Open Woods

This Saturday morning, after a heavy one-inch thunderstorm rain at 6 AM, I went to the Woods at 9:30 to see what changes the rain had brought. I found the flood water I expected, moving 50 m west of the beaver dam, gradually sinking into the soil, and gradually creeping farther west. The green ash, cottonwoods, elms and others along that southern section of the Woods will get a good deep drink, that will last through the winter. I wonder if there is an impact of the pollutants carried in this water, washed from the Lloyd Noble parking lot.
Across the Woods, the leaves are 95% down. The Woods have opened up to almost their winter-time appearance. Still lots of blonde-brown leaves hanging from box elder. Leaves killed in early snow did not form a normal abscission layer before dropping. Other trees, willows, pecan some elm and sugar berry were caught with late leaves still green as the snow began to fall. They have dropped the leaves now. It should make for a richer leaf litter this autumn, more minerals and nutrients left in leaves by the trees without time for the normal leaf senescence process.
Northwest of the beaver dam there were four large white-tail deer, three older does and one large buck with a good set of antlers. I could smell a rich wet mammal smell farther along the trail where they had been standing. The dung they left looked like tight clusters of small grapes.
The east pond was now 2/10ths of a foot in depth and the northwest pond had a good half of its basin filled with water, although still shallow.
Green in the Woods now are the fresh new Ligustrum privet shrub leaves, the old remaining leaves of Quercus macrocarpa bur oak and Sideroxylon chittamwood.. also fresh dark green Geum avens marked with light green veins and the anachronistic bright green Elephantopus leaves. The leaves of the scattered Viburnum rusty black haw shrubs are turning a bruised purple green brown, but have not fallen. The cottonwoods have shed all their golden leaves.
Fresh fungi were sprouting fruiting bodies: red-brown ruffles of Auricularia jew's ear common up the stems of dead elms and walnut, or bright lacquered Ganoderma beefsteak polypores abundant on the pecan stump at the north end of the Two Pecan trail, and fresh new Agaricus at the base of old trees.

Green Fall and Snow

Cold winter morning, with NW wind bringing snow by mid morning. I went to the Elm Bridge early, to clear a fallen elm blocking the Southeastern trail. Entering the Woods, the ground is littered with incongruous green. Mostly pecan leaves, but also some elm and mulberry. They've held their green leaves through the first week of November. The strong 20-40 mph winds through Norman all this past week with the outbreak of the polar vortex have brought them down, green. A bit strange. I wonder if these trees dropped their leaves months earlier, when the rains stopped in August & September; then re-flushed new leaves September & October that they've held until now. Maybe check the phenology cameras in the Woods. Most of ash and hackberry are now bare.. silent sticks waiting for winter. The big cottonwoods still have most of their crowns, although the hard freeze this week has turned the green to a more grayish-green.. same for the small bur oaks that held their green leaves until now. Soon the only green above ground level will be juniper, scattered Sideroxylon chittamwood, a rare Ilex holly or two and the abundant Ligustrum privet shrubs. The main growing season for the Woods this year reaches an abrupt end. But on the forest floor, winter violets have new green leaves. Liriope monkey grass and Geum avens are growing now that the shade of the summer canopy is gone.

The deer are moving into the Woods for shelter this morning with the northwestern storm winds blowing (and hunters active). The Woods' deep, south-facing ravines can provide a relatively snug escape from the wind; and there are patches of green Liriope and Elephantopus for food.
Yesterday, I saw 3-4 deer,  including a healthy-looking young buck with antlers, close by a doe. This morning, there were four young deer together in the south central Woods. I stop and sing to the deer and wave my hands. They listen.. and when I then sit down they crane their necks and tilt their heads to better see me and figure out this strange apparition. The bucks are making their 'scrapes', clearing half meter square areas of leaves down to the soil, to let females know they are there, ready to breed.

The ponds and the Wash are empty and the soil is dry.. not desperately so.. but we need several good soaking winter rains to replenish the ground water table.. nothing in the forecast to do that for now. The Woods will be different this evening with an inch of fresh snow.