Gentle rain, Coprinus and leaves starting to fall

Gentle 0.68 in rain yesterday and last night. The West Pond is up to 0.45 foot and was quiet.. no dragonflies this evening. It was cool, high 50's. The East Pond is 0.05 foot. I thought I heard a frog call by the East Pond. No turtles visible.
One whitetail heading east near the Bur Oak bridge. Water flowing slowly past the Elm Bridge.
Near whitewash location on TransOWP .. and closer to second largest cottonwood a squawk from a great blue heron I disturbed roosting in the tree tops. A young mid size (red-shouldered?) hawk fluttered a short distance.. mottled breast, short juvenile(?)
tail same location.. just west of the second largest cottonwood.
Bright rich red Virginia Creeper Parthenosiscus leaves are starting to fall.. as are light butter yellow green ash leaves. Odd phenology this autumn with some trees reflushing new leaves early autumn after heat of summer.

30 + Coprinus comatus -like shaggy manes all over woods northeast of Beaver Dam. Great cluster of them around dead elm with bark starting to shuff off.

I refreshed white paint trail blazes. Cleared a fair amount of new fallen small branches/ small trees across trail from storm. Check NWS Mesonet and see what precip they recorded for the storm on Jenkins.

Earlier in week, Monday 24 Oct Liz and Jobin and I walked Ravine Trail to Northern Loop to Creekside Trail to Elm Bridge.. west to Fence Corner, Two Pecan Trail, Trans OWP and back out via Ponds Trail looking at big trees with potential as distinctly different snail habitats.. under different spp. of trees. Along the foot of the escarpment east and west of big tree #148 Liz commented abundant grass Chasmanthium 'fish on a line' on the slope indicated the area of a seep.

Day after Autumn Rain

Brief walk in from SW Gate to see effects of rain yesterday - not much. The soil was thoroughly wetted and the bare soil roughened but no sign of washing or flooding west of Beaver Dam. Now a few gallons of open water in the East Pond (5 deer fifty feet SE of the pond). The NW Pond had risen from 0.36 feet to 0.41 feet. No sign of the snapping turtle. I am sure I heard a frog jump into the water as I approached. The Eastern Wash was running barely past the Elm Bridge. Through the Woods along the EW Fence Trail white Eupatorium boneset was blooming. On the western edge along Chautauqua white asters were in bloom. Some Clematis had bloomed again by the SW Gate. Poison ivy berries were golden and leaves of some P. ivy were turning golden red. The trumpet vine pods were full mature and green.

Woods waiting for rain and it comes.

Mid afternoon Saturday Matt W. and I enter NE Gate. Walked around the proposed Tree Tutorial loop. Need to set path so we can begin temp labels of species for every tree along path.. later select down to 2-3 individuals per species.. Start next Sunday?
Woods are dry-ish. West Pond down to 0.36 feet. Snapping turtle there not moving. White tailed doe and Great Blue Heron (in trees above) there at 6 PM. Strong North winds on the 18th brought down many small twigs and branches.. some of the crown dieback from summer heat and drought..no major blow down.
I re-painted yellow dots on the Main SW trail. Some improvement in debris along South Boundary trail after Steve Womack supervisor, sent in man to help pick up.. much more to go. I told Dan Hofstedter(?) I would bring class to do moths but rain washed us out.
Armadillo or skunk disturbed litter and soil in substantial patch near the west fence line. Recurring whitewash 15-20 feet west of tree #118 on Trans OWP trail (just west of small metal debris).
Washing of Main SW trail from flood after 3 inch rain on the 9th is evident in sandy soil stripped clean of leaf litter along trail.
Should set motion detection camera on West Dune Trail at south end of dune top where small animal trail moves northeast into brush.
Need saw to clear snag log broken across southwest end of EW Fence Line trail.

At 7 PM sharp fast 48/100ths rain arrives.

Turtles Alive.. and Dragonfly Party

After the past 36 hours of good soaking rains (385/100ths inches) I went to the NW entrance to the Woods to see the ponds. They are back! The West Pond now shows 1.2 feet depth. Lolling around in the shallow warm new water was an obviously delighted big snapper turtle.. if they can ever be delighted. I imagined it breaking a four month long summer estivation.. probably hungry!

