Setting Trail Posts and Observing the Woods

Last two or three days I have labelled 85 of the posts I've placed at 50 m intervals along the twenty plus trails in the Woods.. a little over 2.5 miles. Each trail has a two letter abbreviation/ symbol NE, SW, NW, SE, SB, SC etc and the posts placed along the trails go from NE 0, NE 1, NE 2 etc to the end of the trail. Now it will be possible to be specific about where a particular, snail, mushroom, bird, turtle, fern etc.. is observed. I have about 15 more posts to label along some of the shorter trails. Each post has GPS coordinates shown to get an absolute sense of where it is placed. This should facilitate mapping and ultimately, the meter by meter field guide to the Woods I want to create.

This afternoon I found a small snapping turtle (size of my shoe) moving slowly down the Wash. Only one deer seen in the Woods this past week. Maybe they are better able to hide in the summer vegetation.. or maybe they have other places to feed and grow before hunting season. With the good rain recently, the mosquito population has exploded. The low ankle-high vegetation has clouds of them west of the West Pond. The ticks have also exploded. Each day I go the Woods I return with 15-25 ticks on me.. and I find more in the middle of the night that I've missed.

With the chainsaw, I removed the big pecan branch/ trunk, down by the large pecan across the NW entrance trail. Both ponds continue to be quiet. I have not seen any turtles there this summer. By the NE entrance numerous young small mud colored frogs are hopping away into the Woods.

The fungi in the Woods continue to be tremendous.. maybe the best diversity and abundance I've seen there. Spiders for some reason have been suppressed, or at least the number of webs I encounter across the trail has remained low. Some of the pretty yellow asters are blooming now. The trumpet vines along the western fence line are in full bloom. It is peak summer and the Woods are never more alive than now. The soil is damp from gentle rains and it is warm.

In the southeast corner and along the southern border the giant ragweed is growing rank, now 3-5 feet high.

After last summer's brutal heat and drought, surviving trees are having a great growing season this year.
Where trees have died, there are conspicuous light gaps in the forest shade where scores of butterflies.. hackberry emperors and others gather and bask on tree trunks. I wonder if the hackberry emperors have done so well this year because their host trees' foliage was stressed from last year and lacking chemical protection.