Clearing Trails

Couple of full days of hard work clearing trails of trees downed in the ice storm. Beautiful days, high today was 60F. (Hi tomorrow 31F and low 14F).  There were several large impassable wind/ice falls of trees across trails. The last one today I found was by the old tornado tree by the NW12 post. A massive boxelder trunk had snapped and fallen on a more massive ~ 90 cm DBH decaying pecan snag. Combined the debris was too much to clear. I re-routed the trail north and moved the NW12 post fifteen feet north.
Other large wind/ice falls on the Two Pecan trail, the Barney Jct cutoff (Barney is missing), the NW Ponds trail at the East Pond, the E-W trail at the vines west of the Elm Bridge and a few others on the south end of the Tree Loop. I still need to check the northern rim trails.
At 5:20 walking southwest from the center of the Woods, making my way out, the setting sun through the forest was a pulsing brilliant beacon of molten gold.
I saw three deer heading east along the South Boundary Trail at sunset. Earlier this morning I saw four of the puppies at the center south entrance where someone has spread a bale of hay. Unfortunately I also saw a new adult dog, a yellow golden long-haired (?) retriever-sized dog moving west from the Beaver dam.
There was still a complete covering of ice in shaded portions of the Wash. At the Elm Bridge where there was no ice, there were a half dozen delicate aquatic flies busy skimming and circling above the water .. size of chironomids but not sure what they were.
The biggest cottonwood (one of two camera trees) had lost a massive canopy branch from the south side.

Aftermath of the Ice

Transient warming in the Woods today, yesterday, tomorrow after the destructive ice storm and 3-4 cold days last week. All of the ice was gone today except in shaded nooks, so I took my saw at 9:30 and went to see what needed to be done.
 I walked the Tree Loop from the NE Gate, clearing small obstructions and some broken branches but nothing significant until I reached the southern end of the Loop.  A good-sized middle age sugarberry there had a large limb broken down on several other trees and the trail was impassable. Sugarberries in Olivers Woods have had the most breakage in this storm. I cut, hauled, pulled and eventually cleared the original path. I tried to cut as little as possible and pull broken limbs toward the base of the parent tree. By noon time I had finished the Tree Loop. If there is no more ice damage this winter, it will look good again by spring leaf-out.
After a noon break, I returned to walk the NW Ponds Trail at 1:30. The NW pond depth was 2.25 ft. (full). There was no sign of life there. The East Pond was inaccessible with a large fall on the north side of the pond. The West Trail was more clear than I had suspected it would be. There was one good sized mess just north of the junction with the the Main SW trail.
The worst ice breakage and trail blockage was on the north side of the East Pond. Large heavy oak, ash and elm branches had fallen along the trail. It was like a jig saw puzzle in reverse figuring out how to untangle, cut and remove it all. Happy to get it done.
Encountered just one group of four deer.

Icy Winter Solstice

Freezing rain began last night. By 3 a.m. power was going out. At 6 a.m. there were sounds of branches breaking and smashing to ground. Freezing rain had largely stopped by 2 p.m.  I went to the SW Gate at 5 p.m. to see what the ice had done.
Ice transformed the Woods.. beautiful drooping ice-covered branches, shrubs, privet - green leaves with ice, indian currant Symphoricarpos light brown stem and red berries encased in ice. Most beautiful was the West Dune Trail where the dense snail seed and honeysuckle vines overhead covered in ice made the trail into a silvery tunnel. Along oak trails, new fallen leaves of early winter were still 3 dimensional, not compressed into thin layers of decomposition.
Tree breakage was widespread. It was happening while I was there.. a sudden loud breaking sound of a solid branch followed by a silvery shower of shed ice falling.
I cleared many tops and branches that could be dragged away from the trail. I will not use the saw until a few days from now when ice has melted and trees, now bent deeply,  have rebounded as much as they will. Part of survival as a young tree or old in this environment. You adapt to ice, to sudden weight bending you double. to breakage of your top crown. Trees and branches are loaded to their limit. A small breeze rocking and swaying the trees triggers more breakage. I will walk all the trails in the Woods with saw and loppers to clear largish breakage/ blowdowns.
Water was high at Island Crossing - filled the Wash but did not rise to cover the Island. East Pond was full. Water along the main SW trail had backed up above the Beaver Dam and was rising but had not reached Grandfather cottonwood at 5:30. SW end of the E-W trail was underwater. I detoured, walking west, off-trail parallel to the rising water in the Main SW Wash. Beautiful, exciting unusual time to be in the Woods.

Walk before the storm

End of a cold overcast afternoon before the ice storm due at sunset, I went to the Ponds entrance to the Woods at 4 p.m. for an hour. Three deer around the NW pond. The Woods were fairly bare. The last deciduous leaves off the Bumelia are gone now. On a long walk around many of the trails there were some small branches down in the SE but nothing larger. Chickadees (and titmice) were scolding and active by the East Pond near Claire's observation point. There was water in the Wash but it stopped short of the Elm Bridge.. no water flowing at Island Crossing. The two ponds were fairly full. One place along trail there was a track of deer scraping the soil with its hoof.. like it was excavating.
Tonight fairly strong/ heavy ice storm. We'll see what is damaged.

Crunchy Woods - Ice on Fallen Leaves

After the first two weeks of mild (60-70 F) delightful November weather, an abrupt cold front took the temperature down to 19 F on the 13th. Leaves of oaks, cottonwoods and any others still attached, fell quickly in the windy days that followed. The Woods are now fully bare of deciduous canopy, and crunchy underfoot. The remaining green in the shrub layer are the Ligustrum privet and Elaeagnus Russian Olive.
Yesterday and last night a wintry mix..mostly freezing rain moved in. At noon today, as the ice was beginning to melt, I went to the SW Gate to see what the storm had done. The fresh brown leaves of bur oak are fallen thick and crunchy along the trail. The thin coating of ice adds to the crunch. The Woods are very open now. The East Pond had 1.70 feet depth. The wash was full of water beyond the Elm Bridge but did not appear to be flowing. No water at the Beaver Dam.
This is the best time of year to wander off trail and discover new things. You can see where you are going and there are no problems with unwanted arthropods, ticks, mosquitoes etc. In the southeastern quarter I found pockets of fresh new green Stellaria chickweed growing with Glechoma Creeping Charlie.
I did not see any deer but I did see the stray dog Nate had noted earlier when she was still pregnant.. (coon hound size.. black with white chest) and her 5 puppies.
In the Woods, the colors are saturated rich. Crossing over the West Dune trail the Cocculus snail seed vines were coated with ice and the top of the vine canopy was bright icy white. Made a beautiful contrast with the masses of bright red snail seed berries.

Fall Colors

Nice weekend just past. I spent most of Saturday out in the Woods along the Tree Tutorial Loop. The leaves are beautiful. The rich deep buttery yellow of the black hickory is my favorite. Hackberry and elm leaves are also yellow but mottled, withered and falling now. Kentucky coffee tree leaves are yellow and rich. Virginia creeper leaves are wine red. Chittamwood leaves are still full green and will probably remain so for another month or more. Pin oak leaves are still mostly green.. particularly on the young trees. Pecan leaves are yellow.. almost as rich as the black hickory but more mottled with fungi and more beginning to fall. Red bud leaves are mostly all down now. Walnut leaves are down too. Locust leaves are down. In the wider lower Woods green ash leaves are about 99% down. Cotton wood leaves are still there, mostly green; but now turning yellow. Abundant young Soapberry tree leaves turned a bleached out yellow gray and are now mostly fallen.
Sunday I walked more briefly around the Woods and spotted a doe with her yearling by the East Pond.

Waiting for the Weather

End of October and it was a mild (60-70 F) day with morning fog early and solid overcast the rest of the day. I went out to the Woods' NW Ponds entrance at 6:15 for a twilight walk. The forest seemed like it was on hold, waiting for the rain forecast for tonight and the next two days. The NW pond was quiet.. no turtles or odonates at the end of the day. Maybe 0.6 feet in depth. I have to clean the post. I found three deer, one yearling leaping away; and two older does by the Big Tree grove. The older does were more curious than skittish. I wondered if they were yearlings I saw with their mother in the Woods in previous years.. and if so, if they have any memory of me and my grey woods coat. The big cottonwoods still have 80-90% of their leaves; but in the small-diameter, crowded green ash stands, 90% of the leaves are down. Walking southwest from the Big Tree Grove in summer, I would come into denser shade, approaching the thick green ash. Now the canopy brightened with open sky. Through the Woods, tree crickets are trilling. Circling back north along the West Trail, I love the band of green woods light from the western boundary, coming through the forest at sunset or later. It silhouettes the dark trunks of the larger elms, ash and oaks in the woods for a brief time before night falls.

