Welcome Winter

The storm of the past few days passed over and left a cold clear day. It feels like the first day of winter. From the NW corner up the Ravine Trail a rabbit dashed away north. The West Pond was looking full at 2.18 feet and the East Pond was stable at 1.50 feet. The flooding west of the Beaver Dam was gone.. dried down into the spongy gray black organic soil. The Western Wash was full at the Elm Bridge but barely moving. Four deer bounded away from the Woods east of the West Pond. The Woods were quiet and the clear sky was cold.

Blustery Day

Overnight we had a slow gentle rain followed by a sharp freshet at 6 a.m., with a total of 75/100ths.
I was curious to see if that would produce flooding in the Woods, so drove down through the trash station to the South Central trail.
The Ragweed Delta and the Willow basin on the south were both flooded and water was moving slowly upstream west through the Beaver Dam; but had only gone less than 50 m west of the Dam. The area south of the dune along the Dune Trail was flooded but west of there was clear. At the upper Northeast corner of the Ragweed Delta there were rapids. But there was no break over across the levee and the water was just below the top log of the Elm Bridge and just below covering the island of Island Crossing.
The East Pond was at 1.37 feet and the West Pond was 2.16 feet.

There were 30-40 mph North winds gusting and tossing the tree tops. In the dense thickets of young 40 yr old green ash the trees rattled against each other like a percussion instrument across the stand. Light yellow leaves were still raining down and most trees are now bare.. but a few large cottonwoods still hold their yellow crowns. One white-tailed doe on the hill slope above the East Pond stopped, then ran away east.

November Cedars

In through the NE Gate today. No purpose, no urgency, just a Thanksgiving time to relax and absorb the Woods. Down along the Wash and below the Elm Bridge there were moderate swathes of green ground starting.. Stellaria chickweed, Duchesnea mock strawberry, Allium spring onions, Viola violets, Euonymus strawberry or burning bush.
Things to eat in the Woods: Symphoricarpos coralberry, Rosa multiflora red fruits, Allium spring onions, Lycoperdon fresh puffballs. Lonicera honeysuckle berries are probably mildly poisonous.

Two large brownish orange Araneus on their webs across the trail.. interesting to note when the last are seen this season and the first are seen next summer.

I found again the two parallel rows of limby cedars - each with 3-4 trees. The east end runs to just west of the junction of the N Loop to the E. Trans OWP. The west end intersects the alternate trail running north from Fence Corner. I need to scan between the trees for barbed wire fence with metal detector. These trees look like the vestigial markers of an old farm road. Birds perching along fence lines and depositing juniper seed. Coming and going through the NE entrance cedars there is a flock of robins maybe 20 birds foraging there.

Twenty more individual trees flagged and numbered with blue tape along the Tree Loop - including Sapindus?
Plus at the east end of the bur Oak Bridge, one single Nandina with bright green leaves.

Shallow pooled water still across the southern boundary of the SE quarter of the Woods, although the Main SW trail is mostly drained.

Trees with Tim V

Out to the Woods with Tim and R and G this afternoon via the NW Entrance on the Ponds Trail. We walked down to the still flooded Main SW Trail and Tim noticed elms with epicormic sprouting. New green leaves flushing all along the stem in late November with the loss of apical dominance. A sure sign of stress perhaps the last burst before death.. It would be interesting to look for as many trees as possible in the Woods with new flushing November leaves and watch their fate.. How many will be alive in the spring or early summer of 2012? Were these the trees that were attracting scores of hackberry butterflies this late summer/ early fall 2011?

Need to brainstorm with Tim about best ways to mark trails, junctions, distances, directions. How best to map? Need to map many more of the largest trees by GPS.

Maybe ask Heather M how to think about the trees with the epicormic leaf flush. For a given species (slippery elm) is there a characteristic signature of phloem sugars, plant moisture stress, stem volatiles? Maybe something butterflies can detect.. we can test or use to attract.. maybe attract beetles as well as butterflies.. an alteration of 'green leaf volatiles' aldehydes, ketones etc..?

