Turtle Spring, Sweet Woods

Good 4-5 inch spring rains on 19 March and the warmest month of March on record for Oklahoma are driving a burst of spring growth. Yesterday all over the Woods every tendril of Lonicera honeysuckle was reaching out with new quick growth. Box elder saplings expanded new green stems and bright green leaves. Along the open trails in the NE quarter, grasses, chickweed, bedstraw, henbit and other annuals were quickly closing over the bare trail.
Two nights ago, I mowed a meter wide swath around the NE Tree Loop to keep it clear for the Phenology class to use. I went the next morning to enjoy a slow solitary walk around the Loop to catch up on each tree and what it was doing. I gave each tree a health score 1 good-4 moribund and concluded four trees I had flagged were probably dead.
Several mulberry trees along the loop have suddenly flushed leaves and produced their distinctive flowers which will become the fruit. I did not know the species was on the Loop. Sapindus soapberry and a mystery Carya are flushing new fresh leaves this week. The oaks, post, blackjack, bur and shumard are all pushing out new soft leaves red and green, or green tinged with yellow. Celtis hackberry are just a little behind the oaks with small bright green leaves expanding. Elm and redbuds have had their leaves out for a fortnight. Eleagnus Russian olive shrubs are covered in soft yellow flowers making the air sweet and attracting all the pollinators. The Eleagnus by the NE Gate at dusk is covered up in noctuid moths and small insects. Walnut and pecan seem to be the hold out species with few or no leaves produced in the crowns.. a few leaves just barely starting now.

Arthropods are beginning their year too. After dusk when I finished mowing the Loop I found a small cloud of several hundred chironomid midges gathered in a 50 cm wide column over the tailgate of my car.. a swarm of males waiting for mates. I found the first mosquito of the year in the Woods the next morning. There will be many more with the wet spring and abundant pools of standing water. Ticks unfortunately are becoming a problem again too. They are not abundant yet; but soon will be.

Bird song in the Woods is almost continuous now during daylight hours. Nesting season is here. I watched male and female cardinals bathing in the shallow pools below the beaver dam with flapping wings and flying water.. some meters apart, but probably a pair. I was delighted to find a three toed box turtle out along the Loop trail just north of the biggest walnut. It has been a long time since there were many of them active in the Woods. A tough hot dry past year probably had many of them just shut down and waiting in their burrows.
A week ago I was clearing the drainage below the dam and came upon a medium sized young adult snapper turtle scrunging its way upstream. Its shell protruded above the 2-3 inch deep water and it was nosing along under the rotten woody debris looking for a meal. I imagine it had worked its way up the drainage from the river. I hope it stays in the Woods, as the other snappers I think may have died in the drought and heat last year.

Two days after the rain, the northern trails were all drying and in good shape but the southern quarter including the Main SW Trail is still flooded with ankle deep water two weeks later. A week ago, in the evening, I flushed a flock of 5 or 6 ducks out of the flooded SW Woods as I walked along the trail in my water boots. This ponding of water and growth of surface floating algal biomass is marvelous to see. The warm shallow water over the forest soil is full of ecology. Around the pools of drying shallow water along the Two Friends trail in the SW, scores of crane flies are gathered, probably laying eggs where there will be good rotting leaf litter in the weeks ahead. A large healthy slime mold has crawled up on to the cut big pecan tree that fell across the EW Fence Line Trail near the east end. It has produced its thin outer shell of lime and is turning into a spore mass. I collected some of the spidery bright golden threads of slime mold plasmodium from the base of a young dead elm by the water east of the hollow cottonwood.

I see white-tailed deer 3 out of 4 trips to the Woods now.. most often three deer, but sometimes a larger group of 8-10.. down by the beaver dam heading north or just east of the East Pond, or crossing the shallow water east of the Grandfather cottonwood.

Jackson has helped me identify, I believe correctly, the mystery Lonicera that has puzzled me in the Woods west of the Bur Oak Bridge for a few years now, Lonicera maackii, Amur honeysuckle, an invasive Asian species.