Big Tree Falls

On a familiar trail, walking NE towards Tall Stump the trail looked very different. I did a double-take and realized the big pecan snag had fallen. This was one of the largest trees in the Woods. I first encountered it about seven years ago. I had used it for navigation many times walking in the near dark; it was a column that showed me the way. 117 cm in diameter but only twenty feet high, big bark slabs falling off the decaying wood. It did not lean. How did it fall spontaneously to the south? Metaphor for those around us.. folks who have helped guide and shape us. It must have been this past ten days. It has fallen on and crushed a younger hackberry and elm. Their cracked stems are still fairly fresh.

This Saturday morning early at 8 we had had a very light rain .01 inch, with more expected this afternoon. I went to the NE Gate and walked down along the Tree Loop to Elm Bridge and across to the west. One small white-tail ran from me near the junction with the Pipeline Trail and one large doe ran tentatively but then stopped and watched curiously as I walked by singing to the doe thirty feet away by the western camera tree.

The old deer carcass SW of the East Pond is mostly gone now.. the skull and intact vertebrae remain in the middle of a patch of fallen leaves darkened by decomposition. The smell of decay is gone too, from all but the immediate 1-2 m from the skull.

The Woods are lovely now. The big trees like the Grandfather cottonwood still have 95% + of their leaves, still vigorous green. Smaller diameter trees (green ash old saplings, elms etc.. have lost most of their leaves leaving the understory of the forest greatly thinned out. Beautiful day.

NIce Autumn Day in the Woods

After recent 1.5 inch and 0.13 inch rains, the Woods today were fine and fall-ish. I took a swing blade and a chain saw to the North gate at 9:30 to work on clearing trails overgrown with healthy summer growth of Symphoricarpos, Verbesina, Chasmanthium and Smilax. In the upper plateau west of the North Gate I encountered a small herd of a half dozen deer. First herd of that size I'd seen in the Woods in many months. They usually start coming into the Woods in larger numbers about this time of the year as hunting season approaches. In the lower Woods along the Main SW trail under elms killed by dutch elm disease I cleared a path through large patches of Polygonum knot weed.
The East Pond depth was 0.62 feet. Through the Woods, the canopy is still green and 70% there; but many leaves of hackberry and elm and others have fallen. No colors in any of the fallen leaves, just brown. No turtles today, or mosquitoes.. few insects of any sort. First frost (light) last night. Spotted a large barred owl flying low in the Woods near the Grandfather cottonwood. I must have disturbed it from its perch. Ripe mushy persimmons are beginning to fall along the Tree Loop.

Cool fall coming in to the Woods

Late summer's lingering heat was suddenly broken last night just before midnight with a slow moving cold front and two thirds inch of rain. This added to the four thirds inch a week ago Friday night. The trees and shrubs in the Woods will have a good drink now before winter.
After weeks away, I went to the Woods to walk all the trails and see what had changed. At 9:30 I entered the North Gate with a set of loppers and some paint to refresh blazes. A marvelous day to be in the woods. Cool enough for a sweater under a work parka. Fifty feet along the trail there was a box turtle. Oddly, over the next 4-5 hours I saw no other wildlife except one squirrel burying food along Hackberry Alley and assorted robins, crows and beetles. No deer, rabbits, other turtles etc. I wonder if dogs have been suppressing wildlife activity. Nate reports a pregnant dog several days ago along the southwest trail.
The Woods are beginning to thin out and open up again. The dense understory of summer is mostly gone. The canopy leaves are 95% still there although they will be falling soon. The flowers of Elephantopus are all converted to seed and white Verbesina frost weed is in full flower at intervals along the trails.

http://www.floridahorsebacktrailrides.com/images/Flowers/Frostweed.jpg

The East Pond depth was 0.40 feet. The NW Pond was refilled maybe 70% of the way to its regular shoreline.. although volume was probably less than 35-40% of capacity. Water was flowing in the Wash at Island Crossing. There was water at Beaver Dam and a short 100 feet west of there, but no water flowing. The southern end of the SE trail was flooded with standing water 2-3 inches deep. I walked the logs to cross.
For three or four hours I cleared many stems of Smilax greenbrier, Symphoricarpos deer brush and other perennials grown up in the trails during the summer. Along the Ravine Trail a mid sized live hackberry had broken and blocked the trail. Interesting to consider why the stem had broken when and where it did.. wind exposure and some wound with a rot fungus in the stem probably; but it was not an old tree. I hauled the top and branches off to the side. Another large dead hackberry trunk had fallen across the other end of the Northern Rim trail, crushing some young trees down to block the way. I freed the young trees and left the large old trunk across the trail to step over. Several other small trees across different trail sections but none required a chainsaw.
The Woods are in much better shape now than they were in October 2012 or 2011. They have had good summer rains and far less extreme summer heat. No mosquitoes and I did not see any ticks.

Wonderful Glorious Rain and Lion?

A mere 5/100ths of an inch of rain.. but at 5:30 this afternoon our late summer 3-week drought broke.
After 25 days of monotonous 95, 97, 94, 98, 96, 92, 93 etc.. highs everyday and no rain.. it is wonderful to have clouds and feel the down sweep of suddenly cool air.. even for this few hundredths of an inch. Hope more will come tonight. (Ultimately 0.3 inches fell before midnight.)
Yesterday, 11 Sept at 3:30 I walked with Emma in through the NE Gate of a thoroughly parched Woods.. not as deathly droughted as 2012.. the trees with deep roots were still drawing on abundant, record July rainfall.. but the Woods were very dry. The Main SW trail was broken along the way into small polygons of soil, cracked open by the long lack of rain. The tall trailside grasses were mostly gone from along the Tree Loop leaving the low green bunch grasses. There were thin tall stalks of white flowering Polygonum knot weed mixed with the light lavender blossoms of Elephantopus elephant foot.
We dropped down the Pipeline Trail and stopped at (dry) Island Crossing to look for tracks around the still soft drying mud where the small pool had been.. and saw a large track with no nails. It looked to me like a mountain lion. Exciting if true. I'll have to ask Nick to take a look. There are stories of lions in the Woods 10-15 years ago.. and there are deer for them.. and they are in the region (sightings and collisions with autos within 50 miles).. and the Canadian River provides a corridor. Still, must remain dubious until track is examined by someone more knowledgeable than me.
We passed by a Kentucky coffee tree Gymnocladus with Virginia creeper Parthenocissus and poison ivy Toxicodendron .. one of the few trail-side poison ivy vines I've left alone for education. The poison ivy had 3 small white slime mold plasmodia beginning to sporulate. We found big dry Auricularia jelly fungus crisp and whitened with drought at the base of an elm.
The East Pond was still there but down now to a small pool maybe fifteen feet long by 10 feet wide. We did not go to the West Pond but Ricky did not find the West Pond a few days ago, walking along the Ponds Trail for the first time. It is likely pretty small too.
Emma and I exited by the Elm Bridge (Wash there was dry).
I enjoyed talking with Emma about how the 'rambunctious garden' of Oliver's Woods with all its invasives was a valuable place for us to study. The abundant Ligustrum privet provides a good nectar source for hard-pressed honey bees. There is a prolific bloom in June. We did not get down to the areas where Lonicera japanese honeysuckle is abundant; but ecological studies are showing it to be  beneficial to many species. There is also Liriope monkey grass and a variety of other species of invasives finding footholds in the Woods.. creating novel ecosystems.. providing ecosystem services. I am removing the Albizia mimosa trees, Hedera english ivy and Lonicera maackii Amur honeysuckle when I find it. The trumpet vine Campsis and virgin's bower Clematis are still blooming along the Chautauqua fence line and attracting bright yellow cloudless sulphurs Phoebis.

September return to the Woods.

