After a recent record 70 consecutive days without > 0.1 inch precip, the rains returned Thursday Aug 16 with a good 0.48 inch freshet (my backyard) or 0.26 (Norman Mesonet). I went walking with Lara on the 17th at 8 AM from the NW Ponds entrance. Spotted two whitetailed deer. The Western Wash was filled with water to 18 inch depth at the post above the Elm Bridge. The ponds were both empty but life was returning.
We walked 70% of the Woods' trails. We met Cassie downloading data from Heather M.'s trees and talked about bark characters distinguishing American elm (brown and gold or cream sandwich alternation of color in cross section) from slippery elm (just brown or red brown).
I returned with a saw and cut away 2-3 largish fallen trees blocking the Northern Loop trail and the SE and SCentral trails. 'World class' chiggers afterwards >100 bites.
The large yellow acridid Melanoplus differentialis grasshoppers on the south boundary road in the 2-3 m tall ragweed were abundant.
More rain 1.50 inches (my backyard) 1.14 (Mesonet) Friday 18 August pushed the depth in the Western Wash to 34 inches, just below the bottom of the Elm Bridge log. Soil 2-3 inches down was still dry, almost powdery. It had become hydrophobic through long baking.
Today Saturday the 25th I walked in the SW Gate along the South Boundary Trail and up to and along the West trail. Need to bring in stepping stones for section that will be wet.. and blue blaze trail trees on the West Trail.
Also walked in the NE entrance down to Elm Bridge and out to Fence Corner. The Western Wash was empty.. lots of deer tracks deep in the soft bottom. Along the EW Trail just west of the fallen pecan log there was a three toed box turtle. I clipped branches along the way.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
At the end of things
Interesting time in the Woods right now. We are near the end of things. Change, a transition is coming. Sixty six days without rain.. Norman has the longest driest stretch of any of the 110 Mesonet stations in the 77 OK counties. Russell and I went to the Woods via the NE gate this afternoon at 6 to lash a length of elm across the Elm Bridge as a hand rail. Along the entry trail, the green Elephantopus elephantsfoot and Symphoricarpos coralberry were wilted. The Chasmanthium fish-on-a-line grass and others are dry cured bleached by the sun. Two white-tailed deer were there along the tree trail. They ran off to the NE. Everything else is waiting. Snails, pill bugs, fungi, millipedes, ants, beetles. Life has stopped growing or moving and now is waiting, enduring, waiting for rains of autumn and the end of the season of drought and heat. The great heat and drought of summer have been too much for some. Stressed by last summer, they have died this summer.
My guess is we will have significant rains in the next 1-2 weeks. Day lengths will begin to shorten noticeably now two months past the solstice. Days with temperature over 110F will end. We will not see many more days over 100F this year. I nailed a 6 foot metal ruler as a water depth guage to the 4x4 post I had placed earlier in the deepest portion of the Wash above the Elm Bridge (now dry). The Woods are ready for the rain to come again.
My guess is we will have significant rains in the next 1-2 weeks. Day lengths will begin to shorten noticeably now two months past the solstice. Days with temperature over 110F will end. We will not see many more days over 100F this year. I nailed a 6 foot metal ruler as a water depth guage to the 4x4 post I had placed earlier in the deepest portion of the Wash above the Elm Bridge (now dry). The Woods are ready for the rain to come again.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Very Hot Days and Shelter in the Woods
Last several days Norman high temperatures have been breaking 110F or 43C.. OKC hit all time high of 113F. We've been above 100F every day since July 18 with no rain in 60 days. Wildfires scattered about state including east Norman. This Sunday morning it is cooler (80F at 8 AM) and I went to the NE Gate to see how the Woods were doing.
The west side trail of the Tree Loop smelled a bit like early fall leaves.. the rich tannin smell from some of the early leaf drop. It also smelled like mammals. I think the whitetailed deer were there minutes before my arrival.
On the tree loop there have been some more tree deaths: small American elm (#5) at the gate is dead. A young pecan at its base will take its place. Middle aged pecans are generally not doing well. Many had dead crowns from summer 2011 but had sprouted lateral buds along the trunk and produced adventitious leaves. Some of these higher sprouts are wilting, dying, graying up.. other lower stem leaves are still healthy and green. The Texas hickories Carya texana near the gate are doing noticeably well. The big walnut #171 at top of Pipeline Trail.. nearly dead last year and this spring.. has good survival of its stem leaves.
