Late Mid-Winter Warm Day in the Woods

This morning I finished refreshing blue flags on labelled trees around the Tree Loop. This afternoon I took off to see the Woods on the warmest day of the year. 77 F at 4 o'clock. I took one spray can of paint for the once annual refresh of all the blue blazes in the Woods. I walked 80% of the 2 miles of trails checking everything I could see.
 The southern and central Woods were busy with woodpeckers - lots of small groups of two and three, a few different species. Three white-tailed deer moved away SE of the East Pond.
The soil was soft everywhere, enough moisture - though none recent,  and warm sun. The Delta and across much of the southern central Woods there is a modestly abundant cover of Capsella Shepherd's Purse, Stellaria Chickweed and other low green annuals. There were tracks everywhere through the Woods. The NW Pond was moderately full and looked to have the first beginning of the layer of Juniper pollen it will have later on. Patches of spring onions several inches high scattered here and there. (Why don't / can't they grow as a larger green sward, I wonder. What limits them?) The West Dune Trail has a tree down across the trail. None of the trees are active yet, although the first silver maple flower buds in Norman began to open last week.