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.