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.