North Rim Trail, Early and Late Trees and Leaves

Returned to the Woods' North Rim Trail on this Thanksgiving morning for the first time this year. Cool morning 45F. Saw two groups of three large deer each running away south.  The trail segments are in reasonable shape, if somewhat overgrown from lack of use.. No massive blockage or saw required. The north portion of the Woods is the wilder part, less visited and more homes for animals of the woods. Many burrows in active use. I used my cedar walking stick as a scythe to cut old asters and a short clippers to clear greenbrier.
Most (97%) of canopy leaves are down now. But a curious thing, some individual trees and some branches still hold their leaves. Why? Is there an advantage to holding leaves a bit later? What are the species, apart from Sideroxylon Chittamwood,  that are likely to do this? What are the trees that put out their leaves before everyone else? It continues to be very dry..

Crinkly Woods

Took a walk out to the Woods via the SW Gate last two days. Today late in the afternoon. The newly fallen bur oak leaves by the south gate make a loud, crunching sound.. like walking in a bowl of corn chips. Further east and north where pecan dominate, the fallen leaves are more of a silvery, high pitched sound. The leaves around the big cottonwood make a different dry paper sound.
  The big (fifth largest) cottonwood #39, diameter 122 cm or 4 feet is on its way out. The massive single stem rises 40 feet in a graceful arc to the northeast. A huge old branch, forks off there and rises more vertically to become the top. The highest branches may be 65 feet up. All around the base at ground level are big hard conks of a polypore eating away at the supporting xylem and heartwood of the stem. That huge weight held up high for the many decades of its life will come crashing down on the world below it when the fungus has eaten too much of the support. Looking at the crown, the tree looks healthy; but it is doomed by the fungus at its base.
  Today there were two deer southeast of the Delta. The buck snorted and ran with white tail flag flying. I sang to it and it stopped, partly hidden by trees between us. It watched me as if curious.Yesterday there were five (mostly younger) deer in one group.
  The Delta is a solid green carpet of 2 inch tall annuals, Stellaria chickweed, Glechoma ground ivy, Allium spring onions, Viola violets, some Galium cleavers, some Apiaceious(?) abundant delicate annual with leaves like a Geranium Erigeron but a smell like parsnip, some false dandelions, some grass (Festuca?). The little rain we've had in the past couple of months, a quarter inch a few weeks ago, has started the spring growth and the unnaturally warm days and nights have kept them growing.
  Leaving the Woods at sunset this evening, and looking west through the forest, I was struck by the view, revealing the density, placement and various forms of all the stems of the trees as they separately seek the canopy and bend to escape each other. This is not visible in the summer months. Leaves obscure this view. It is clear at sunset in the dim light when the stems are mostly in silhouette. There is a new perspective here, offering new knowledge of the spacing and the lives of the tree community.

Fall Return to the Woods

Out to the Woods twice this week. Today with Darin and Rebecca to explore leaf litter research possibilities. Lots of leaves down now, maybe 80%. Most canopy leaves still up high on old grandfather cottonwood. A few mosquitoes on tree loop as I replaced/ refreshed tree tags. Pool at Island Crossing is partly refilled. Water pooled in the wash is dark with organics. With the saw, I cleared the slowly sinking arch of the broken elm and vine tangle blocking the NW trail by the big Viburnum. Cleared the fallen elms blocking the west end of the Two Friends Trail. Quarter inch rain a few days ago, left a nice autumnal acid smell in the air, decomposition starting again. Found some salmon pink slime mold recently crawled up on elm log.  Near largest western cottonwood, big leaning pecan has broken at base, crashed down and smashed or scarred several other trees. South 30 m from big cottonwood, leaning old elm has scar bleeding flux that is attractive to two Polistes wasps, a Vespula yellowjacket and several species of flies. No predation going on, although flies are a bit skittish about quick movements of Polistes.
No deer seen but some buck soil scrapes are showing up along tree loop. Gambusia roiling the surface of the NW pond.. shallow and small but still enough to sustain. The Gambusia will have eliminated most invertebrate larvae including odonates. One more substantial tree to clear from trail leading down the hill below the south end of the Tree Loop. Spider webs mostly gone from trails. Woods are busy with abundant robins at 5 PM before the time change this weekend.