Nice 'cold front' rolled through and dropped temps to 80's and low 90's F.
I decided to catch up on deferred trail maintenance and started about 9 am at the SW Gate. I carried paint to refresh all the trail blazes. By 2 o'clock I'd finished walking 90% of all the trails. I cleared branches and fallen tops all along the way and did the blue blazes. Good to have the fresh paint for late evening navigation after sunset. More visible in low light or near darkness.
By the NW Pond I spotted one box turtle near the jct with the Ravine Trail. There was an immature great blue heron looking for lunch standing on the west side of the pond. Did not fly for several minutes with me watching. There were two groups of white tailed deer: three west of the beaver dam running north into the Woods; and one group of two west of the Wash near Island crossing. The pool above Island Crossing had dried to mud. There was still a pool of very muddy water in the Wash by the big mimosa tree; one buck ran from there as I approached. Mosquitoes not bad, a little annoying along the West Trail.
The sedges were all flattened along the Big Tree Grove trail by the leaning willow. It looked like this was where the deer were sleeping. Big green ash tree # 506 still has sweet fermenting flux down the trunk, today with a dozen green calliphorids, several Camponotus carpenter ants and one Polistes wasp.
I did not do the Northern Rim or the Ravine Trail. Another day..
Approaching the SW Gate as I was leaving, the air was perfumed with good sweet smell of Clematis, in full bloom along the edge of the Woods.
Only spotted two seed ticks when I got home and showered.

Hottest 2013 Day in the Woods

Up to 100 F this afternoon. I drove the southern service road eastward from the transfer station and stopped at the end of the N-S trail by Heather's solar cell. The giant ragweed there is now 7-8 feet high. I pushed open a path from the hot grassy road to the shaded forest. The ragweed shed its loads of yellow pollen from each cupped flower as I pushed the tall stems aside and pressed them down. The air was minty with fragrant plant aromas until abruptly stepping into the dry open basin shaded by the willows. Large black carpenter ants were busy there along a dead stub of one prostrate big willow. North there were some small branches and debris across the trail; but mostly the trail was in good shape despite my absence. At the EW trail jct someone (squirrel?) had been eating green pecans and their bright white-yellow fragments were littering the trail. Lots of dried curled dead leaves are down.. shed during the heat of the past two weeks. But these represent surely less than 5 % of the leaves that will come down this year.
Up to Barney Jct and NW to Tall Stump and then to the East Pond. It was mostly dry but still held 0.86 ft of water by the gauge. From there south through the Big Tree grove to the Main SW Trail. Passing the big cottonwood (#200) and a little farther south a big leaning green ash and a sudden alcoholic sweet smell of a tree wound with flux. Twenty feet up the tree a foot long old wound and flux streak extending to the ground was attracting a busy group of nymphalids (mostly hackberry emperors).. some green bottle Lucilla calliphorids and a few others.
Leaving the Woods I took the W. Dune trail and was impressed again at the Cnidoscolus bull nettle flourishing there above the Opuntia.
I stopped to refresh several blue paint blazes on my way out.

Late August Hot Afternoon

Near the end of August and it is hot.. but so much better than the previous two summers. At 2 PM I took a brief walk in the Woods via the NE Gate down to the Wash and west to Fence Corner. The mosquitoes were there, but not overwhelming. They are less active in the heat of the day.. 91 F.
The Wash had dried down to a series of disconnected pools. Along the trail, the dark green leaves of Elephantopus are encroaching on the path. A few are beginning to show their light lavender flowers. The elliptical leaves and knee-high flowering stalk of Polygonum virginianum are more abundant. I imagine it has been a good season of growth for the trees - abundant summer rain and soil moisture with lots of warm sunny days to produce photosynthate. Even small trees (Gymnocladus) I had written off as dead along the Tree Loop have sprouted vigorous displays of stump-sprouted leaves.

Back to the Washed Woods

This Saturday morning I went for an early foray to the NE Gate. The morning was mild low 70's and humid after the intense one inch rain Friday morning in the hours between midnight and sunrise. The Woods have been washed again with flood water rushing across much of the area and sweeping away leaf litter, small twigs, branches, medium size logs and some topsoil.  Big change in ecology of soil development, decomposition & litter organisms. It had been hot and fairly dry for the previous few weeks and East Pond stood at 2.17 feet. NW Pond was at 2.2. There was a small run of water stretching upstream from the beaver dam.. maybe 50 m. and Island Crossing a 30 cm wide stream not moving.
At the NW Pond I searched for turtles but found none. I did see a beautiful view of a pileated woodpecker and listened to wren scolding, kingfisher calling, geese flying overhead and a variety of other bird calls.
Walnuts are beginning to drop a few of their green, full-sized nuts and few premature yellow leaves are coming down from elm, catalpa and cottonwood. (99.9% of canopy still full green.) Pecans are aborting(?) and dropping a few under-sized nuts. The Hibiscus by the NW pond has many full big white flowers in bloom on the several shrubs on the southeast and western sides. Rough-leaved dogwood and Viburnum both have large green berries almost full grown.
Cicadas are calling and I found one dead on  the NE trail by the Wash. The spiders are changing now with many more of the Gasteracantha thorn-back orbweb weavers. Mosquitoes are super abundant. Interesting to see where they gather.. which small patches of sunlight or shade attract them. Found five Nicrophorus burying beetles in Pipeline trail trap.
Commelinia dayflower blooming and Euonymus and common small white flowers up a 75 cm tall thin stalk (sp?)
I returned with the saw and cleared elm top in big blowdown plus several other vines etc. blocking trails... also two more mimosa - cut and treated with roundup.  One white-tailed buck snorted and ran west down from the Tree Loop.

100% Humidity

Went to the Woods, the SW Gate, at 6 pm with a saw to clear the tangle of the dead cedar and the greenbrier blocking the West Dune trail. 91F and maximum humidity. The smells in the woods were of rot.. and not the most pleasant. Just completed the second wettest July on record for Norman, about 10 inches of rainfall. The floods in the W and SW corner of the Woods had largely cleared, with the warmth of the past week; but there are still some standing pools in scattered low places through the Woods. Warmth and water.. more than tropical. It is such a contrast to summers of the past few years.
The Main SW trail was largely dried near the Grandfather cottonwood; but the soil was heavy damp and remnant small pools were there. Still very few insects.. a few more mosquitoes. Here the first week of August I find myself saying the diversity of insects will be back, won't they?

The Weight of a Tree

Early Sunday morning I went to the NE Gate of the Woods and hiked in to the big blowdown by the Wash. I cleared away tangled broken branches of elm, oak, hackberry and pecan to get to the double trunked big pecan resting across the trail. This was a mature tree with a 15 inch and 20 inch diameter trunks at 30 feet up the bole and a full crown of green leaves 30 feet further along the bole. It had blown down two years ago but maintained enough root contact to keep a green crown growing. It was suspended five feet above the trail so I had left it and just ducked under each time I passed by. Now it had fallen further to block the trail and I reluctantly decided to cut a section to restore the trail route.
The saw was reasonably sharp but it was still dicey cutting once, twice, three times, trying to get through and not knowing how the heavy tree would turn, jump, spring etc.
The weight of a full tree like this is just enormous. I paused and thought how remarkable that all the large trees around me routinely support tons of weight.. sometimes tilted, or extending away from the main trunk as large heavy branches.
As I was leaving, I noticed a large tall Albizzia mimosa, probably the parent tree of the two I had cut earlier this summer along the Creekside Trail. It was in flower and had new hanging seed pods. I cut it and will watch to see that it does not survive. Beautiful invasive tree.

Washed Woods

Beautiful damp Saturday morning. Twenty four hours ago, Norman was in a flash flood 4 inch downpour.. in addition to the 4 plus inches of rain that fell ten days previous, unusual for July.. but great to keep the trees and greenery thriving. At 8 AM I entered the SW Gate. There was quite a pile of woody debris, bark and twigs washed up there, blocking the gate. The water had drained just to the first 50 m post north.  The Woods north, west and east of there was flooded ankle deep. I took the Big Log trail and found a box turtle just past the Big Log. It had found a small golf ball-sized depression and looked like it was having a drink.
There are some large trees down and blocking trails: north side of W Dune trail (old cedar and greenbrier), creekside lower end of NE Trail at big blowdown, and old pear tree at NE Gate entrance. There will be a good bit of trail clean up needed from various trees or branches down and flotsam debris.
I saw two rabbits flitting through the brush and one spotted fawn north of the W Dune trail north end. A few mosquitoes buzzed me but just a handful. I heard a flicker calling, saw robins in the lower Woods and watched a flock of seven geese fly over the W. Pond. The animals of the Woods are probably still recovering from the pummeling rains. I saw a dozen or so pale thin earthworms drowned in pools of light tea-colored water along the SW trail. I still don't know if they are native or introduced species. Along many of the trails the big orange Araneus had spun large webs, perfect in the morning light. Three or four small (Gambusia?) fish were swimming in the pool above Elm Bridge. In several places, polypores have produced large white hard conks on fallen logs and I saw two or three big batches of Auricularia jelly fungi full fleshed after the rain.
All through the lower Woods, much of the ground has been washed bare, stripped of leaf litter. The trails served as channels where grasses are bent in the direction of the flow. Even the Northern Loop trail was washed..  from the volume and rate of the precipitation, not flooding from the Wash. The East Pond was 3.3 feet and turbid muddy brown. The West Pond was 2.62 feet. I searched for snapping turtles sunning on a log but did not see any. No odonates flying. The post in the Wash washed away. I recovered only the depth gauge. At Island Crossing, I was impressed to see the water depth had overtopped the 2 m tall steel pipe that marks the trail. The water was flowing rapidly out at the Beaver Dam, but without significant wind, much of inundated area will remain flooded for a few weeks, even with warm early August high temperatures.