Vernal Equinox, Spring Green Up and Morels

At 5 PM I went to the Woods to see what yesterday's long heavy rainstorm had done. The Woods are transforming. The spring green that was earlier on the ground in the Lonicera honeysuckle and Stellaria bedstraw, is now suddenly spreading upward as Acer negundo box elder saplings 1 meter tall leaf out abundantly throughout the northwestern Woods understory.
The 4.1 inches of rain filled the West Pond up to 2.74 feet and floated the big northern log to lodge next to the water gauge post. The East Pond was filled to 3.2 feet.
East of the West Pond I startled a white-tail that ran ahead of me eastward on the path. Then at the East Pond I found Ana and Jelena excited with their success finding five fresh morels.
The Woods south by the Grandfather tree are flooded (no surprise) but water is draining through the dam at a good rate and the standing water may be gone in a day or two.
I was struck again with the question of what happens to all the soil fauna ants, millipedes, mites, isopods, microarthropods and other species living in the now submerged leaf litter. How many climbed trees to escape?
East of Tall Stump, the trail was drained with only isolated pools until near the Elm Bridge. The flow there was steady beneath the elm log. Southwest and southeast of the bridge I could see where water had moved in a broad sheet across the forest floor, sweeping away litter and leaving the bare soil.
East of the bridge, up on the escarpment, the Tree Loop was also transformed. There was a delightful combination of a solid carpet of fresh green bedstraw, chickweed, violets, henbit and other ephemerals.. paired with pink purple blooming redbuds in the sub canopy. Prettiest part of the Woods today. The past few days have pushed phenology along. The black hickory is opening large, prominent leaf buds and leafing out. Walnut leaf buds are opening. The bur oak has very small young leaves emerging. The mystery trees at the south end of the loop now look to be mulberry with very small new leaves and small green hanging flowers - that will become the deep purple or white fruit. Several of the younger 4-7 meter tall elms at the beginning of the trail, stressed or moribund from last summer, are now sprouting stem leaves, with no sign of life in the upper crown. The crane flies seem to have finished their earlier abundant hatch.. only a few here and there. A couple new beetles in the Lindgren trap. No turtles or other large life evident moving in the ponds. The new West Trail was under ankle deep water past 50 meters. The poison ivy has not yet begun to leaf out. It will be interesting to see how quickly this portion of the Woods west of the cattails drains.

More spring rain

Thank goodness, another 1.2 inches slow soaking Saturday night. The West Pond is up to 2.27 and the East Pond is at 3.1? but is missing top of depth gauge. Three deer just southwest of the second largest cottonwood.

More Trees Cool Mild Spring Morning

At the NE Gate to the Woods, the morning was cool and mild (50 F). The Woods had 0.32 inch rain 2 days past on Thursday. The wash was full to the Elm Bridge but not flowing. The East Pond was 2.64 and the West Pond was 2.08.. after days of abundant 20-30 mph drying wind.

I added a second old pear to the Tree Loop as # 95; added 6 (largish cottonwoods and willow) in the SE corner of the Woods (dozen more mapped in SE would be good). Measured and mapped 11 more ash and elm, W of the dam along the Main SW trail.

I saw one cottontail rabbit running north end of Tree Loop. Two yearling white-tailed deer were heading east by the dam. Did not see older doe. Flock of juncos was foraging along the east leg of the Tree Loop.. closest to the field. Pair of mallards hanging out in the East Pond were there today. Cries of red-shouldered hawk were loud along the Northern Loop. Many large Tipulid craneflies are flying and mating.. may be near peak emergence this 3-4 days. A half dozen were on my car parked by the Woods.

Many/ most of the elms have produced their samaras. Should be able to ID elm spp. now: samaras bare faced with a peripheral fringe of hairs, flowers clustered one per stem = U. americana ; samaras with hairs on face and flowers branching racemes = slippery U.rubra.
Most of the hawthorn in the Woods are blooming. The first green leaves are just starting to emerge on the box elder. First green leaves on tall cottonwoods just starting. Leaves are half flushed on the 3-4 pears. Redbud flower buds are swelling open and showing some pink. Eleagnus Russian olive and Ligustrum privet have many and most leaves out, respectively.

