Sunday morning out at 8 with Amy to review the Tree Loop. Needs some refreshing or replacement of ID tags. Trimmed a little of the Elephantopus, Elephant's foot and other vegetation growing in trail. More trimming needed. Abundant Spined Micrathena, Micrathena gracilis females on their webs across the trail. Carried saw into SE connector trail to clear largish fallen ash, blocking trail. Found a young red-eared slider sitting out on the sand below the Elm Bridge.
Then around to SW entrance. Cleared out giant ragweed, honeysuckle and clematis vines threatening to obscure entrance gate. Carried saw to clear dead elm across main SW trail. Two white-tailed does were accompanying four spotted small bambis. The fawns sprinted away east, splashing across and through the shallow water around 125 m. I sang to the does and they walked warily away but did not seem alarmed. No ticks or mosquitoes.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Mid Summer Muggy Woods and Armadillo
I went this morning to the NW Entrance at 9. It had been two months since I was last in the woods. The Woods were muggy, warm, humid from the 1.5 inch of rain night before last. The trails and the forest floor had the look of being washed of all their leaf litter and organic debris.. earlier heavy 2.5 inch rain two weeks ago may have done this.
The NW pond was quiet.. a few species of Libellulid dragonflies skimming around, but no turtles out basking, none that I saw.
I walked about half of the trails, and found one significant tree down across the trails, a dead ash on the SE Connector trail. One Armadillo scurried and hopped away from me at Barney's corner. A white-tailed deer noisily splashed away from me in the flooded NW corner of the NW pond as I was leaving. Throughout the Woods there were many Micrathena gracilis spiders with their orb webs draped across the trails. This would be a good time to study them. Where they build. Do they return to the same twigs if their web is destroyed? When do they build etc. I saw Hyphantria fall webworm on three species of trees: a few box elder, an elm and a pecan.
Not much flowering. The orange Campsis trumpet vines were in full bloom along the roadside fence south of the NW entrance. Elephantopus elephant's foot plants were abundant along the trails and providing thick cover in some places.. but no blooms, The orange-flowered weed, with sharp achenes(?) and dissected leaves was abundant, but few, or no blooms. I did not see any ticks (yet).
The SW Trail from Tall Stump to Heather's wired trees was underwater. The Tree Loop was in good shape but needs a swing blade to clear some of it.
I found the Tree of Heaven Ailanthus saplings in the regular location. The crushed leaves have a nutty, burnt-coffee smell that distinguishes them from the similar pecan sapling leaves that just smell like green foliage. There were more stems of the Botrypus fern near and north of the three big cottonwoods along the Wash.
The NW pond was quiet.. a few species of Libellulid dragonflies skimming around, but no turtles out basking, none that I saw.
I walked about half of the trails, and found one significant tree down across the trails, a dead ash on the SE Connector trail. One Armadillo scurried and hopped away from me at Barney's corner. A white-tailed deer noisily splashed away from me in the flooded NW corner of the NW pond as I was leaving. Throughout the Woods there were many Micrathena gracilis spiders with their orb webs draped across the trails. This would be a good time to study them. Where they build. Do they return to the same twigs if their web is destroyed? When do they build etc. I saw Hyphantria fall webworm on three species of trees: a few box elder, an elm and a pecan.
Not much flowering. The orange Campsis trumpet vines were in full bloom along the roadside fence south of the NW entrance. Elephantopus elephant's foot plants were abundant along the trails and providing thick cover in some places.. but no blooms, The orange-flowered weed, with sharp achenes(?) and dissected leaves was abundant, but few, or no blooms. I did not see any ticks (yet).
The SW Trail from Tall Stump to Heather's wired trees was underwater. The Tree Loop was in good shape but needs a swing blade to clear some of it.
I found the Tree of Heaven Ailanthus saplings in the regular location. The crushed leaves have a nutty, burnt-coffee smell that distinguishes them from the similar pecan sapling leaves that just smell like green foliage. There were more stems of the Botrypus fern near and north of the three big cottonwoods along the Wash.
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