Cold Wind, Clear Light

One o'clock Friday I went to the NW Trail entrance to see what the winds of the past two days had done to the Woods. The daytime highs had abruptly dropped from low 80's F to high 40's with a stout N wind accompanying the change. The West Pond and East Pond remain dry, although there are pools of water in the wash with the post there in 1 inch of water. More leaves have shaken loose. Large green & yellow heart shaped catalpa leaves are down, along with some of the smaller golden cottonwood leaves. Most of the cottonwood leaves are still up.. as are the leaves of most other species.. a bit remarkable for late October.. with the wind. Maybe the tough summer has trees holding their leaves longer. The hot mid October days have not provided the weather needed to form abscission layers.
I wondered if the predictable sequence of different species dropping their leaves.. if that sequence repeated annually with enough regularity that fungi and litter micro-arthropods would have an established succession, tracking the different species of leaves being added to their available resources.
At Jct of EW Trail and S end of Creek Trail there are two of our largest soapberry trees (marked with blue tape now). Sitting at the S end of the SE Trail, I wondered how many different galleries of wood borers I could find in the Woods. The young leaves of violets are up in the southeast quarter, and Stellaria chickweed, Glechoma Gill over the ground and a mix of other herbaceous species.. a pretty good coverage of green succulent leaves there for foraging snails, rabbits, and other herbivores.
The crossing by the old rusted tank held the tracks of raccoon and deer. Marvelous two hours in the Woods. I should come back on Saturday. I walked 2 miles or more.. most of the trails; cleared the small branches that had fallen and refreshed blue blazes, where that was needed. The Ravine Trail needs a bit more clearing but all the others are in pretty good shape.