Oak at home has hanging catkins but oaks in the Woods have not broken their buds. Nothing from walnut, coffee tree, pecan, hickory, persimmon, hackberry, green ash. Along the border of the eastern field with the Woods Cardamine bittercress, Houstonia bluets (purple), Lamium amplexicaule and purpureum henbit, Stellaria chickweed were in bloom.

The Woods are still open and clear.. but will be transformed in this month ahead.

Update Tree Phenology

Phenology class in the Woods this afternoon. We saw elms in flower but also several hawthorns flowering and three pears with green leaves just erupting (two small pears were on the south side of the Pipeline Trail just 50-100 feet west of the Tree Loop.)

Signs of the Changing Season

Out this evening for a lovely twilight walk in through the NE Gate. The sky was calm and the air still held the springtime warmth of the day. I crossed over the Wash and paused at the eastern end of the northern ridge trail. I noticed the soft green verdure that has begun to grow in only the past two days, all across the base of the south facing ridge. The almost 80 F of the past three days has the low ground cover honeysuckle across the Woods beginning to open. The raised honeysuckle vines climbing up 2 and 3 feet above the ground have had green leaves out since late January. Standing by the East Pond and looking east, I see the green flush of the taller elms, the first of the trees to begin their season's growth. Although, looking up into the top branches of the Grandfather cottonwood I can see green buds swelling open there too.
With the forecast rain later this week and the warmth of the past 3-4 days, spring is about to let loose.
Ten days ago on Feb 26 Tim and I were measuring and mapping trees and saw (my first) returning turkey vulture of the year. [Thoughts of intensifying a small 100m x 100 m block in the tree loop with identification of every tree over 10 cm DBH.]

Yesterday I sat for a peaceful half hour after dark in the Woods, enjoying the bright gibbous moon and bright Venus and Mars.. and this morning discovered my first tick of the year.
This evening walking in the Woods I also felt the first brush of two bits of gossamer - the first strands of spider silk across a trail.
The Woods are on the cusp of another season of life.

Eventful days of spring

This past few days lots of activity in the Woods. In preparation for Geog/ Zoo 4970 Phenology class I numbered 94 trees on the Tree Tutorial loop from the NE Gate. There were 15 spp. plus a couple of invasive sub trees/ shrubs. Once leaves are out, I hope to add a few more .. maybe a Sapindus soapberry, maybe a green ash, maybe a surprise or two. Tim and I went out Sunday and measured and mapped another 25 trees
In the SW corner at the end of the day I placed four more 22 inch short steel posts: two along the 2 Friends Trail and two along the W. Dune Trail. need one or two more for the SW corner. I placed six more posts from the north end of the new West Trail to near its end. Total trail length about 340 m.

In the Western Wash there was a dead raccoon about 50 feet above the Elm Bridge.. the sort of place where a rabid raccoon might die?
Today, Tuesday Kirsten, Pradeep and I assembled with a dozen phenology students at the NE Gate. Rain or severe weather had been forecast but it was fine after light .08 inch morning rain. Students quickly selected 30 trees per group and gathered first phenological observations for upload to National Phenology Network online. I was happy with the way that the Tree Loop meshed with the exercise.
Today the first of March temperatures were predicted to break 80 F. I think we made it to 77 or so. We all returned to the Tree Loop and second phenological observations were recorded in addition to nine more larger trees for each group from the broader open floodplain Woods.
At the end of the day Pradeep, Kirsten, Ryan, Megan and I drove to a tall sycamore on the northwest fence line. Pradeep climbed well up into the crown and Ryan hauled up a time lapse camera and battery for Pradeep to secure. Good location... great work. Hope for good hourly images of spring coming to the Woods from March 1 onward. Walking there, Pradeep observed around ten deer in the NW Woods split between two different groups.