So Much Life

After three weeks away in Panama and North Carolina, I returned to the Woods to see what had happened. After a mild warm dry May, the Woods received a 1.3 inch rain Tuesday the 29th. I put on my water/ mud shoes and entered the Woods via the SW Gate at 9:45 AM. It was a cool 69F and overcast.. delightful. By the 150m post there were small pools of standing water. The first pools had several earthworms either drowned or swimming. I pulled out the largest and tossed to drier ground. The effect of this flooding run-off water on earthworm populations fascinates me. The unpredictability of the floods -they are not a regular part of the previous disturbance regime - likely means that populations of soil invertebrates such as worms are not well adapted and experience higher mortality from inundation. The worm species are largely introduced and themselves not part of the community that existed there 150-200 years prior.

At 200 m I came to an open sun gap where elm canopies were recently killed by Ophiostoma elm disease. There were a score of nymphalids there basking on the wet soil.. hackberry emperors, Polygonia question marks or commas,lycaenids, red admirals and others. I should have regular observations on the butterfly fauna in the Woods: species, timing, numbers host association etc. Many are associated with hackberry. I observed repeatedly today the lower branches of hackberry are defoliated.. and it begs the question how did this great population come to be.. a mass migration or a home grown population?

Tops of elms killed last summer are snapping in storm winds and coming down. The winds also brought down another small crop of bright green ash seeds. Now no sign of seedlings surviving from early summer massive ash seed production.

Great fungi all through the Woods with the rain, Auricularia ear fungus, Sarcoscypha coccinea scarlet elf cup, orange chantrelle-like, groups of Mycena-like small brown-tan agarics. Should start a dried collection from the Woods.

Lots of isopods everywhere.. some clustered on tops of broken stumps where they climbed to escape the floodwaters two nights previous.

Along Hackberry Alley two large active Carabids: bright green Calosoma scrutator the fiery searcher, and black Calosoma sayi???.. plus some mosquitoes there.

East pond down to 1.8 ft. Green horntail sphinx moth caterpillar was loaded with ~50 white parasitoid wasp eggs all over it.. and one large nymphal pentatomid with its beak extended, feeding on one of the parasitoid eggs or maybe feeding from the caterpillar. Watching from a 5-10 cm distance was a very small black (hyper?)parasitoid, size of a pteromalid(?).

Along the east grassy side of the tree loop I heard a sudden rustling and saw 20 feet away a pack of 4 young armadillos.. pink tails, pink brown noses, funny small elliptical rabbit ears up. They came nosing and foraging along the moist ground toward me. Three actually came to my feet and sniffed and explored my wet muddy shoes. Then one jumped and they all ran away - about 4-5 feet and started foraging again. How do these animals survive against larger predators?

By tree #85 on tree loop in a sunny grassy patch, there were hundreds of early instar hoppers feasting. Some of the trees I declared dead for having no leaves at end of April #22 pecan, #37 coffee tree.. now have stump sprouts or bunches of stem leaves from roots.. last gasp desperation crop ? or new life ? we'll see.

By Elm Bridge, water is flowing slowly. I found a group of 40-50 culicid larve.. and three large diving beetles.

At Barney's Jct. a large sharpshin (or Cooper's) flew east through the understory. Overhead a 100 feet west a red shouldered hawk was calling/ crying.

I should note the succession or phenology of weed species in the Woods.

West pond had a single night heron sitting on the depth post. I passed by and did not disturb. The trail southwest towards the Main SW trail was wet underfoot and grassy through the sedge. I am sure it was loaded with ticks. I removed > 50 later at home.

Tony and I returned Saturday to clear several larger blowdowns blocking the trail in 4-5 places and found a box turtle along the Tree Loop. No deer seen for the last 2-3 visits to the Woods.