Around the loop Mora mulberry leaves were beginning to turn golden for an early fall. With a soft breeze, small skiffs of leaves were falling in the woods. Ampelopsis grape vines were shedding some leaves, mulberry, some elm and hackberry.. early leaf drop only. The drought and heat was enough so that leaves of invasive Ligustrum privet, Eleagnus Russian olive and Lonicera Amur honeysuckle were all wilted. #90 Cercis redbud is dead.
Down by the Elm Bridge, the deeper Woods with taller older trees, closer to their water table - there was a sweet subtle fragrance. I did not see what was blooming. The Woods there with its greater mass and development, provided some shelter and a partial buffer against the extremes of heat and drought. Tibicen Dog day Cicadas were droning loudly by NS Fence corner. On the NS trail a talisman, a single black and white Plectrodera elytra. I found a hawk feather, a crow feather and down by the beaver dam several vulture feathers..but the vultures had moved from their customary roost, to perch on the power poles beyond the new compost facility.
Along the Main SW trail the large discrete patches of Polygonum surround dying or dead trees (mostly elms) where there is new light through the canopy.
In the SW Corner the Agelenid funnel web weaving spiders have returned in abundance. Interesting that they should be there and not as abundant elsewhere in the Woods. The life here feels like it can tap deeper sources of moisture.. either from deeper roots.. more recently, fully flooded ground (months ago) or new conk fungi growing with moisture still held in large decaying host logs.
Two white tailed deer.. one west of beaver dam and one NW of the East Pond.. looked kind of scruffy. I am sure the heat is difficult for them.
At Island Crossing one small young Scincella lateralis skink writhed and skooted across the soil to shelter. One Cornus dogwood dying on the way back.
The life in the Woods is still in better shape than unprotected trees, plants and animals living out in the open. No ticks detected so far; but about 30 chigger bites.
The west side trail of the Tree Loop smelled a bit like early fall leaves.. the rich tannin smell from some of the early leaf drop. It also smelled like mammals. I think the whitetailed deer were there minutes before my arrival.
On the tree loop there have been some more tree deaths: small American elm (#5) at the gate is dead. A young pecan at its base will take its place. Middle aged pecans are generally not doing well. Many had dead crowns from summer 2011 but had sprouted lateral buds along the trunk and produced adventitious leaves. Some of these higher sprouts are wilting, dying, graying up.. other lower stem leaves are still healthy and green. The Texas hickories Carya texana near the gate are doing noticeably well. The big walnut #171 at top of Pipeline Trail.. nearly dead last year and this spring.. has good survival of its stem leaves.
Around the loop Mora mulberry leaves were beginning to turn golden for an early fall. With a soft breeze, small skiffs of leaves were falling in the woods. Ampelopsis grape vines were shedding some leaves, mulberry, some elm and hackberry.. early leaf drop only. The drought and heat was enough so that leaves of invasive Ligustrum privet, Eleagnus Russian olive and Lonicera Amur honeysuckle were all wilted. #90 Cercis redbud is dead.
Down by the Elm Bridge, the deeper Woods with taller older trees, closer to their water table - there was a sweet subtle fragrance. I did not see what was blooming. The Woods there with its greater mass and development, provided some shelter and a partial buffer against the extremes of heat and drought. Tibicen Dog day Cicadas were droning loudly by NS Fence corner. On the NS trail a talisman, a single black and white Plectrodera elytra. I found a hawk feather, a crow feather and down by the beaver dam several vulture feathers..but the vultures had moved from their customary roost, to perch on the power poles beyond the new compost facility.
Along the Main SW trail the large discrete patches of Polygonum surround dying or dead trees (mostly elms) where there is new light through the canopy.
In the SW Corner the Agelenid funnel web weaving spiders have returned in abundance. Interesting that they should be there and not as abundant elsewhere in the Woods. The life here feels like it can tap deeper sources of moisture.. either from deeper roots.. more recently, fully flooded ground (months ago) or new conk fungi growing with moisture still held in large decaying host logs.
Two white tailed deer.. one west of beaver dam and one NW of the East Pond.. looked kind of scruffy. I am sure the heat is difficult for them.
At Island Crossing one small young Scincella lateralis skink writhed and skooted across the soil to shelter. One Cornus dogwood dying on the way back.
The life in the Woods is still in better shape than unprotected trees, plants and animals living out in the open. No ticks detected so far; but about 30 chigger bites.
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