Nother Turtle Marvelous Morning

Up early this April morning and decided to go see the Woods first thing. The SW Gate entrance is suddenly overgrown with bursting spring growth, honeysuckle, clematis and dewy grasses. Inside the gate, the trail NE was dry or drying to the first 50 m mark and there it continued to be sodden. I took the fork to the new West Trail but did not go far, as it ran through shallow pools in wet forest too. Bright white new polypores have emerged from some of the decaying oak(?) snags there.. but no Auricularia jelly fungi.

The entire area of the Woods was 'hopping' with crane flies. Lilting and bouncing in short sorties. I wonder what they are up to? Attracting mates? They often don't go any distance but seem to continually 'bounce' in jittery flight and then sit or cling to some perch for a few seconds before beginning to bounce again. Two weeks ago I guessed I was seeing the peak of crane fly emergence and activity - wrong. They continue to be superabundant all over the wet Woods.. a great source of food for nesting birds.

I reentered the Woods via the NE Gate and slowly walked the Tree Loop, savoring each turn in the trail and each sight. I encountered (the same?) box turtle as yesterday as it was ascending the gully trail descending to the Wash. I saw three pairs of squirrels in different parts of the Woods, all playing 'tag' chasing each other rapidly skittering up and down the trunks of trees. More squirrels than I've ever seen there in one visit.. maybe some courtship activity? A flock of robins were hanging out along the east shore of the East Pond. The Woods are at or near their finest. Everything is moving or growing.. every animal is out eating or being eaten.. plants are growing faster than they will at any other time of the year. Life is in high gear. Temp today due to break 93 F and the soil is still moist or wet.

The red buds are now dropping the last 40 % of their flowers. Life is raining down from the sky. All along SW Trail pools west of the dam the water surface is covered with catkins and samaras (shed from elms) and other small seeds or vegetative bits. The coffee trees Gymnocladus are flushing their new double pinnate leaves. Along the wash, the Amur Honeysuckle L. maackii is now at its most visible with 2-3 m tall crowns of bright white flowers. There are more than I previously thought.. maybe 30-40 plants.. and up on the N Rim trail there is a new honeysuckle I am not sure I've seen in the Woods previously, one beautiful burst of red flowers of coral honeysuckle L. sempervirens, 2-3 m up at the edge of the escarpment, just west of the big rotten log across the trail. The poison ivy 75 feet east of the NE Gate along the fence has leaves mostly fully expanded and bright green.

I started listing the trees and shrubs I've seen in the Woods this past month and came up with 29-30:

1. Acer negundo Box Elder
2. Carya illinoensis Pecan
3. Carya texana Black Hickory
4. Catalpa speciosa Catalpa
5. Celtis Hackberry
6. Crataegus viridis Hawthorn
7. Diospyros virginiana Persimmon
8. Fraxinus pennsylvanica Green Ash
9. Gymnocladus dioica Kentucky Coffeetree
10. Juglans nigra Black walnut
11. Juniperus Eastern Redcedar
12. Morus rubra Mulberry
13. Platanus Sycamore
14. Populus deltoides Cottonwood
15. Pyrus Pear
16. Quercus macrocarpa Bur Oak
17. Quercus marilandica Blackjack Oak
18. Quercus shumardii Shumard Oak
19. Quercus stellata Post Oak
20. Salix nigra Black Willow
21. Sapindus Soapberry
22. Sideroxylon (Bumelia) lanuginosa Chittamwood
23. Ulmus americana American Elm
24. Ulmus rubra Slippery Elm

shrubs
25. Cornus drummondii Roughleaf Dogwood
26. Eleagnus Russian Olive
27. Ligustrum Privet
28. Lonicera maackii Amur Honeysuckle
29. Lonicera fragrantissima Winter Honeysuckle
30. Viburnum

.. and some other unidentified willow(?) with small round leaves; and a mystery hickory.