Much of the Main SW Trail has drained and is now just sticky. Some large pools remain along the trail. Remarkably three mosquitoes found Tim.

Rain and floods return

Monday night we received 141/100 inches of abrupt rain before midnight. Today, Tuesday 4:30 PM I went to the SW Gate to see the Woods. Water was pooled on the Main SW trail at 150 m from the SW Gate.. narrow inch deep pools that broadened to wide ponded areas past Dragonfly corner around the leaning ash tree.
The E Pond had risen to 1.2 feet and the W. Pond to 2.03 feet. Water was flowing, draining slowly through the Beaver Dam. A White-tailed deer sprinted west from the dam. 7 or 8 new Shaggy mane Coprinus were emerging NW of the dam. Earlier population/ clone of these was NE of the dam.
The rain has brought down many more leaves and sounds carry more clearly/ starkly of traffic.. or other sounds. It would be interesting to record sound (noise) level in the Woods 365 days of the year at 5 PM rush hour and note the change with the season.

Best Time In the Woods

Early this mid November morning I went to the Woods. Overnight the weather had changed from near 80 yesterday to low 30's.. grey white sky. The past couple of days most of the leaves have come down. Some of the last are the cottonwoods. Now on the forest floor they turn the Woods to gold. The Grandfather cottonwood on the SW Trail still has near a full canopy of green leaves. I wonder if this is because it has roots down to better water.. or if it is a stress symptom.. or is genetic.
With a 20 mph wind, hour after hour last few days, I thought the ponds would lose a lot of water; but they both looked good. The East Pond has 0.74 feet and is maybe about one third its normal size. The West Pond has 1.88 feet and looks about 85% normal size.
Standing at the West Pond I heard a pileated woodpecker and then watched it fly in and begin to forage on a tree up on the plateau. The East pond has a sheen of organic oil from decomposition (maybe oil from new cottonwood leaves?).

This is the best time to be in the Woods. Full of light and color.. cool/ cold enough so no ticks or mosquitoes.. the understory open enough to see trees and features in the Woods hidden in summer. It is a good time to leave the familiar trails, go and explore new hidden things.. find new big trees, new tree species, new places. I began to see again the line of old sentinel cedars along the once upon a time fence rows; full of limbs from open field growth, overtopped now standing dead or tilted over, giving way to hackberry, walnut, elm, pecan. I puzzled again over several small trees (Viburnum?) with opposite small thorns and rounded reddish-yellow leaves with apical indented tip.. bark light mocha.. pebbly texture like miniature version of persimmon bark.. with smaller pebbles and much lighter color. The same white flower as the shrub at the east side of the West Pond?

Walking down in the dry Western Wash.. an amazing find, a new blooming light purple/ lavender violet.. one blossom.. on this early winter/ late fall day.. just above the junction of the East and West Wash.

Back in the sheltered ravines a 'bottle trail' branching west through the junk of a half century ago.. old bottles with unique miniature ecosystems.. healthy green moss cushions, protected catch basins for the rain.
There are three old car frames stripped to nothing but the heaviest metal parts, suspension, transmission, gear box and frame.
Up to the plateau and a potential route along the edge to the northwest corner of the top of the Ravine trail.

On the plateau 4-5 deer ran away northeast. I brought a saw and cleared some of the tangle of the broken ash top on the West Dune trail. Paraphrasing Robert Frost.. "something there is that doesn't love a trail.. that sends the crashing tree top and drops the tangling brier".
The old slow moving mangy bitch was south of the Grandfather cottonwood on the south side of the Dune. I think a trail can be made from the post by the Grandfather south. I need to blue blaze the tops of the old orange posts out in the western sedges.