Warm Winds, Drying Woods

Strong, warm southerly drying winds have removed the last of the open pools of standing water and dried the month-old mucky soil. I went to the SW entrance at 3 pm to count butterflies for a couple of hours (71 in eleven spp.) The Woods had a distinct fine smell of drying wood that has been wet for a long time.. a rich tannin smell. The soil along the SW trail had gone from muck to crisp.
The water depth in the Wash had fallen to 9 " and the E Pond was at 1.80'.
The surface of the E Pond was filled with cotton from Populus. There was a good stream of black Polistes wasps coming to collect water (and maybe mud or wet cotton for nests(?)). A dragonfly perched on a high twig above the center of the pond.
In the pool above Island Crossing I watched three fish maybe 4-5" long feeding at the surface.
I walked along in the dry Wash where dozens of nymphalid butterflies - mostly hackberry emperors -were harboring out of the wind;  and where there was some remnant moisture in the soil.
Walking along the northern edge of the Delta, spider webs festooned the ash, persimmon and willow there. In the late afternoon sun it was remarkable.. like pictures on the web from just past flooding in Pakistan or in E. Texas with Tetragnathids. It is as though the flooding forced the spiders into the trees.
I cleared a largish walnut top broken across the NW trail east of Hackberry alley. Lots of partly formed walnuts there. Good sharp walnut smell from the broken stem and crushed leaves. I cut away two logs from a leaning dead cedar sinking on to the W Dune trail. Good fresh cedar smell there, although the tree had probably been dead for a decade or longer. The lindgren trap at the southern end of the NS trail  is harboring an active Polistes nest I need to remove. One large doe by the west end of the dune. Four large ticks and three tiny ones on me when I returned home.

Killing Exotics and Finding New Ones

Saturday I cut and applied roundup to stumps of two Albizia mimosa trees on the west side of the Wash approx 50 feet above and 50 feet below the E-W Trail. As I was doing this, I noticed a pine cone in the washout zone near the southern mimosa.. washed in, I am sure, from the OU campus.. red pine probably. It will be interesting if pines begin to grow in the Woods.
The Woods are fallow ground for expanding exotics in the south Norman area. They can be used as a sort of sentinel area to recognize incipient invasions of species which are actually (not just in theory)  invading, like Amur honeysuckle and mimosa. There will be more Amur honeysuckle to cut next year.
I walked the SE and South central trails and they were clear-ish. Along the SE trail we can just step around the base of the double-trunked elm tilted across the trail and see if it will survive.
I returned to the NE Gate via the eastern side of the Tree Loop and cut a largish redbud top, broken and hanging across the trail. Tree should survive and grow well.

Soggy Woods Soil Fungi and Chainsaw

Back to the Woods briefly this Thursday morning at 8:30, the NW Ponds entrance. There was one large hackberry top broken across and blocking the northern end of Hackberry Alley and 15-20 smaller tops, boles and branches along the lower end of the SW trail and the West Trail that needed clearing. The water is now gone from the SW trail but the footing is soggy mucky mud. The NW pond is at 2.22 ft. the East Pond is at 2.48 ft. I saw one deer at the north end of Hackberry Alley and one turtle by the big walnut tree near the west jct of the NW Trail and the Ravine trail.
Near the SW Gate I ran into Jarrod and Elizabeth and Sarah taking a soil core looking for interesting new fungi and/or other spp. Jarrod mentioned finding 169 species of fungi in decayed organics at the base of the old fallen cottonwood tree # 99.. published in J. Nat. Products; Du et al 2012.
As I left, I saw Heather M's car by the NE Gate. So good to see people using the Woods.

Humid Green Jungle

Been ten days or more since I've been into the Woods. Over that time our wet spring/ summer has continued with another 1.5 inches of rain. I went to the northern boundary fence of the Woods to set traps for wood boring beetles: rotten beer (beer, brown sugar, and peaches fermented for a week) in baby food jars hung in Lindgren funnel traps along the fence. I found one active Polistes nest in one trap. This is always a bit dicey. The adults flew out and I removed the nest from its perch on the underside of the top.
After setting four traps along the fence and one on Pipeline trail, I walked along the Tree Loop from the NE entrance. It was thick wonderful humidity and green growing everywhere. Most of the tall trail-side grasses had declined and now the Symphoricarpos indian currant and Acer negundo boxelder were the dominants encroaching at knee high along the trail. The Woods looked great. It had the feel of a place at rest.. no student projects.. few visitors.. good rain and warmth.. time for the life there to grow and build in resources against the dry hotter times in the future.
At the top of Hackberry Alley I found a box turtle by a substantial hackberry top broken and blocking the trail. I'll need a saw to clear it. A few mosquitoes were buzzing about.. not bad.
The East Pond was about 2.6 (no binocs to read the post precisely). There was water filling the Wash through most of its length.. but not flowing. Island Crossing was dry below the deep pool.
Lots of deer tracks. One tick. Cottonwood cotton all over the East pond. Orange trumpet vine blooming along the Chautauqua west fence. Pair of bright green Cicindela sexguttata tiger beetles at the gate and two or three more scattered elsewhere along the trail. No deer spotted but tracks along all the trails in the soft soil. This is likely the middle of the best season of growth for the Woods.. the best growth in three years or more.

Red-Eared Slider is Back!

Second day after the big storm, a beautiful peaceful Sunday morning. I went to the NW entrance at 8 and strolled slowly through the northern trails to see what I could see today. The flood waters had significantly receded. The NW pond was 2.64'. The East Pond was 3.38' and the post above Elm Bridge was 22.5 inches. The water was flowing slowly in the Wash and the Elm Bridge was again well above the water.
I found a broken top from a 25-30 cm DBH mid-sized pecan at the junction of the NW Trail and the Northern Rim and was able to break it into manageable pieces to move it off the trail. A 30 cm DBH 2-trunked elm at the top of the long pool of the southern Wash had tilted across the SE Trail. I think the trail can just step over/around for now. Yesterday I moved the green ash top that had broken across the NW Trail at NW#4.  Several other trees tilted over or with large broken limbs but not a problem for trails. Trees fell in a predominantly SSW direction.
In the sunny gap created where the green ash top fell, I found a Bittacid scorpionfly flying in the lower vegetation.
Along the creek trail (west side of the wash above the EW trail) there are a couple 2-3 inch DBH mimosa trees. I should probably remove? I am finding more of the small < 50 cm tall Amur honeysuckle and am now flagging them for later removal.
I encountered several squirrels.. more of them about this year than the previous two years.. and found one box turtle along Hackberry Alley at DT#6. Enjoyed hearing a crow sounding its one staccato note Ah! Ah! Ah! No deer but fresh tracks of raccoon all along the lower wash below the Elm Bridge.
On my way out of the Woods, I was delighted to see again the big old red-eared slider in the NW pond. I watched through binocs at a distance from the trail and it watched me.. eventually hauling itself out on to the big floating log to bask. It has been missing for 2-3 years. Great way to deal with environmental stress, heat, drought, no water in pond - just burrow down and hide somewhere. Stop moving for a few years until things get better. Live a long time.
Big question for today: 'How will the Woods survive? What will they look like and what species will live there in a hundred years? What will be the nature of their interactions? Old patterns or new patterns/ behaviors? Small question for the day: beautiful sunlit fresh new spider web with concentric rings. The maximum radius had 49 rings. Track the same web of the same spider each morning and see if the number of rings remains the same.

