Tornadic Spring and New Life in the Woods

April 13 Norman had a tornado tear across town at 4 PM. It brought 0.3 inch rain to my backyard. Last night there was an additional 0.55 inch rain. Mesonet says total 0.99 inch rain in the past three days. I went to the NW entrance 10:45 to see if the last week of strong winds had brought down any trees in the Woods.
The entry is sweet with odor of invasives, multiflora rose, now in full bloom, and Japanese honeysuckle, just starting.
The W. Pond had 2.52 ft of depth and the E. Pond was at 3.3 ft. No turtles visible in either.
Pair of Canada geese continue nesting WSW of W. Pond. First saw them there April 7 with Paul and Claire. At the north end of the W Pond from the galled trunk of the mulberry, a graveled path or one with stepping stones would be good, 15-20 feet to edge of sedge border of pond. White daisies in bloom there along the main trail.
Barred owl was calling at noon along the Main SW trail. There was a strange bright small heron (yellow-crowned night heron maybe) wading slowly along the WNW side of the flooded Ragweed Delta. The bird was gray with yellow cheek stripe and same color head stripe with longer crest feathers extending from the topknot backward. The legs were red (problem), beak black, with a black hood extending down along the back of the neck.
I walked from the E Pond along the Northern Loop to Island Crossing.. water flowing well there.. skipped across.. up to the Tree Loop. It looks like #24 and #37 hawthorn & coffee tree sapling, respectively, are definitely dead. # 22 cored pecan is prob dead #85, biggest walnut on Tree Loop is alive to the south but the north and central crown are looking moribund. Big walnut #171 just off Tree Loop looks almost entirely dead. Just two small clusters of stem leaves along the lower trunk. Interesting to see if there is any chance of recovery.
At Elm Bridge, cut or find a second log, same size as bridge log or slightly smaller diameter and fix it (lash) to small elms on either side of the Wash as a handrail.
Down Southeast Trail, 1st boxelder down across trail, there was a box turtle.. and on the upper dead trunk a good full growth of Auricularia fungi. At second down boxelder there was an old bleached box turtle shell.
The tipulid crane fly numbers seem to have finally dropped way off and surprisingly no mosquitoes .. except maybe along the West Trail as I was leaving. Cold front arrived last night with rain may have slowed them down. Trail needs new pink and blue paint.
At the Beaver Dam, water was flowing well out from the Woods.
Below the Beaver Dam I encountered a doe and two newish fawns.. perhaps the same I had seen a week ago, same location.
West of the Grandfather tree an old dead persimmon or hackberry(?) covered with Schizophyllum commune, split gill fungus, stood out white in the shaded understory along the water of the Main SW trail.
Over at Dragonfly Corner there was another larger doe and two older yearlings (two year olds?) I think this is the trio I most often see. They did not seem alarmed. The young showed their white tails..but then did not run. I waved at them showing my white hands and stood and watched while they stood and watched me. Two or three single bits of cotton with seed of cottonwood(?) landed on me.. early for this.
In the ankle deep water 120 m NE of the SW Gate there was something swimming ahead of me like a small fish or young snake. I did not see it, only a couple swirls of water ahead of me as I waded along. SW Trail had no water from SW Gate to ~85 m at largest green ash #46 at W Trail jct. The damp trail is covered with small green rounded cotyledons of ?? just starting.
Another (small, young) box turtle on the W. trail just south of 100 m post was burrowing along leaving the flattened cleared curling paths through the soft wet mud and leaves that had puzzled me previously.