Good time to think about why the smaller separate beds of sedge are distributed where they are.. and to see the zones of Lonicera Japanese honeysuckle (putting out new green leaves). The well defined contours/ elevation limits ( a few vertical centimeters) of flood inundation vs survival and growth.

Norma the Leucistic Red-Tailed Hawk

Down by the SW Gate I watched Norma, the leucistic Red-Tailed Hawk circling and hunting over the Woods and Pott's Dairy Farm.
South of the SW gate there are bright red translucent berries of a small Cocculus vine.

In the Woods, new green leaves of Lonicera japonica, Japanese Honeysuckle are sprouting from stems. Many of the tallest trees have lost 90% of their leaves. Along the South Service Road tall white daisies are still blooming. Some yellow small sulphurs and small acridid spur-throated grasshoppers are flying low over the ground.

On the new Tree Loop I numbered 49 trees with blue plumber's tape.. sixteen spp. (I think). I need some help with a couple of the Carya and Quercus. Need a few more spp. sycamore, red and white mulberry, catalpa, soapberry, etc.

Golden Leaves Raining Down

First time back to the Woods after Monday night's great 2 inch rain. At 10 AM I entered the Woods through the SW Gate. Clear blue sky, high 50's; 15 MPH wind; beautiful day.
The yellow gold leaves were streaming down from the trees. This week is likely going to be the week with the greatest leaf drop. Some hackberry maintain full green crowns. Most trees, green ash, elm, hackberry, are dropping leaves. Wonder if the now-green trees are genetically always late leaf droppers.. or if their roots had more moisture this summer.. or something else. Areas of the Woods are blanketed with beautiful yellow.. the deepest and richest yellow are the pecan leaves.
Ponds have more water: the West Pond looked full size again for the first time since this summer. Depth was 2.26 feet. Southern leopard frog was calling there at 4:00. The East Pond was good too but not full size yet. Depth was 0.48 feet.
Out on the new Tree Loop (north eastern leg) I saw again a large black Meloid oil beetle. Wonder why they are out this time of the year?
The rain Monday had pushed rafts of leaves and small woody plant parts westward in drifts. The floods had gone nearly all the way to the SW Gate from the Beaver Dam. The standing water was all gone from the forest floor. The western wash had full pools but no water flowing past the Isld Crossing.
Later in the day 2 PM I returned to the Woods with Jackson H, Claire C, Emily K and Heather M.
Jackson commented book by David Wardle, Communities and Ecosystems discusses variation in decomposition communities below various trees. Emily and Claire found a nice Anax junius green darner hanging on to a young green ash east of the Elm Bridge. It was likely very near death by old age as it did not attempt to fly away as Emily picked it up by hand. Beautiful colors and odd looking bubbles of fluid (water) visible through the cuticle in the anterior thorax.

Juniper berries are down in profusion by large juniper at junction of Pipeline Trail and Escarpment Trail.
Three deer in the central Woods W. of the white trail in the morning and one buck W. end of dune. Three deer in the afternoon in the SW Woods along the Main SW Trail.
I blue blazed the new Tree Trail and now need to tag all the trees with numbers and prepare an identification guide.

Large green ash top broken across and blocking N end of W. Dune Trail.. need saw. There is still a lot of tree breakage in these woods. I wonder which tree spp. and diameter classes are breaking most commonly. What is the principal cause.. wind, ice, rot?