Tornado, Floods and the Woods as a Sponge

Friday night the 31st of May there was a large storm moving through central Oklahoma. It spawned several tornadoes. One weak tornado travelled through northeast Norman with 2.5 inches of intense rainfall and brief blasting winds. Saturday morning there were few signs of damage in Norman. I drove to the SW Gate of the Woods with my knee boots to see what the storm had done.
I found flood water had travelled to within 25 feet of the gate. Along the South Boundary Trail, the water was flowing eastward. Fifty meters along the trail, the water was near the top of my boots, about 40 cm or 16 inches deep near the big pecan and the beetle trap. I thought that the water was receding, flowing rapidly out of the Woods. In fact, the water was still rising, flowing into the Woods along the north side of the dune, around its southwestern end and then filling along the south boundary.
It was marvelous to see what was happening. Isopods, ants, spiders and other arthropods were busy escaping to higher ground. Isopod pill bugs were clustered in thick groups on the upper surface of floating logs. Carpenter ants were moving brood to safety. Spiders were skating over the water surface, their forest floor habitat transformed or gone.
The water moved into areas that had not been flooded in three years or more. There were drowned earthworms there that I did not see along trails that had been flooded earlier and more often.
The Woods were like a big sponge, soaking up the excess flooding water, to release it slowly over the next several days to few weeks. The bigger the flood, the more the capacity of the sponge was used. Some of the floodwater will remain for weeks without strong drying winds. Much of the water will infiltrate the forest soil and replenish the water table. Depending on how long the water stays, trees may be stressed or killed by drowning their roots, or sustained by a good deep drink, mid growing season. with enough deep water replenishment for trees through the dry, hot months of summer.
The water will completely alter the ecology of the soil litter. Mites, collembola, nematodes, microarthropods had to climb to escape, or have a way to survive inundation. Bacteria and fungi.. most all decomposition processes put 'on hold' until the flood is mostly gone leaving sodden litter where microbial decomposition would then be kick-started and should progress quickly before everything dries too far.
I crossed over the West Dune trail to the Main Southwest trail and there let the water overtop my boots. Much easier to walk along without worrying about keeping my toes dry.
I found a box turtle in shallow two inch deep water looking to be feeding on vegetation at the junction of the E-W Trail with Hackberry Alley. It froze and I took a couple of snapshots.
Just the previous day, Katie and I had encountered a mating pair of box turtles as we walked northeast from the Elm Bridge. Now the Elm Bridge was underwater. The depth at the post was 40 inches. The depth at East Pond was 3.85 feet, well past its shoreline limit. The depth of the NW pond was 2.92 feet.
I surprised a large animal, sheltering from the water, west of the Elm Bridge.. the size of a dog or a deer or coyote. I did not see, but heard it quickly splash through the water running away from me.
Along the NW trail at NW#4 a large top of a green ash snapped off in the storm and smashed down on the trail, taking with it parts of a mulberry, cedar and other smaller trees. I returned after lunch with saw and cleared the blow down to the sides of the trail. It will be interesting to watch the colonization of the fresh green ash material by beetles.
Over the NW Pond, two Anax junius dragonflies had staked out territories and were testing their boundaries. This spring insect populations, including odonates, have been very low, almost absent, almost mysterious.. quite remarkable.. mostly evident with pollinators; it may be related to early March spring warming to 70F and late spring hard freeze to the high teens. One green tiger beetle Cicindela sexguttata was foraging along the wet trail. Along the West Trail, I found a drifting bloated immature hydrophilid beetle larva that looked like it had eaten more than its share of mosquito larvae.. Its belly was swollen and it moved slowly at first as I scooped it out of the water. Ferocious pair of sickle like mandibles (if you are a mosquito wriggler).

Party Elm and Wild Dogs

Morning walk in the Woods from the SW Gate today at 9:30. Marvelous with boots to walk along in shallow yellow tea-colored water. Water still present before SW post #2 @ 100m.
I watched a small (bathtub-sized) patch of sunlit water alive with wrigglers.. and one rapidly feeding dytiscid or hydrophilid larva.. a water tiger.. near the same place I had previously watched a similar assemblage at the west end of the East West trail. Until now adult mosquito density has been surprisingly low or moderate.. but that is getting ready to change. In the next week to ten days there will be clouds of adults in there.
I walked down to the dam then up to East Pond and south along the Big Trees trail. I approached a yearling doe who steadfastly was looking south away from me and I was downwind. It did not run but was alert and listening intently southward adjusting its ears. Eventually it moved along and I discovered quickly why it was not concerned about me. Two or three wild dogs came bounding up through the brush barking at me. I yelled back and ran towards them and they ran away.. a dirty yellow lab and german shepherd and maybe a third.
On my way out I noticed a group of hackberry emperor butterflies. They were lining the trunk of an elm dying with dutch elm disease. Closer inspection, the tree was loaded with insect life. 47-50 hackberry emperors on the bottom 15 feet of trunk height and easily that many more in the next 15 feet up. One Polygonia comma butterfly, Alaus the eyed elaterid, one armored red brown Polistes wasp focussed on one attractive crevice in the elm bark, perhaps 40-50 pretty picture wing Tephritid flies fluttering their wings in courtship, a couple of green Calliphorid flies, a muscid, one Delphina picta fly, a few Camponotus ant foragers, smaller flies like very miniature houseflies.
The elm was ten feet west of tagged tree #398. Like one happy bar scene all species were closely intermingling with no alarms. Tree disease probably producing an alcoholic slimy flux or fermented odor.
All along the walk, white Catalpa flowers rested on the sodden brown leaves from their tree marking a round pool of light white by which all the Catalpa can be found.

Tree Loop Trim

Funny day today. Windy and felt like storm was coming - all day. Pleasant overcast high 70's and 20 mph wind most of the day. I decided to the mow the Tree Loop with a weed whacker. Probably a good idea once a year to keep trail open. Now more or less clear path a meter wide all around the Loop with walls of uncut brome and Symphoricarpos buck brush waist high on either side. I took a walk in the early dark of evening around the Loop. No fireflies, hardly any mosquitoes. Insect populations have been way down this spring. May be early March warming (70s on the 7th) with good insect activity followed by cold hard freeze (18-20 on 26th). The wind today will rapidly draw down/ begin to dry up the standing pools of water in the west Woods. The Woods are green and full of vibrant growth but insect herbivores and the like, are not easily found.

Lemon Sweet Honeysuckle Morning in the Woods

Saturday morning 8 am I went to the NW Ponds entrance to the Woods. The abundant rains and humid atmosphere of the past week mixed with the blossoms of japanese honeysuckle to produce a lemon sweet fragrance at the entrance. All along Chautauqua the west fence boundary was coming into peak honeysuckle bloom.
A large poison ivy vine had fallen across the West trail.. large enough to block the trail. I cut the upper dead branches and pulled the crown away into the watery sedge. Upper branches killed, in last two years of heat and drought?
With my water boots on, I started to place the heavy stepping stones along the ankle deep flooded trail from the north. One or two Scincella little brown skinks were harboring in the stacked stones. 25 stones set.. others for another day. Need maybe another 75-100?
The Woods' NW entrance is a dense jungle of fresh healthy young growth.. and this is true through much of the Woods. I walked two thirds of the trails, clipping and cutting some of the many branches of trees (mostly box elder) growing across the path.. but the waist-high brome grass, abundant in many places, needs some herbivores. I left it uncut. Vague thoughts about the green weedy trails producing fine roots and below ground biomass, holding the soil against washing and locking in fresh photosynthates.
Ligustrum privet is in peak bloom in the upper Woods of the Tree Loop.. a heavier, sweet fragrance. Cornus rough-leaved dogwood is blooming white too, with its own muskier fragrance. One more Amur honeysuckle along the 2 Pecan trail, midway NW side. I'll cut and kill. Along the NW trail, the five or six catalpa are shedding their large white flowers. Some early light 'cotton' on the ground from the cottonwoods, not much yet.
The east pond depth is 3.10 feet and the Wash has ponds of water, largely filled all the way below the Elm Bridge, although no water flowing through Island Crossing.
No deer observed, although I did not walk the southern section. No turtles, although the vegetation is so thick I could easily have walked past several. Squirrels out playing along the Northern Rim trail. One hawk Cooper's (?) soaring above the squirrels.
Yellow flowering Lactuca(?) wild lettuce blooming 3-4 places. along trails.
Medium diameter coffee tree, tilted 30 degrees from vertical, SE east of E Pond. Looks like center has rot. Will it stay and survive? Trunk split at base.
Odd thing I've seen last year too: along the SW trail in a shaded section of all brown, sodden understory and ankle deep water, one elm has had hundreds of its green leaves plucked off and scattered on ground. No other tree like that in the vicinity. What gives? Like some canopy bird plucking leaves and dropping. May have been persimmon tree last year, in the same area.
One beautiful red admiral butterfly on the blooming privet as I was leaving the Woods.

