Phenology notes

Out early Saturday morning to the NE Tree Loop. Beautiful clear, sunny morning and day. The Woods are on the brink of green-up and coming alive. From the  Trans OWP trail, I looked across the open understory of the Woods. The 2 m tall privet and russian olive have their new leaves and the floor of the Woods is gently greening with early growth of grasses. Geum avens has been green and growing for two months and young violets have had their first green leaves for 2-3 weeks. On the raised warm soil above the pipeline, there was the first dandelion in bloom. On the sunny hillock south of the Tree Loop, there was a blooming Lamium purpureum henbit.
Throughout the Woods the blooms of Prunus mexicanus plum are opening full. I watched honey bees (probably hungry from the winter) busily gathering nectar at one tree. This week, or fortnight would be a great time for a short research project. Locate and map each flowering plum in the Woods by GPS. They will be easy to see for about 10 days before all the other trees flush their leaves.. and their distribution is interesting.. sparse.. not rare but not typically abundant in any patches either. Often just one small tree by itself. Elm, sugarberry, soapberry, pecan, walnut, oak, mulberry, juniper, hickory, sycamore, willow, cottonwood, green ash, others.. these tend to be found in groups or patches - not so for plum. It would be interesting to look at its distribution and ask 'why?'. It is a way to ask the question why are some plants 'rare'. There are probably a 100 plum trees in the Woods.
I found two large healthy amur honeysuckle with fresh green leaves fully out and one surviving stump I cut last year. I'll need to cut again and try to eliminate.
Around the Tree Loop the redbuds are coming into their own. All are flowering and their blooms will develop for the next ten days. (Around Norman the Forsythia are all blooming bright yellow and the bright flowering peach in the side back yard is looking at its best with full young flowers.
The west central portions of the Woods S of the East Pond are full of small 'vernal pools' the size of a bathtub or smaller where a rotten stump or some disturbance has left a depression. Perfect project for someone interested in aquatic invertebrates to monitor and sample.. Daphnia, copepods, mosquito larvae etc. I have seen no sign of mosquitoes (or ticks) at all.
With the dandelions (above) there were also early green growth of Galium bedstraw. Sitting along the Pipeline Trail by the big walnut, I saw a short stubby Schinia moth fly over and watched a good diversity of warblers and small woodland birds foraging.. great light for viewing. In the partly soggy SW Woods there were bright red male cardinals chasing each other and small groups of robins foraging. Marvelous time to be in the Woods.