Dogs again

5 pm walking in the snow along the SW trail a German shepherd sized dog came trotting across the trail from the south heading into the Woods.. female, black back, white chest. I ran at her. She turned, barked and a German shepherd with her ran back from the Woods. No collars on either. They had been running rabbits, and small game. I followed both by their tracks in the snow. They left the Woods via a gap in the fence just east of the trash station, then trotted east across the lawn to the dense willows and brush in the ditch extending south along the side of the waste treatment plant. Good cover and route south towards woods to the south. Not easy to follow.  I rang and left message with Animal Control .. but they have done nothing with previous reports of dogs in the Woods.. not an effective agency.

Startling Death

Making my way south across the West Dune trail I was startled to come upon a white-tailed yearling, newly dead, lying along the trail. Some light snow had drifted upon the muzzle, upper legs and parts of the back. Its black eyes were open. The right flank had a 5 inch diameter circular patch of skin exposed - no protecting hair; but the skin was not broken. Night & early morning Dec 26 the temperature fell to 13 F.. a young animal, perhaps not in good enough condition to survive the cold night. It did not seem malnourished. It is still early winter.

A quarter hour earlier I was startled by the near barking of a dog in the Woods. I saw a German shepherd mix dog (no collar) and ran after it shouting. It ran to just southeast of the Grandfather cottonwood then ducked away on a low game trail under briars southward where I could not follow.

The snow began Christmas morning before dawn.. freezing rain at first at 3 am, changing to snow by mid morning..  2-3 inches.

I came out today, the 27th to see what I would find in the Woods. I began at the NW entrance at 4:15.
Snow is like the dust detectives use to find fingerprints. It produces a visual record of all the use of every trail. Inhabited burrows of small animals, mice, cotton rats, squirrels and rabbits are revealed. Tracks of raccoon and skunk and opossum and/ or armadillo were common along the northwest trails. East of the NW pond, the tracks of dogs were common and dominant using the trails. Must have been a pack of them.

I trekked along most of the trails of the Woods. Some sections were heavily trafficked and others were untouched. It would be interesting to sample the Woods at 15 or 25 m intervals with a camera, including the marked posts for reference locations, to record sections that were heavily used. The West Dune trail seemed like the heaviest use. Most wildlife crossing the dense thicket of greenbriar used the narrow cleared path there.

Returning to the NW via the West Trail I was startled again to flush a barred owl from its perch above the trail just south of the junction of Andrea Drive with Chautauqua. The Woods are still wild.

Dry and Full of Light

The Woods today are light and clear. All deciduous leaves are down, leaving Ligustrum privet, and Euonymus evergreens more noticeable. I walked in via the North Gate with no mission in mind other than to observe and enjoy. Cold, high 30's at first; but then rapidly warmed to low 50's. The Vespula wasps were out foraging from their ground nest. I saw a couple green bottle calliphorid flies and a pentatomid bug out wandering around. A cluster of a dozen small flies.. chironomids? were flying low over the SW corner of the West Pond. I've seen this before weeks or months ago.. small flying insects- like chironomids - flying over the same 3-4 square meter area. One or two deer I spotted 3 times in different parts of the Woods.. a rabbit dashing, a few squirrels, someone had plucked and eaten a robin or two near the east end of the East West Trail.. left two piles of feathers by the big pecan snag. I saw the big pileated woodpecker fly from the pecans at the base of the Ravine Trail near the East Pond. The southeast corner had leaves of violets. They looked dry and stressed.

Blustery Chill

Strong 20-40 mph winds all night last night and 30-40 degree F drop in temp. I went to the Woods early at 7:30 and walked many of the Trails (SW - NE and return) to see what had changed. A few trees down.. broken out tops from trees dead this summer. I was able to drag and clear each from the trail. Couple of deer south of the East Pond and three dozen robins at the East Pond having a drink. The water in the Wash above the Elm Bridge has dried to the bottom of the post.. one small pool a few gallons 25 feet north..

Immortal Vespula?

Dec 10, 11, 12 overnight lows were 19, 18 and 21 F. Today a week later at 5 PM as the sun was disappearing I counted 11 yellowjackets flying into their ground nest in 60 seconds. Amazing. They should have all been dead a month ago. There should not be insects out for these wasps to feed upon.. maybe they are going to get water? I entered via the new North Gate - lots of poison ivy sprouts there to keep trimmed down. I yellow-flagged a trail from SW Trail post #5 northeast to the Big Trees by the East Pond, a route through dense young green ash and patches of willow.  Just one deer spotted but robins (by the score) and starlings were gathered in the Woods in raucous crowds. They suddenly fell quiet around 4:45. Claire appeared hiking out with her traps.