Vines Monday morning in the Woods with Nathan.
Smilax bona-nox, S. tamnoides, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, Clematis, Cocculus, Toxicodendron, Lonicera japonica, Lonicera sempervirens, Ampelopsis, Vitis, Euonymus, milkweed (?) and others.
Lots of questions..what are the vines doing in there? what determines where they start? relationship to preferences of dispersal agents? how about vines hanging high up, down into open air..how did they get there? association of vine spp. with tree spp.? relationship to tree age? competition of vines spp. ? influence of bark characteristics (physical.. shreddy or solid; chemical.. allelochemicals?) relationship to soil moisture/ pH/ texture? role of inundation in limiting vines? ecology of vines in the Woods.

Afternoon headed for home by 3 before arrival of super powerful destructive tornado in Moore.

Snapper sighted E Pond

Over the weekend, we had some stormy weather Saturday night 0.58 inch rain; Sunday afternoon tornadoes on the east side of Norman. Sunday morning I went to the Woods via the SW Gate to see what winds and rain had done. There were a few new branches down, but nothing significant. The Woods were filled with green. There was too much water ponded up on the Main SW trail (by SW #2) so I walked east on the South Boundary trail to the Dune trail and crossed north from there across the water (slowly flowing out at Beaver Dam).  Two white-tailed deer dashed west in the woods just north of the Beaver Dam as I walked over the dune. Cottontail rabbits were feeding along Hackberry Alley. In the East Pond, I was delighted to see a medium sized snapper turtle at the east end. I watched it close up for several minutes before it moved off into deeper water. Mosquitoes were present but not bad.
Lots of red scarlet cup fungi in the central woods and some fresh Auricularia jelly fungus (on down pecan branch?) along the northern loop trail. Water was flowing in the Wash past Island Crossing and under Elm Bridge. Multiflora rose blossoms are just starting. Viburnum white flowers are gone. Grass is tall and thick. No Odonates spotted on either pond.

Green Woods full of Life

Great rains arrived: 1.33 inches May 8 with another fifth inch May 9. The Woods flooded westward and the water remains, filling the Main Wash through most of its length.

The Woods are their most alive now. Green is everywhere filling the understory, converting it to a dense jungle. It is a great time to be a deer or rabbit or other herbivore.. so much to eat. Fresh green grasses everywhere are waist high 100-150 cm through the Woods. This morning I heard white-tailed deer snorting repeatedly west of the Bur Oak Bridge but could not see .. so much green. They probably could hear but not see me too.
I was surprised by box turtles on the trails suddenly in front of me: near tree #113 top of first (western) rise of Ravine Trail; and on the NW trail at NW#2 stake (nice bright orange/red body markings); and by tree 27.1 the big dead green ash on the Tree Loop; and by a tilted green ash tree #351(?) along the SW Trail.
The floods moving across the northeastern Delta, have shifted eastward and cut a new channel, a little closer to the channel that existed before the big cottonwood fell.
The East Pond rose to 3.0 feet and 3 days later is back down to 2.86. The NW Pond was 2.4 today and covered with a light gray white skim (of some pollen?) No odonates observed. Mosquitoes are moderately abundant but not obnoxious biting yet.
Gossamer threads are becoming more common. I felt 9-10 touch my face near Tall Stump and more elsewhere along the trails.
A large dead hackberry top dropped across the NW trail pinning a small elm by the diatom pool. I cut and cleared the debris.. leaving the horizontal tilted elm some chance to live and grow.
Bird calls all through the Woods. Geese calling in flight unseen above.
I cut and killed one more Amur honeysuckle. It was hard to find east of the big walnut on the Tree Loop because its flowers were done. Blooms of multiflora rose are just getting going.
Bright red fungi, like scarlet cup, Sarcoscypha coccinea are common along the damp trails. Lamium pupureum has small discreet pale lavender blooms in bunches.
Big walnut #39 above Bur Oak Bridge does not look good. Green leaves mostly limited to lower stem leaves. Much of crown probably dead. I hope the tree survives. The other large walnut at east end of the Pipeline Trail looks worse.. still has one bunch of fresh green leaves on lower stem; but it looks like it will die this year.
I put on my wading boots and sloshed west upstream from the beaver dam with the chain saw, to clear a tangled blowdown blocking the SW trail; a big elm, killed by Ophistoma, Dutch elm disease.
In the ankle-deep clear water at the junction of the SW Trail and E-W Trail I watched a leech-like dytiscid diving beetle larva swimming. A water tiger, with long fierce jaws and a swollen belly. Hopefully it was eating every mosquito larva it could find.
Fresh blue paint in the NE quarter to brighten old blazes; but I did not clear the trails of general grassy and shrubby growth.

Turtles and Bees

Marvelous April 21 Sunday afternoon walk in from the NE Gate 3 pm warm mid 70's sunny. The Woods have been filled and flooded for several days from good 2.5" rain Wednesday April 17.

Walking west of the jct of Hackberry Alley and NW Trans OWP (green) trail I had been thinking sadly how long it had been that I'd not seen turtles.. bingo! .. there on the south side of the trail was a muddy looking 3-toed box turtle. First of the year.. and first I'd seen since before last summer's killing heat. I watched for a while and then walked westward to the NW pond. Approaching the pond I saw to my great excitement and delight the big old snapper turtle hauled out and basking in the sun on a floating log. First time to see it in a year or more? It was almost as though the heavy rain had sent a signal to life in the Woods that it was OK to come back out.

The NW pond was full with 2.48 '. the East Pond 2.95'; and the Wash was at 21". The flow out of Woods was lazy & slow at the dam.

Crossing the dune trail, the Opuntia prickly pear that had been sadly collapsed and prostrate had imbibed a full load of water and all of its phylloclades were erect.

Rounding the NW Pond and cattail marsh on the west I heard suddenly a loud hum of bees and looked up to see a swarm of a few hundred hovering by a small cavity 25 feet up in a green ash, 15 feet west of the WT#5 post. I watched for five minutes trying to see if they were moving in and adopting the tree as their home. But as I watched, the swarm more or less suddenly moved south a few feet and dispersed into the leafy canopy of a flowering elm and then dissipated. Tom S. asked if maybe a colony was throwing off a new swarm. I'll have to check to see if bees remain in the ash a week from now.

At Island Crossing I was amazed to see a dozen or so small fish in the pool immediately upstream. I'd be surprised if the city was putting out new Gambusia.. All I could think was that these may have washed down in fast flowing flood water from the permanent pool north of the big culvert. In a small pocket pool at the crossing there were five gyrinid whirlygigs zooming around. Very glad to see. The Woods are just on the bring of producing thousands of mosquitoes from the shallow flooded woods. There were already small clouds of them by the NW pond at jct of W trail and NW trail.. although none bit me.

Mating tipulid cranefly adults are still relatively abundant around soggy leaf litter near remaining pools.

A pair of mallards were swimming in the west Woods by the SW corner of the cattails.

The SW quarter of the Woods was filled with foraging robins by the pools of standing water.

4-5 crows were flying overhead and seemed to be enjoying carrying on a conversation about everything there was to see.

A (nesting?) pair of hawks were soaring and flying around the big cottonwood tree number 277 east of Barney's Jct.

On the soggy earth below the beaver dam a new adult giant swallowtail  Papilio cresphontes was basking and may have been preparing for a first flight.. or warming its flight muscles to take off.

Elaeagnus flowering still outside NE gate. Viburnum was just getting ready to start blooming over the trail east of the NW Pond. Spring is 2-3 weeks later this year compared to 2012. Sapindus is late, still not quite ready to put out leaves; Morus also late; Celtis late; Bumelia nice new leaves fully out.

Beautiful fine day.

Ducks in the Woods

Last night's full, drenching 2.5 inch rain added to the earlier rains of April has produced flooding in the southern Woods and full ponds I have not seen in two years. This Thursday evening at 6 I put on my rubber knee boots and entered the Woods via the NW Ponds Entrance. The Northwest Pond at 2.79 feet was full and brimming over to the cattail marsh south.. full on the north side to near the trail. The East Pond reached 3.37 feet. The depth  in the Wash at the post was 25.5 inches. Now from drought to surfeit.
I waded carefully into the almost knee deep water south of the big northern cottonwoods, to the Main Southwest trail and up the East West Trail, almost overtopping my boots several times and disturbing a small flock of ducks plus one barred owl. (What does an owl do with this flooding? thrive or suffer?)
This is a return to one of the selective forces/ states that existed 2-4 years ago. Trees' roots will be challenged to survive the drowning. Earthworms and invertebrates will be driven out of flooded soils or die. Mosquitoes should have enough time to breed, although I have not seen any this season, to now. Water of this depth will last for two weeks to a month or more, depending on how much warm dry wind or additional spring rain we receive. Tree roots will be loosened and if strong wind storms shake the southern trees, they may fall. There was not much down that I encountered from the blustery 20-50 mph winds of the past 12 hours..just dead tops ready to break.
This will drown understory herbaceous spp. in the low lying areas. and keep the understory clear. A full return of the lower Woods to its sometimes-wetland status. I keep looking for turtles, and have not seen one red-eared slider, snapper or box. No turtles, no salamanders, no frogs. I think the last two dry springs have been hard on them. I suspect they will return now. It will be nice to welcome them back.
Up on the Tree Loop Amanda was conducting one last run of their ecology experiment with predator scent and sunflower seeds.

