Cicadas, Katydids and Mid Summer Return to the Woods

After a month away, I entered the SW Gate at 4:30 to find what might be new in the Woods. A hundred feet north of me a whitetailed deer (2-3 year old?) moved north and east deeper into the trees.

It was an odd day. The mid morning was a hot 90 F. By 4 PM it had fallen to 74 F.. only to rise again to 85 by 7:30. The Woods have seen 18 consecutive days over 90F and 33 consecutive days with less than a 0.1 inch of rain. The E Pond was dry except for a few liters of muddy water pooled around the post. (The W Pond was 0.3 feet in depth with a few hundred liters of water left). There were dry cracks fragmenting the soil along the Main SW trail (good refugia for moisture loving biota?) But the Woods were filled with rich humidity from the light 0.01 inch rain shower at lunch.

Polygonum Lady's thumb is growing in healthy thick swards along the SW trail. The green patches are two feet tall and tightly defined by abrupt borders with open ground, leaving me curious as to what so sharply limits their prolific growth.. light? - need to check the borders of the patches with a densitometer or light meter. Along the trail, persimmon saplings are noticeably the most persistent re-sprouters from previous clipping.

By the leaning Ash tree, the Woods were filled with the continuous trill of snowy tree crickets, punctuated with various bird calls. A few cicadas were singing "ziz ziz ziz owww". I found a couple of exuviae clinging to leaves of Virginia creeper growing upon the large old walnut along the fence line just east of the junction with the Ravine Trail. I wonder if walnut's penchant for poisoning the soil would affect or deter cicadas.

A mating pair of big asilid robber flies remained coupled and flew two or three times to escape me as I walked towards the W Pond. They seemed stuck together as though even voluntary emergency separation might take a few minutes.

Along the muddy SW side of the E Pond there are 4 or 5 crayfish 'castles' or mounds, holes ranging in diameter from 1.5 inch, big enough for a golf ball, to about .75 inch large enough for an average hot dog.. with walls of small rolled balls of mud/soil the size of moth balls. These have intrigued me since my youth 50 years ago.

http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/scientific-american/sup3/Habits-Of-Burrowing-Crayfishes-In-The-United-States.html

Along the trail just north of the second largest cottonwood a quick Scincella lateralis brown skink scurried away into the Symphoricarpos buckbrush. (There is a small patch of poison ivy there to watch and eliminate near a large ascending vine.)

There are not many spider webs in the Woods now.. I found two Micrathena webs across the trails. There were few mosquitoes.. only a couple near the pool at Island Crossing.

Standing at Island Crossing at 6:05 the cicadas were suddenly quite loud.. along with the katydids chorusing. It was as if they were competing. I wondered if having both species stridulating loudly in the same location makes it harder for mates to find each other.. do the species 'sing' louder or differently when they are present together? I have imagined that a sharp sound from me, for example breaking a stick, will sometimes cause cicadas to suddenly momentarily grow quieter. I should test this. There is a large emergence of cicadas in the NE Woods now.

At the base of the northern ridge, east end of the N Rim trail two young whitetail deer sprinted away.. one (spotted?) fawn and one yearling (?) heading opposite directions along the base of the ridge. I have not seen the older, more approachable doe and am wondering if she survived the last hunting season.

At Elm Bridge, abundant water was backed up to Bur Oak Bridge but not flowing. It would be interesting to mark some of the flotsam collected there and try to recover it later to measure its movement.
West of the bridge a brown rabbit hopped away south of the big cut pecan log.

Along the Tree Loop, formerly 'dead' trees continue to live with thriving small clusters of leaves. The walnut #171 has a dead crown but two or more bunches of stem sprouts with abundant leaves. I wonder if it will survive. I wonder if the leaves have a different stressed chemistry.. more or less well defended against herbivores. The #22 pecan is similar: dead crown with about a bushel of green healthy looking leaves from 1-2 m high stem sprouts.

Leaving the Woods at 7:30 via the W Dune trail I cut away the too abundant Cnidosculus nettle. It keeps coming back to compete with the Opuntia prickly pear.

No turtles anywhere except two old box turtle shells in the mud around the E Pond.

Out at the SW gate some Japanese honeysuckle was still blooming along the fence with abundant trumpet vine flowers.

At home I pick off 28 ticks. About two thirds are the medium small, but easily seen instars and one third the very tiny ticks.