Update on Rain Totals

Mark A at Weather Service helped me update rainfall totals for past several rains with totals recorded there at junction Jenkins and Hwy 9 ( a few hundred meters from Oliver's Woods).
09/16 .09 inch
09/17 .52
09/18 .39

10/09 1.91
10/10 1.61

10/27 .34
10/28 .33

11/03 .03

11/7
11/8 2.02 inch

Earthquake Autumn

Last night the 5th Nov at 10:55 central OK had a 5.6 earthquake - strongest in state history. I went to the Woods this Sunday morning the 6th to see if any trees had toppled. (The house had shaken strongly). By the Ponds entrance the Woods had an autumn smell of new fallen leaves. The West pond had 0.4 feet of water and a few adult dragonflies flying.
I walked the Ravine Trail eastward and saw no significant blowdown from the strong north wind gusts earlier this week. West of the East Pond there was a large area of fresh catalpa leaves down. They look to have all fallen in a brief 1-2 day period.. crackling underfoot. West of Island Crossing 50 m there is a larger area of fresh yellow ash leaves recently down. I wonder how long the leaves hold their color after falling. The East Pond center was wet but no open water.
I measured the new Tree Loop and it is 400 m, or a quarter mile (blue-topped cedar stakes at 50 m intervals). 200 m from the beginning at the white survey stone to the junction with the Escarpment Trail and 200 m back to the NE Gate. The route is clear but needs a pass with a mower or lots of lopper work or both to clear a 1 m wide swathe.
At the southern end of the South Central trail a green ash in poor health is flushing fresh new green leaves. An out of whack stress crop.. that may either be the last hurrah.. or a chance to create a little more photosynthate for the winter ahead.
By Elm Bridge a raucous half dozen crows were actively mobbing a young hawk.. set up quite a din and flew right after the hawk, close on its tail as it flew northwest. West of East Pond a nice 3-4 foot long black snake was stretched out 3 m up in some small trees by a taller green ash. It didn't move and I enjoyed watching it for a while. I saw two young deer that dashed away.

Tree Tutorial Loop Path Set

Saturday afternoon.. pleasant windy day (62F); went to the Woods, the NE Gate, with saw and loppers to work on routing the tree tutorial loop trail. The route is now established. A few larger logs needed cutting, and there is substantial lopper work remaining; but the route is set. Starting from the NE Gate, left by the white survey stone, the route travels up into the more diverse young forest and heads south southeast to a point just west of the old barbed wire fence at the edge of the mowed hay field. Then the loop curves back west to join the main Escarpment Trail at the top of the hill just south of the largest walnut.

This should be a good loop with diversity. It will be fun to identify and number young trees as species examples along the route.

Friday Clearing Trail

I took saw to the NE Gate this Friday afternoon. Cool, clear, still, pleasant afternoon (58F). I cleared the ash snag log broken across southwest end of EW Fence Line trail and half a dozen other logs sinking lower and blocking the trail. I repainted the pink blazes on the SE trails down to the Service Rd. and back to Barney Jct.
At Fence Corner, I met Clay and Faith from Rybz's class out working on their project. Two deer down by the SW corner of the Woods. Wednesday the 2nd was a very windy day with gusts over 40 mph. I expected to see more debris.. but the strong winds were from the north and the Woods are sheltered by the escarpment. I saw a few small oak branches with green leaves torn from the big bur oak #100 (one of the two friends). Everything else that was down, seemed like old small branches that had died previously and only now were being knocked down. I should check the exposed upper Ravine Trail.
Lots of pretty, light butter-yellow ash leaves coming down now. The Woods' floor is alive with color and light. I had the tune "The Ash Grove" in my head. I stopped and listened to the still-green, full canopy of leaves on the grandfather cottonwood, rustling in the wind.
Pile of fresh dove? feathers on the ground beneath Buzzard Roost looked like a predator had caught a bird. Crossing over the Dune 50 feet south there was a single dove flying south with me and I wondered if this was the mate of the bird that had been killed and eaten. I wonder if Ligustrum privet will act like exotic gorse in NZ - as a nurse plant allowing other spp. (green ash etc..) to grow up under it; or if it will exclude others and take over area exclusively via competition for light water etc or allelopathy. Some water in the Western Wash but none flowing. The Elm Bridge area is dry. The red pit-fall dish by the base of the big pecan snag SW of Tall Stump had been dug up by animal and left. Curious who owns this? No sign or sound or track of dogs - good.