Marvelous Morning

This morning after consecutive nights with 0.9 and 0.7 inches of rain I went to the Woods early. I entered the SW Gate and took the South Boundary Trail. I placed cedar stakes topped with blue tape at 50 m intervals from the start to the end of the trail at the H 10 post; then north with stakes along the NS Fence Line trail to Fence Corner.. all done. Then I started at the top of Hackberry Alley on the Trans OWP green trail and placed cedar stakes east to Burr Oak Bridge and west to the Ponds Trail entrance.

The West Pond is still dry, although now the cracks in the mud are filled with water. The East Pond is dry except for a fist-sized pocket of open water in the center. Now is the time to get the water depth measuring stick placed in the pond.

There are many understory trees, elms and green ash mostly, up to 20 or 30 feet tall that may have died with the heat and drought of the past 8 weeks - the 'Heat Dome'. Their leaves are all dead and are hanging on the tree. It looks as though the tree could not form an abscission layer. It will be interesting to see if any of these recover and flush new leaves next spring. It looks like the larger canopy dominants are all OK.. roots probably went deeper. There are a lot of leaves down.. maybe 25 % of the canopy. There is a pleasant smell of fall and early leaf decomposition.

The rains have sprouted many quick small mushrooms and ascomycetes: Auricularia pig's ears etc. It should be good watching for fungi the next 2-3 days.

The Western Wash was flowing. Water was flowing slowly past the Elm Bridge 4-5 inches deep. Water was flowing along the South Boundary west from posts H10 to G10 and then south. Water extended 50 meters in a shallow ditch up the Ragweed Delta.

I saw two deer up by the north central area and around the west side of the Dune. The trees along the west side of the dune are nearer complete defoliation. The sunlight brightly lights the forest floor on the dune's west end like it was early spring.

On the NS Fence Line I encountered a young armadillo 6 feet away. He jumped to the side but then re-commenced foraging 3-4 feet away from where I stood. Amazing to watch.