Spring Clean-up: Invasive Spp and Flotsam

Priscilla, Lara and Heather organized and led clean up day as part of Big Event.

Two student crews pulled up young Ligustrum and gathered the old cups, bottles and cans floated down to the Delta in the southern Woods. Marvelous transformation and much more to do on both projects. Ligustrum and Elaeagnus removal offer opportunity to restore/ convert significant areas of the Woods where they currently are a thick shrub understory. Interesting to do patch removal and see what expands.. box elder, Symphoricarpos indian currant, grasses or something else. One could randomly pick a few 30 m x 30 m blocks each year to remove the invasives and watch the response.

I tackled Lonicera maackii Amur honeysuckle. I was aware of a half dozen large Amur honeysuckle growing southwest of the Bur Oak Bridge and in one western spot west of the Catalpa group. I ended up cutting 26 separate rooted plants with chainsaw or loppers.. maybe 100 stems. I treated all with roundup foam and marked each with pink flagging. I will return and see if there is stump sprouting later this summer and/or next spring.

As I was walking around looking closely for the honeysuckle I saw many more invasives I had not earlier noticed: ~10 small Bradford pear, 100's of Elaeagnus Russian olive. In one spot along the NW Trail there were 6 invasive spp. located together within 30 feet: privet, Nandina, multiflora rose, Elaeagnus, Bradford pear, Amur honeysuckle.

Today was a beautiful warm sunny spring day in the mid 70's F. After the long gentle rains (5.5 inches) of early April the flood in the western Woods is still there in small pools and soggy litter. The large craneflies Tipula are abundant with silvery wings and mating pairs around the shallow water. They've been waiting a long time. In the Southeast corner and elsewhere around the Woods light purple violets are abundantly blooming.

Each year 1-2 days in early April should be given to 'clean-ups' such as this. Perfect time. Early box elder leaves have just opened filling the understory but canopy is still open and bare. Invasive spp. are easy to spot. Lots of diverse butterflies are feeding on the sweet flowers of the Russian olive. If I've missed any large Amur honeysuckle, its flowers will be opening prominently this week.

Floods Return to the Woods

This morning after three days of soft gentle rain, the skies cleared. At 7:30 PM I entered the Woods by the West Pond. 3.3 inches in 3 days. 4 inches total this seven days brought the West Pond up to 2.50' depth. There were a pair of Canada geese resting there as I walked past. The East pond was up to 3.10'. South of the East Pond the new Woods trail encountered ankle deep flooding from the reclining elm south. I flushed four ducks from the well-flooded Main SW trail and stood to watch and listen to them flying off through the Woods. The Main SW trail was flooded to near the broken elm arch. There should be good collecting of drowned earth worms along the SW trail tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how quickly the water sinks into the ground, or stays ponded above the surface. Heading back along 2 Friends, and then up the EW Trail, Heather's NW block of ash trees was flooded.. but no leaves yet. Next four days forecast is mid 70's. Small pointed green leaves are all emerging on the dogwoods.

April Showers, Wounded Dove

The rain returned the last day of March with 0.75 inch in a powerful 3 AM thunder and hail storm. In the morning, I checked the Woods to see what effect the storm had had.  All the trails were littered with small branches/ twigs down; but there were no larger fallen trees. East of Hackberry Alley on the Northwest trail, I found a dove energetically struggling - trying to fly or run away. It could not fly. Liz suggested it may have been damaged by the hail.

The West pond had 1.56 feet depth and East pond 1.55 feet. The Wash had water running, but jumping across at the Island was easy. Water had backed up towards the Beaver dam and stopped 50 feet short. 

I added another 35 large trees to the database Easter weekend.. many green ash north of the fallen big cottonwood and many medium large cottonwoods in a discrete patch southeast of Tall Stump. Interesting to see the patterns emerging from the map. The larger trees' establishment and growth reflect ecological processes 50-60 years ago: grazed or ungrazed, tended for nut harvest or not, disturbed or not. There are a few mystery trees I will enjoy figuring out when we have leaves. The elms all across the Woods produced flowers 3 weeks ago. The indian plum bloomed two weeks ago and is still blooming. The exotic Amur honeysuckle leafed out at the same time. This past week, the redbud flowers and box elder leaves are opening.

Unfortunately, the tick season appears to be ready to begin. Saturday temp rose above 80 F and I brought home 9 ticks: 3 good sized and six tiny seed ticks. Hopefully, rain and cooler weather will delay their full pest abundance for another month or two.

Yesterday and last night we had a delightful additional 2 inches of slow soft rain with more due today. This should soak in and do wonders for the soil. It should give the trees the deeper drink they've needed and power spring on into full bloom.

Out Late

Went to the SW Gate Wednesday evening towards sunset. The Woods were dry. After a good wet February we've had almost zero rain for March. The paths in the Woods are hard, the soil is dry to the point that is has lost its resilience. Hoping for rain.
I spotted a herd of ten deer. The indian plum is blooming but seems a little sparse. They may not have recovered from last year's heat and drought. The amur honeysuckle is well-leafed out. Now is a good time to cut and remove.. new growth being produced. This has been a serious invasive problem in midwest.
Lots of small to medium sized branches down from the days of dry winds over the past fortnight.
Spring here, as of late March, is cool, late and dry. Heard the barred owl calling in the central Woods.

Greening of the Woods

Today and yesterday both broke 80 F. I've been spending as much time as I can several hours a week in the Woods watching spring bursting out. Today flowers on the mexican plum were blooming on several trees along the trail between the two ponds. I discovered a pair of Canada geese on the West Pond looking like they were thinking about a nesting site.. and on the East pond there was a night heron standing still in the SE corner. There was a decomposing possum along the trail near the big pecan there tree # 122 busy with blowflies laying their eggs. I re-discovered a small 50 cm tall holly 25' west of tree #131 and nine or ten stems of a thorny unknown (Gleditsia locust?) by tree # 138.
Around Norman, quince and forsythia are fully blooming. In the Woods along the Tree Loop, every elm appears to be blooming. In town, the Bradford pear just 'popped' into full bloom these two days. At home, the big oak out front lost its last leaves and started to open up new green catkins and leaves together. The big deep ravines in the north Woods are now green from side to side with spring Stelleria, chickweed and others. The water in the wash has fallen to 5"  at the post.

Hawk & Squirrel Rain Deer Cold Spring

Blustery cold (37F, 20 mph) spring day. I went to the NE Gate at 4:30 to see what the half inch sharp rain had done Saturday, and the strong northwest wind today. The Tree Loop was in good shape. Students (~18) in Phenology began their monitoring of 100 trees around the Loop this past Tuesday 5 March. Elms were already flowering and Eleagnus leaves were emerging but everything else was still waiting.

At the north end of the Tree Loop I heard a commotion in the top of a dead hackberry tree just northeast of the trail. A red tailed hawk was sitting there and a squirrel was scolding it from a foot or two away. Then I saw why. The hawk had landed in / on the squirrel's nest. I stood and watched and after a minute or two the hawk flew 20 feet away and landed on the ground. It had taken the squirrel's entire nest in its claws and seemed almost stuck. Then I saw the whisking tail of the squirrel (adult or young..the tail looked small) of the squirrel the hawk had pinned in the nest. The hawk stood awkwardly on the ground facing me in the distance for 3-4 minutes then flew up to a nearby oak leaving the nest and squirrel. I didn't intervene. I am guessing after I passed on by the hawk returned to complete it's meal.

I took the Pipeline Trail to head west across the wash. There was water backed up but easy to jump across. I walked along the NW trail to the East Pond and there flushed four ducks. At least one looked like a wood duck.. maybe all four. The water depth was  1.10 '. On to the West Pond (no ducks) & water depth of 1.3 '. Lots of FLAB on West pond surface. It has been there for a few weeks.  At the West pond I flushed 7 white-tailed deer. Two ran upslope and five ran south east of the pond.
All the trails I walked were OK. The water from Saturday's rain had not backed up to the beaver dam.

