Lovely, unusual Friday 17 Nov. in Norman OK. 82 F. Tomorrow high will be 59F. I went for a walk in from the NW Entrance by the NW Pond at 5 PM. Soft warm Woods. Funny and noticeable to catch the first small currents of evening cool and note where they come, down the ravine, down from the top of the tall tree. This is when the secrets of the forest come out.. when the cool air saturated with scents of the forest, vines, leaves, boughs and soil, the rich scents come out on the cooler air in laminar flow.
The trail and all the Woods was crinkly dry with fresh fallen dry leaves. No rain for several days. The leaves from the pecans were the most noisy underfoot. I wonder about the noise different kinds of leaves make in the woods, under a group of big catalpa or bur oak or pecan or willow or sugarberry and elm. The sounds are very different to me and I think the animals in the Woods, white-tailed deer, raccoon, rabbits, skunks, mice, opossum, owls etc. they must know this too.. and maybe it helps them know where a walker is.
Last week as I was exiting the Woods just west of the NW pond in the evening, I saw a raccoon-sized animal running scurrying to the right in front of me to take cover. I caught enough of a view to recognize the armadillo; and a moment later walking at a regular pace I was standing in a roughly 40 foot diameter circle the armadillo had overturned, searching the leaf litter for worms, snails, millipedes and other dinner items.
I love being out in the Woods in the evening. Tonight after sunset all the western perimeter was orange with light. As the sky grew darker and darker the irregular massed orange clouds grew more intense orange.. finally a rich dark orange invaded with lenses of black before dark.
The wind today especially but really over the past week has fairly suddenly brought down almost all the leaves. The biggest cottonwoods are bare to their tops. It has been a good year for them.
There are the evergreens in the understory: Ligustrum privet, Lonicera honey-suckle - Japanese and Amur, Liriope monkey grass, Juniper cedar, Geum Avens, Verbesina Frostweed (fading yellow from late summer flowers), Smilax greenbrier, Rosa, multiflora rose, Euonymus strawberry bush, Symphoricarpos deerbush, Elaeagnus autumn olive (fading yellow), a few Ilex holly, Viola spring violets, Allium spring onions, Chasmanthium fish-on-a-line.
The two ponds were both well up, at 2.4 ft in depth. The NW pond still fills out over the swamp to the western wetland.
Walking along the paths this time of the year there are scores of twig branches cut by twig girdlers and dropped to the forest floor. Each of these has been cut off from defensive resins of its tree and eggs from the cerambycid have been placed along the stem. Fun to collect a bunch of these short branchlets and see what emerges next year.
Friday, November 17, 2017
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Night and the Woods
Beautiful night for the Woods. Full moon floating high in a sky filled with clouds, mild night temp, low 60's and moderate wind, enough to stir the trees but not chill. I went for a walk at 9:40, three hours after sunset.
I started in at the NE Gate ascending the Tree Loop trail heading south and wondering about the sound. The sound of highway traffic permeated all through the Woods, growling, thundering, roaring almost non-stop. Until the light turns red and drivers slow their cars and wait a minute to again unleash their roaring engines.
I wondered how far I would need to walk away from the road until the sound of the crickets trilling was as loud as the sound of the cars. I was surprised. I walked all the way to the south end of the Tree Loop, down the slope to the Wash across westward to the North South Trail and south along it to the far southern side of the Woods. Traffic was becoming more distant and somewhat quieter but still each pulse of traffic was easily discernible. I walked SW behind the shelter of a low long tree-covered dune and sat on a comfortable old branch from the big bur oak fallen there. There the trilling crickets were almost as loud as the highway.. almost.
The trees along the south boundary were impacted by the tornado-like wind moving along the southern boundary.
I started in at the NE Gate ascending the Tree Loop trail heading south and wondering about the sound. The sound of highway traffic permeated all through the Woods, growling, thundering, roaring almost non-stop. Until the light turns red and drivers slow their cars and wait a minute to again unleash their roaring engines.
I wondered how far I would need to walk away from the road until the sound of the crickets trilling was as loud as the sound of the cars. I was surprised. I walked all the way to the south end of the Tree Loop, down the slope to the Wash across westward to the North South Trail and south along it to the far southern side of the Woods. Traffic was becoming more distant and somewhat quieter but still each pulse of traffic was easily discernible. I walked SW behind the shelter of a low long tree-covered dune and sat on a comfortable old branch from the big bur oak fallen there. There the trilling crickets were almost as loud as the highway.. almost.
The trees along the south boundary were impacted by the tornado-like wind moving along the southern boundary.
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