Armadillo deer and the Woods

Good gentle rain this past several days.. 82/100 inch. I checked the Woods this Sunday afternoon at 430.. no water in the Ponds..but there is water in the Wash. It is dry before the Elm bridge but there are long pools 'upstream'. Interesting phenology now..after the hot dry summer, with the return of rains, some plants are flushing new leaves.. last week of September. Ana reports seeing several turtles in the Woods recently. It is as if life in the Woods was put on hold.. while it was being seriously tested with drought and heat.. killing many trees.. and now with rain, plants are producing new leaves.. getting whatever photosynthate may be possible before autumn/ winter.
I ran into Botany lab group in class with Rybz: Nate, Cassie, Katie and Hilary measuring diameters in tree plots along the Main SW trail near Jct with East West Trail. Good to know classes are using the Woods.
Elephant's foot Elephantopus purple flowers beginning to be produced. White flowered Polygonum also blooming on dry sites.
Need chainsaw to clear overhead broken redbud mess by pit SW along West Dune Trail.
I encountered tree or four deer between the East and West ponds (basin).
I found an armadillo working its way busily.. but without concern, up slope above west pond. A second sighting or second armadillo along the eastern end of the Northern Loop moved off, then continued to forage through the leaf pack a few feet away. Looks like armadillos have dug up a large area near the west end of the Northern Loop.

Autumn Rains and New Life

Out to the Woods (NW Gate by Ponds) this evening at 7 after 83/100 inch life-giving rain today.. very gentle and slow for hours then more and heavier; so, little run-off.. the Woods and the surrounding land need so much more; but this is the start. Many trees did not survive the heat and drought of this summer. Now it is over.
Walking across the Woods the rich smells are of freshly fallen and wet leaves beginning to decay. At the Elm Bridge the Wash is flowing slowly but full.. no spillage across the levee. The curled drooping leaves of Symphoricarpos, Lonicera and green ash are extending themselves again. The leaf tissue is old but now has vital water it has lacked. Three deer leap and stop along the Northern Loop heading eastward. No water in the ponds but they are damp and will soon begin to refill. Thursday evening before the rains I took a second 4x4 cedar post to the Woods.. this one to the center of the East Pond. On posts in both the East and West Pond we now have staff water gauges (donation from Bob Nairn) attached so that changes in water depth can be measured. Each gauge has a range of 3 feet demarcated in tenths of a foot from zero at the pond bottom. As I departed the Woods Friday, Heather Ketchum's special forensic class was gathered at the NW Gate conducting a mock 'crime scene' investigation with dead bloated pigs and 6 crime scenes. She introduced me to Kent Buehler, forensic archaeologist at OU. I mentioned the grave like depression at the south end of the W Dune Trail in the SW corner of the Woods. He said he would have a look.

Walnuts and Dry Woods

Friday Sept 9, out to the Woods with Barbara F, OK State Survey coordinator and USDA to look for walnut thousand canker Geosmithia and walk the Woods. Found largish walnut tree at top of pipeline trail dead looking .. won't know for sure until spring. Barbara sampled other walnut green branches along the Trans OWP trail. We talked about setting some other monitoring traps and using the Lindgren traps. Found Ana T working on tree plots by SW quarter. Trees in the SW quarter (NW end of dune) are showing significant mortality and leaf drop. Hard time for many of the trees in the Woods. The natural world here is holding its breath, waiting for rain.

Marvelous Wonderful Day

Sunday the super hot weather of this long summer broke and today has been a delightful day..high temp 79F. I went to the Woods in the afternoon from the NE Gate. There was one deer in the upper NE forest area; two more deer west of the East Pond. Lot of work to do to clear a tree tutorial trail route.. maybe with Elizabeth N.
I refreshed orange, green and blue blazes across the Woods and marked 3 of Carpenter's steel rods with blue paint at top.

I drove around to the SW Gate and painted fresh blazes on the Main SW trail. I measured north from Carpenter's C10 stake 200 feet and did not find another rod. Another 200 feet north is the new-found, previously buried post C8. North 200 feet more in sedges is C7. West 200 feet is the fence line between trees #66 & #67. No Carpenter post visible in jumbled fallen junipers. Old Gate Carpenter post will be B7.

The End is Near

Forecast predicts an abrupt end of super hot days tonight with passage of a northern front. Early 7:30 I met Elizabeth N and we entered the NE Gate; walked down to the Elm Bridge; across to Fence corner; south to H10; west to Dune Trail; up to Main South trail; west to SW Gate; back east to C10 and north to hit the Trans OWP; west to Ponds and east along Northern Loop to exit up Pipeline.
We saw one box turtle north of the West Pond. There were 4-5 older whitetail deer.. one doe 20 feet away watched us unconcernedly and then scratched its ear. There were 2-3 yearlings dashing away up in the NE Woods.
Pecans starting to come down. We passed a small pit fall trap at the base of big pecan snag west of Tall Stump.. and saw Anna's tree plot on the South Boundary trail with yellow flagging on each tree.
We saw understory hackberry and green ash dying at Barney Jct.
Elizabeth is interested in creating a tree tutorial trail in the Woods and we talked about how to identify each tree in a NE section of the Woods.
One yellow lab stray dog up with young yearling deer in NE Woods.