I cleared some dead cedar branches and decaying logs to make a new Levee Leg off the Tree Loop west of the cedar arch down toward the wash below. I flagged a half dozen new trees (bur oaks, pin oak, big persimmon, big cottonwoods) and a few other small interesting 1-2 m tall saplings there - not sure what they are. I'll have to wait for leaves. Plus two Bradford Pear on the south side of the Pipeline Trail.

Ground hog Day

Burned out, I decided to go to the Woods at 3 and reconnect with the trees and land. I entered via the new North Central gate and followed the deer trail down the ravine to the lower forest. We had recently had 0.25 inch rain. The water in the Wash at the post was 8 inches and the depth in the NW Pond was 0.45 feet. I found a moderately large old bur oak near a larger diameter pecan with a broken top where a raccoon lives and I stretched out on the ground for a good leafy nap. Three white-tailed deer waved their white tail flags at me as they ran north of the Ravine Trail. I took the saw and began clearing a way straight across the top in the center of the Ravine/ North Rim Trail. The one fragrant honeysuckle bush on the south slope was blooming. I caught a small black and red ichneumon landing on my cheek. I thought about I.D. and label for each significant tree along all the trails with a species 2 letter code written on soft soda pop can aluminum inch by inch square stapled to the tree.

South Boundary Cut

Walk in the Woods from the SW Gate on Chautauqua, just above the old trash station. There has been some recent (this week?) power line right-of-way clearing of a 30 foot wide swath, 400 m long, all the way to the culvert where the water drains south from the Woods. This was a thick border of 10 foot high small diameter willow, cottonwoods and green ash with tall Johnson grass and sedge beneath. It was rich, often wet, edge habitat for chickadees, juncos and other passerines. The crews used a D299 rubber tracked Cat with a powerful shredder on the front, and chewed everything down into a flattened fibrous strip between the N and S fence lines. The cleared strip is festooned with a thousand plastic bags newly exposed. I was walking there at sunset and the birds were quite active. I watched a (probably wild) black cat cross under the fence and go north into the Woods. The open SW Woods are now the edge.. no thick brushy habitat providing shelter or a buffer.. just open woods.. or in some sections there is a low hedge of Japanese honeysuckle along the old fence line. I walked the shredded area back and forth a couple of times, intrigued to get a first look at the Woods edge from a new angle; but sad to lose that good habitat.

Saturday morning the East Pond was looking suddenly reddish and turbid, as if some animal like a turtle or a crayfish population had moved in and was going around stirring the bottom sediment. The water is 0.44 foot deep. 

Along several trails, including the southern end of the N-S trail, foraging animals have been noticeable 'bulldozing' their way around through the fallen leaves. Leaving behind a funny pattern of their foraging.. maybe a turtle, or skunk or armadillo or raccoon.

Recently, I have been seeing a group of 3-5 white-tailed deer in the western Woods, in the thick stands of green ash.

This past week I made a tentative new Y trail extending from the big tree grove and East Pond at the NE end and the northern, leaning big poplar at the NW end, past the fallen giant cottonwood to the reclining elm and south to the fumaroles on the SW Trail. The trail(s) go through the thickest of the small diameter ash stands and, on the west, skirt the sedge wetland. We'll see if the trail makes sense enough to keep as is and keep clear.. or if it should be altered.

Spring Rains in January

Last two days the Woods have had a marvelous, much-needed three quarters inch rain - slow and gentle. Fall rains did not come; and the Woods have been unusually dry. I went to the NW Ponds entrance at 4 PM. The NW Pond was up to 0.46' and East Pond was 0.47'. They will both rise over the next two weeks as the water gradually percolates down and raises the water table. The water in the Wash was 31" depth at the post.

There was no water by the beaver dam; but water was rippling as it flowed into the southern delta.

The Woods were quiet,  only one white-tailed deer. The doe ran quickly in front of me descending the steep slope by the NW entrance, as I was leaving.  Fifty feet away it stopped and looked back at me. I stopped and waved. I wonder if some of the deer know me. I think they do. At 5:15, I heard the first barred owl in the SE corner of the Woods begin to call. It was answered by a barred owl in the SW corner.. all along with the barking of neighborhood dogs in the subdivision west of the Woods.

The Woods in mid or late winter are at their most open. The coral berry has lost all its leaves.. only the privet, Russian olive and evergreen junipers produce much greenery over ankle high. It makes the place feel small and the noise of the traffic penetrates farther in through the trees. It is the best time to wander off trail through areas normally too thick to enter. A good time to find new things.

After the light long rains, 20 minutes before sunset, the Woods were filled with a rich light from the low sun when it found a band of clear sky above the western horizon. The rich browns of the fallen leaves set off the wet mottled greens of lichens on the broken branches fallen from the canopy.

With warmth in the mid 50 F range, better soil moisture and earlier lows last month in the low teens, the trees will now begin to swell their buds. We'll have an earlier spring this year.. maybe a few days advanced over last year.

The Largest Tree

Nice day to  be out in the Woods... high 40's and clear sun. I started adding some more large trees to the database working westward along the SW trail from near the Grandfather tree. The largest tree diameter I have measured in the Woods 136.5 cm DBH is the Grandfather tree. It is hollowed out in the center but has a good top. It is in a good location with enough water but some elevation so it has survived the extended floods. It holds its leaves later in the year than surrounding trees. Grand old tree.

I added 23 trees.. all but two were green ash. Interesting that is so dominant over this stretch.. no large hackberries, pecan, oaks, coffee tree, walnut, boxelder, sycamore etc. The large elms in this section have been succumbing to beetles and dutch elm disease for a year or two.

I checked the Vespula yellowjacket nest again at 4. There were no wasps flying; but the ten wasps I counted outside the nest on the leaf litter within 2-3 inches of the entrance, were slowly moving their antennae or legs.

No deer (or other quadrupeds) encountered this afternoon. The water level in the Wash had fallen to 3 inches at the post.

Cold New Year's Day

Out to see the Woods  on this cold cold New Year's Day. At 11 am I started from the NW entry. Gray skies and 29F with 5 mph N wind. The forest soil and leaf litter were wet with the melting snow of the past week. Colors of leaves on the forest floor were rich and vivid.

What is alive and green.. and how does it live through the winter?
The invasives: Ligustrum privet, Lonicera honeysuckle, Liriope monkeygrass, Eleagnus Russian olive, Euonymus burning-bush, Hedera English ivy
Some natives: Cyperus hystericina sedge, Juniperus juniper, Smilax (some), Phoradendron mistletoe
and some herbaceous: Galium bedstraw, Stellaria chickweed, Cardamine mustard, Glechoma hederacea  gill-over-the-ground, Allium spring onions, Geum avens (not much), Viola violets
Plus the stems of deciduous Acer negundo boxelder, Smilax catbriar and greenbrier.

What food is available? Ligustrum privet black berries, Lonicera honeysuckle black berries, Rosa multiflora hips, Symphoricarpos coralberry, Celtis hackberries, Juniperus berries, bur oak acorns, pecans, Maclura osage oranges. Someone took two osage oranges up on to a down tree to eat.

The NW pond @ 0.40 feet,  60% surface covered, 10% ice covered.  The East Pond 0.32 depth, 70% ice cover. Western wash 22.5 inches on post.. flowing past Elm Bridge.

Pileated woodpecker in trees E. of E. Pond. Scores of robins dipping drinks from E. Pond. How do they live through winter? Chickadee. Cardinal, Red-shouldered hawk.

Large active burrows.. by the NW entrance 5-10 m upslope from fallen saw cut pecan;   by cottonwood #164 beneath fallen coffee tree.

Three clusters of Ligustrum privet with leaves turning yellow by camera tree. Stems with low old wounds/ scars from feeding of deer?

Heard dog bark by dead deer on W. Dune Trail. Dog had dragged carcass 30 feet north and eaten out back half, legs, abdomen, leaving exposed bloody ribcage neck and head.

Amazed at Vespula yellowjacket nest. Found 9-10 wasps outside entrance curled up on dead leaves. I picked up three and was astonished to see them begin to move.. after our week of snow and cold.

In zone of fallen pecans from ice storm winter 2000-2001,  rodent poop and honey colored Armillaria? group in cavity in big pecan trunk. Also lots of Auricularia Jew's ear or jelly ear.

One tree full of cool stem burls W of ivy trees.

Green mosses growing on down rotting cedar.. but not on down pecan log next to it.

After two hours, fingers chilled, headed out, headed home. Great  day, great way to begin the year.