Evening's Infinite Form

Out in the Woods today mid afternoon I made a new entrance trail to the North Central Woods. It probably won't be used much by folks other than me.. but it will be useful to access the eastern North Rim area and a view over the Woods in winter. I returned to the Woods at 5:15 and wandered in the SW gate with the sun setting. In winter the din of the traffic carries through the leafless trees and seems to fill the perimeter Woods .. too much. I retreated up the SW trail into the dense green ash and the lost elm.. nearer to the heart of the Woods.. quieter there.

With the light growing dim I looked up at the twilight sky and was struck by the silhouetted form of the trees around. Bent and curving elm with tangled masses of vines towards its crown, stout vertical hackberry and green ash. Each direction I looked against the sky there was a new picture puzzle mosaic of black silhouetted forms against the silver white twilight. You can see trees so much better at twilight.
In Oliver's Woods, mere 70 acres there is an infinity of form of tree canopy architecture.. all shaped by an unknown combination of genetic fixed characteristics - a species intrinsic form; and experiences of the tree as it grows.. competition for light, damage from ice, reaching for open space.. each species in its own different way. Marvelous to see and contemplate.

Leaving the Woods at 6 there was only the bright rim of sunset color in the west. The larger bur oak and other trees were darker, sharper, clearer - black against the last light in the sunset. I am sure if  I saw this view of the Woods more often I would see and discover more. I would know the Woods in a way that few do now.

Light Rain and Lots of Robins

It has been a dry dry fall, but Friday night the 14th (OU Graduation) we had a little rain (0.16 inches). That shower was enough to freshen the Woods. The soil there had become very dry.  I checked the NW pond and it continues to 'fill' from the water table, now 50% of regular full surface is submerged.. to a depth of about 0.3 feet. The East pond has several gallons of water gathered around the post but not up to the zero point yet. The Wash is ponded up above the Elm Bridge to 16 inches depth. Lots of flotsam and jetsam the usual styrofoam cups etc.  Soft mud along the wash is filled with tracks of deer and other animals.

I carried another 13 heavy stones to the Woods.. now up to 80 .. need another 70 approx. to provide a path when the floods submerge the West Trail 150 m between posts WT#2 and WT#5.

Saturday the 15th, robins were flocking up around the ponds and through the Woods. I took the swing blade to clear some of the overgrowth along the Ravine Trail. Largish snag fall the 14th with accompanying tangle of briars, vines etc. blocking trail will need saw to clear. More to do there on the east end but good progress. Just a little trail side clearing in winter will probably help keep trails from becoming overgrown with honeysuckle and coralberry in summer.. and it is a lot easier in the winter.

I've decided to bypass/ eliminate the short steep downslope dip on the Ravine Trail and bust through a short level distance across the top to connect east to west. It is pretty dense with vegetation and blow down. I've also decided to give a go to creating the path to the north central fence line from the western portion of the N Rim trail. I will start resetting my beetle traps along the north fence line and that will be a good entry to the Woods.

Today I was thinking about the Woods as a canary in the coal mine peri-urban natural forest. By watching Oliver's Woods closely and being familiar with it, we can see changes and detect invasions as they occur. The tiger salamander populations that were once abundant there are now missing..  either the result of roads closing off the migratory paths out of the Woods, or change in habitat from more open grazed pasture to dense green ash growth. The understory in the Woods in places is now dominated by Lonicera honeysuckle with substantial stands of Ligustrum privet and increasing multiflora rose. Eleagnus Russian olive is more scarce. The new invader amur honeysuckle, Lonicera mackii I think I will start to eliminate this spring when it shows up in flower.. probably forty or so of these in the Woods now.. and perhaps the greatest threat to the Woods' current open understory.

Suddenly Winter and Persimmons

After remarking how winter was so warm - one week ago 3 Dec. high was nearly 80 and low was 67F; suddenly one week later, the temperature has taken a nose dive.. down to 19 last night... same tonight.. daytime highs in the low 30's. I went to the Woods SW entrance at 4:00 to see how they were weathering the sharp change.

