Saturday morning out in the Woods before 8 AM to beat the heat.. already mid 80's. This July is the hottest in Norman in 100 years. Since June 13 we have been over 100 F all but 10 of last 45 days.. 26/ 30 days over 100 F in July. Along the west fence facing Chautauqua the orange trumpet vine are in full flower, with some green crescent-moon seed pods forming. I drove in past the new trash station to enter the Woods at the South center entrance trail.
Woods had the pleasant smell of new fallen leaves. Across the Woods, trees are shedding leaves.. maybe 5-10 % of the canopy. Elms, redbuds, maples (particularly), hackberries, a few oak leaves were beginning to cover the Woods floor. Most understory herbaceous vegetation is drooped and wilting. Interesting to contemplate the change from the flooded Woods of late May.
I carried a saw and cleared out eight or nine fallen trees and associated grapevines, that had settled or broken across the trails. I walked almost all the trails except the southeast corner.
One cottontail rabbit southwest of the West Dune trail. No turtles. One deer snorting east of the East Pond. One stray female dog, no collar, small blond brown lab/mutt, sleeping in the big box culvert under the northern sewage line. North of there, between the two big culverts, there was a large rectangular pool full of water.. Odonata zooming around..lots of life. No water in the wash below or elsewhere in Woods. Accipiter (?) ~ 50 m west of two or three trees with ivy. Observed adult flying in and heard young bird calling for an hour or more as I walked.
The East and West Ponds were both dry. First time I have seen that. The bed of the East Pond is much tracked and dug up near the center where animals have been looking for water or food. The bed of the West Pond was divided into thick, irregular, quarter-square-meter polygons.. soft, sort of spongy, wet soil on the underside. Small fist-sized pocket of open water in the shade where an animal had excavated a shallow hole.
Snapper turtles and others likely estivating dug under shelf of roots on south side of pond.
The microarthropod fauna and microbial communities in the moist cool deep crevices between the soil polygons would be interesting to investigate. The same earth polygons but thinner, are in many places through the Woods.. diurnal refugia.
Big white Dynastes Hercules beetle(?) larva under rotting ash cut on North South trail. Lots of big feathers, smaller down and poop whitewash at south end of beaver dam from vulture roost in snag there. No mosquitoes observed..no ticks. Many Tibicen Dog-day cicadas singing. One landed on my walking stick. Spider webs across trails not too abundant.. more of the Aurantia (?). I saw no Micrathena. Fairly abundant silken ground nests of spiders in SW corner.
On West Dune trail Opuntia are yellowing..looking poor and Cnidoscolus are still growing and blooming despite my attempts to cut away. Little or nothing in bloom. Symphoricarpos buckbrush and even young Privet are wilting.
Now just over 100 F at 3 PM.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Early July walk
3 July 2011 I rose early and entered the NE gate at 8 AM to beat the heat of the day.
Trails in good shape without much blockage despite powerful storm down burst that hit Norman 14 June.
It has been an exceptionally hot and dry June. The Eleagnus at the jct of Escarpment trail and Pipeline was wilting with drooping leaves. There was still a pool of water 20-30 ft long N of the Elm Bridge. The East pond has shrunk to a 10 x 3 foot by 2 inch deep remnant full of trapped Gambusia. The west pond has a large dry/ mud band around the perimeter..maybe a third to a half the normal water surface. I saw one slider turtle moving on the far side. No mosquitoes at all. Few ticks. Turtle trap is where??
Crossing the Dune Trail the mystery large bird(s) I have heard recently taking off but not seen.. they were there today.. turkey vultures. There is a lot of white wash. It looks like the spot has become a regular roost for a group of 5-6 of them.
Along Woods paths there are now lots of spider webs on the ground and a good many across the trail..but not obnoxious. I saw a few Micrathena..they seem to be more late summer spiders.. including one down in the wash that looked like it was in the process of being attacked/ plucked out of its web by Sphecid Ammophila until I disrupted events.
One deer south of Escarpment black trail, three deer southeast of East Pond.
Paused for a very pleasant twenty minutes in the new flat cement drainage ditch built north of the new trash station (new station now operating). The cement ditch had lots of easily seen insects crossing to or from the Woods.. I found a large Mydas fly.. one of the largest flies in OK.. I only see once or twice every other year or so.
There was a large wolf spider hanging out on the cooler shady side with a few score young spiderlings on back.
Carabids.. Scarites.. scuttling to the top of the 7 cm high curb and then falling back and climbing again (made it second time); green and multicolor Chlaenius and black Carabus running around; and small mutillid velvet ant, scores of jelly belly sized black scarabs.. very common grass grub.. cricket nymphs, one hollowed out Tibicen cicada killed in metamorphosis; isopods, a few caterpillars and a millipede or two.
Trails in good shape without much blockage despite powerful storm down burst that hit Norman 14 June.
It has been an exceptionally hot and dry June. The Eleagnus at the jct of Escarpment trail and Pipeline was wilting with drooping leaves. There was still a pool of water 20-30 ft long N of the Elm Bridge. The East pond has shrunk to a 10 x 3 foot by 2 inch deep remnant full of trapped Gambusia. The west pond has a large dry/ mud band around the perimeter..maybe a third to a half the normal water surface. I saw one slider turtle moving on the far side. No mosquitoes at all. Few ticks. Turtle trap is where??
Crossing the Dune Trail the mystery large bird(s) I have heard recently taking off but not seen.. they were there today.. turkey vultures. There is a lot of white wash. It looks like the spot has become a regular roost for a group of 5-6 of them.
Along Woods paths there are now lots of spider webs on the ground and a good many across the trail..but not obnoxious. I saw a few Micrathena..they seem to be more late summer spiders.. including one down in the wash that looked like it was in the process of being attacked/ plucked out of its web by Sphecid Ammophila until I disrupted events.
One deer south of Escarpment black trail, three deer southeast of East Pond.
Paused for a very pleasant twenty minutes in the new flat cement drainage ditch built north of the new trash station (new station now operating). The cement ditch had lots of easily seen insects crossing to or from the Woods.. I found a large Mydas fly.. one of the largest flies in OK.. I only see once or twice every other year or so.
There was a large wolf spider hanging out on the cooler shady side with a few score young spiderlings on back.
Carabids.. Scarites.. scuttling to the top of the 7 cm high curb and then falling back and climbing again (made it second time); green and multicolor Chlaenius and black Carabus running around; and small mutillid velvet ant, scores of jelly belly sized black scarabs.. very common grass grub.. cricket nymphs, one hollowed out Tibicen cicada killed in metamorphosis; isopods, a few caterpillars and a millipede or two.
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