground beetles, earthworms, mites, soil micro-arthropods of all sorts.. and the change for the trees, going from mild drought stress to perhaps some weeks of drowned roots. It will be interesting to see how long the water stays and how deep and wide it is. I should go and check the culvert on the south side and be sure it is not blocked.
I walked across the West Dune trail to near the Grandfather Cottonwood and saw the Woods and the stands of green ash there north filled with water. The trail back along the South Boundary was clear and good walking on my way out..

Raccoon in Big Pecan Snag

4:30 entry via SW Gate on a still mild (60 F) overcast day. Lots of small limbs 1 inch diameter down all over the trails from this past two weeks of strong winds. A couple of medium large diameter snags down across orange trail.. dead green ash by SW end of orange trail and medium large pecan trunk/ branch down east of tall stump. Both require saw.
Followed good sized raccoon down southern Hackberry Alley trail to Tall Stump. It stopped and looked back at me and then scooted SW to big old pecan snag to climb up and in.. probably home.

The forest is very shady today..feels like it has now gone to 90%+ full leaf out.. all fresh summer green leaves. On this one visit the forest now seems transformed to the dense green that conceals and shelters all within it.

The young hawthorn at the northern end of Hackberry Alley now has nice green fruit each the size of a large pearl.

Construction on the new trash transfer station looks like it has moved along and they are ready now to sod in the NE corner with many rolls of sod sitting there ready.

Heard but did not see dog barking at me on dune west of Grandfather cottonwood.. several minutes.. and another (?) dog barking on the escarpment above the western end of the Northern Loop. Heard but did not see one or more deer (presumably) moving south and west of Elm Bridge.

East end of the West Pond now has 10 foot wide exposed pond bottom from drying winds.
One yellow salsify blooming at Island Crossing. Pool there still dry. One prickly Cnidoscolus on dune near Opuntia prickly pear.

Windy

Friday's winds were the strongest prolonged, all-day winds I can remember in Norman. An hour before sunset I went to the NE Gate with the wind gusts still strong enough to wrench a car door out of grasp. A few hundred feet up the trail the shelter of the Woods was remarkable. I met Ana and Luke emerging with collections of flowering Viola, Rosa multiflora and others.
The NE and Central trails had many smaller branches down but no large trunks. The small pool above Island Crossing was now gone, just wet earth..no open water. One cottontail rabbit on the upper NE Escarpment trail.. several robins but no other large animals seen in my loop down to the south center and back up the southeast creek trail.
The Ragweed Delta is growing up with lush grass, Gallium bedstraw, Ambrosia giant ragweed and some other spp.... still just ankle high.
Sunday morning 17 April I took my saw to NW entrance by Rudy's and cleared a heavy hackberry trunk blocking the trail. The winds broke the top out of the tree 25(?) feet up. Farther east along the Trans OWP Trail a large walnut trunk had broken off and smashed into the vegetation along the trail but was not blocking. One squirrel in the Woods. I drove around to the NE Gate and walked in on the new trail (not completed) in the upper younger Woods. Lots of Symphoricarpos coralberry to clear from the southern half of the path. Noticed full new blooms of Lonicera honey suckle near the Bur Oak Bridge.. but a free standing bush with solid trunks.. not L. japonica I think. The blooms look identical. Not the January flowering L. fragrantissima. Noticed Ben & Angie jeep at gate.

Tiger Swallowtail Clusters

Several clusters of big yellow or black tiger swallowtails in the SW Woods this afternoon. They seemed to be in the tree tops around persimmon and other species. Scores of them in a few different places.. mostly near or along the Main SW Trail. I have never seen so many in there. Good walk with grad student Ana T in the Woods this afternoon. We entered via the NE Gate and walked past all 21 of the known Carpenter steel stakes. Ana captured GPS coordinates and promised to send map.
Lots of honey bees collecting water on shore of East Pond. Small group of 3-4 whitetail deer.
New leaves on trees continue to flush out.. estimate that canopy leaves are 35-40% out now. Understory leaves 80-90% leafed out. Woods are very dry..small(er) pool of water remains in W Wash above Island Crossing.
More small branches settling down and needing removal. Yellow Ranunculus and white fleabane like daisy near edge of western seep. Eleagnus Russian Olive is just about bloomed out and gone. White Viburnum shrub blooming along east edge of West Pond. Back home just two seed ticks to remove.

High Winds Little Down

Strong gusting winds 30-45 mph for most of past two days calmed late this afternoon. I went to the Woods 630 PM through SW Gate and found little changed. Small branches scattered across trail here and there, nothing much. Group of 5 whitetail moving southward east of Hackberry Alley. Small pool above Island Crossing suddenly much smaller - the wind, I think. Big Event crew cleared much of the flotsam and jetsam from the wash above the Bur Oak Bridge. Seventy percent? of understory has greened up/ leafed out. The upper canopies of trees are still bare, leafless. One or two small Bradford Pears on east end of Pipeline leafed out there light green leaves early.. before the rest.

Dry Woods Spring Equinox

After a week of unvarying cloudy cool windy days (45 degree highs) the sun finally broke through. I headed to the Woods at the end of the day. It has been a very dry spring but the east and west ponds' water level seems fully normal.

In the evening the eastern woods are pleasantly filled with the sweet smell of Eleagnus Russian Olive in bloom. Saw no deer, no large animals.

All along the South Boundary of the Woods there is a new five foot wide, flat bottom, concrete drain with sloping 5 inch high curb sides. This should have an impact in further isolating the Woods and stopping previous migrations of amphibians, turtles etc..

Saturday (today) walked with Cindy and Jim in from NW entrance and took long winding walk through much of the Woods. Discovered a handsome morel on trail just west of Island Crossing. We discussed possible futures of land at the eastern edge of the Woods with the old compost facility.