About 30 m. in from the gate the trail passes through a group of seven or eight tall persimmons - each with their distinctive gray black pebbly bark. I noticed an orange mushy persimmon on the ground and looking up I saw there were still dozens left on the tree.. so I shook and swayed the tree until a couple more persimmons plummeted to earth. I picked them up and had a bite of each. No bitterness left, just mushy, sweet bland fruit pudding and big brown seeds.. a good dispersal package.

While I stood there two deer trotted off in separate directions. Birds were quiet.. not much stirring. It was cold. I walked on and looped through the Woods enjoying going off trail from the Big Trees back to the West Trail. That area is so thick with fallen green ash stems. I wonder what it will look like a few years from now.. if the majority of down stems will have decomposed. Now with all the leaves down is the best time to find new things.. The thick covering of new fallen leaves there are still crunchy dry.

Returning along the West Trail I counted the stepping stones: 40 in the northern pile, 7 and 8 along the trail south of the sedges, 13 by the old wooden post close to the fence.. 68 total. I could use another 30 along the southern portion before the rains come.

Fire and Fog

Thursday 5 December at 2 pm there was a great billowing cloud of black smoke rising from the SE corner of Oliver's Woods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGkzp-0zlgA
Work at the Treatment Plant ignited a fire in some big plastic filters. A fierce brief fire with toxic black smoke consumed a small corner of three hackberry trees, an elm, redbud and head high old ragweed and sunflowers. The heat was great enough to ignite the upper branches of two old bur oak snags a hundred feet away. Everything was quickly extinguished when the Fire Department arrived. Another interesting disturbance to contemplate.. interesting to watch recovery with spring rains. What will be the first green on the hillside where heat was so great?

Last few days have been foggy or low overcast all day with temps in the mid forties day and night. Remarkably the Vespula ground wasp nest is still active. At 10 am this morning there was a regular stream of foragers landing and entering.. appeared undiminished from warmer days two weeks past.

Walking the southern and eastern Woods this morning I saw no deer, only a handful of squirrels. There has been considerable foraging going on along the white trail. The Woods are quite dry but also shut down for winter (all the leaves been down for a few weeks now).

Butterflies and Veg Plots in December

Saturday was warm 77 F. I brought a dozen more heavy stones for the West Trail, although with the continuing drought, the Woods, trails, sedges and cattails are all dry. There is some water in the NW pond. It continues to slowly increase, with no new rain. It must be water table flow from our one late September good rain. It is only a few inches in depth but a libellulid dragonfly was ovipositing there at noon.
I re-discovered E.L. Rice's 1966 one-acre plot just east of the West Trail. Eight or nine of his thin rebar posts marking the lines and corners are still there, 46 years later. With measuring tapes I flagged the boundary line of the old plot and reset the missing NE corner. Unpublished 1966 student term papers with analyses of the plot describe a very different forest filled with thousands of small green ash trees after the removal of Fred Oliver's livestock five years previously in 1961. Now the stand has sections of dense green ash trees 20 feet high each a little thicker than my wrist. Many of these trees (30-40%?)  are dead and can be easily pushed over. The swollen aerenchyma and adventitious roots above the soil are evidence of the ankle-deep, weeks-long flooding that drowned their roots. Other sections of the old plot are open, a few large 30-60 cm diameter, mature canopy trees, and almost no other trees.
I spent two hours of the afternoon with Callie and Daniel walking the trails and talking about projects. On the SW Trail we were approached by two white-tailed deer, a youngish doe and her younger yearling. They came on surprisingly close to us before before turning and running tangentially away. Seconds later we saw why - a pack of three dogs chasing them from the east. I took off running at the dogs, yelling and they ran away.. but deeper into the Woods. Not good. Up on the Tree Loop we had earlier encountered a large robust burrow recently dug out that had me wondering if a coyote had dug a den. Now I am sure it was the dogs digging up the home burrow of gophers or some other family group of ground dwellers. I'll have to see if I can get the dogs out of the Woods.
The warmth of the day had butterflies out flying, a red admiral, a checkered white Pontia and other brush-footed butterflies; a honey bee, a Polistes wasp and miscellaneous other insects. Odd to think that all this insect diversity is out there sleeping in diapause in the Woods, ready to be awakened on a warm day in winter; then go back to sleep through months of cold, before the spring.