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.