There was also a veritable swarm of dragonflies..mostly in pairs.. males holding onto females that were busy laying eggs in the water. There were several pairs of Anax junius Aeshnids and several pairs of smaller red Sympetrum.. and there were a dozen or more smaller single dragonflies chasing each other ..merry mayhem.

At the eastern pond.. all was quiet.. less water there 0.4 on the gauge.. but to my surprise there was a snapper turtle there too!

Walking back I saw a 3 toed box turtle out 20 feet west of the big pecan #122 at the south turning of the trail.

Down at the Beaver Dam water was slowly draining out of the Woods.. but the Main SW Trail was not as broadly flooded as I expected.. the water was mostly 2 meters or less wide and ankle deep. It was clear the flood had been wider but most of the inundated ground was drying out now. An excellent good drink for the trees and the soil.

Marvelous Rain

Great Rain overnight.. all night long.. mostly all been gentle.. and almost all has soaked deep into the dry ground.

I went to the Woods 8 AM to see what had happened. It was marvelous. Everything had changed overnight, the color of everything, the smells. There was actually a small amount of water in the West Pond maybe 20-30 gallons pooled up maybe an inch deep ..an area the size of 8 or 9 bathtubs. The East pond had the same amount but deeper.. actually registering 0.09 feet of water on the new staff gauge there.

The water in the Western wash was flowing well enough that some of it had begun to back up above the Beaver Dam, into the SW woods. There, near the old grandfather hollow cottonwood, I heard a puzzling and amusing thing, There was an approx. 40 cm DBH, middle age green ash tree near the moving front of the water, as water was slowly moving west across the floor of the woods. From the base of the tree there was a very audible gurgling sound.. like a soda straw sucking away at the last bit of a drink from a cup. I scooped away the leaves at the base of the tree and listened. It continued. I walked around the moving front of water. None of the other trees were making the sound. I listened for five minutes..then went on west across the west dune trail. I came back 15 minutes later and the tree was still gurgling just as audibly. Quite remarkable and puzzling.

A white-tail deer I encountered seemed interested I was there at that hour but not alarmed. She sat 50 feet away from me chewing her cud.. and didn't bother to stand and sprint away.

Two younger yearlings in the eastern woods dashed and sprinted along the steep slope of the escarpment and some squirrels scolded the disturbance.

The jelly ear fungi are rehydrated and looking full and fresh on the old ash snag east of the east pond.

Rain off and on most the afternoon. Now with the rain clearing off to the east tonight we've had a total of 385 hundredths.

TGFR the rain is here

Saturday morning early I took the saw via the SW gate along the Two Friends Trail to the small pit. There I cleared away the redbud trunk and vines that had broken and blocked the trail. South I cut away a dead cedar that blocked the trail to the Boundary fence. I saw one deer. The Woods were very dry.

Between 4 and 5 PM the rain began - a gentle 1/10 inch.. perfect to wet the soil and soak in. An hour later the rain strengthened. By 8 o'clock we had more than an inch. It looks like it may continue for most of 24 hours if we're lucky. We need 16 inches to end the drought, according to the NOAA Palmer Drought Index data. Norman, normal total annual precip = 37 inches.

Stressed Elms and Hackberry Emperors

Monday 3 October went to the Woods at 6 PM to measure the distance to the new (old thin) rebar Ana found in line with Rice's mid 1960's plots' south line. The rebar she found and flagged appears to be directly in line with the other rebar of the south line.. and is 250 feet east of the previous eastern most rebar on the south line. If the western end of the line is where we were guessing, the southern line now would be about 427' feet in length. The student papers in Rice's class describe a one acre plot 441 ft by 99 ft. This looks like it is the right length and likely is the lost SE corner. Need to look north now 99 feet for the lost NE corner.

Leaving the Woods on the SW Trail at dragonfly corner an elm there had hundreds of hackberry emperor butterflies clustered on the stem. I assume the elm is stressed and producing flux..sugary sap attracting the butterflies to feed. It looks kind of amazing. No deer, dogs or turtles sighted in this brief hour.