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.