Sad damage to the Woods

Nice morning for a walk in the Woods. At 10:30 I went to the NW entrance and walked into the fragrant humidity of the green jungle growing. Vague sweet fragrance may be from last of Ligustrum privet bloom or beginning honeysuckle or some other combination. Glimpse of a heron at the pond but interesting only the clear reflection in the water as it flapped to a hidden perch a few feet above the water. Green everywhere but no turtles visible. New dragonfly libelluid adults perching on shrubs by the trail. Spider webs are beginning again, dozens across the trail; but interestingly not the Micrathena typical for early summer orb weavers. Wonder what happened..looks like maybe young orange Araneus instead. With half inch of rain Friday morning, the trails are pleasantly soggy, but no standing water blocking trails, even on SW Trails. The ponds are well filled and the toeslope swamp to the west.
Mosquitoes are fairly abundant even with DEET and ticks are there too. I find several on me hours later despite precautions, DEET, changing clothes, shower, tick check etc.
Fungi are diverse and abundant with the summer rain. The wood ear Auricularia is full of moisture and full size on many logs and standing snags. couple of small red Sarcoscypha scarlet elf cups on Tree Loop, lots of small agarics on decaying logs, white oyster mushrooms, or something like it all along mystery fallen hackberry. Especially in NW Woods fallen catkins are everywhere, an abundant addition to litter fall. One large doe avoids me on Tree Loop. Barred owl flies silently away in the under story and disappears west of Hackberry Alley.
  65 m north of the old beaver dam there is a serious, large spot infestation of dozens of stems of the invasive vine, Celastrus occidentalis, bittersweet. In a rough ellipse maybe 15-20m long and 5-10 m wide. There is a luxuriant tangled growth of bittersweet leaves up in the canopy. Looks to have been there a few years. Some of the vines were 2 inches in diameter. I cut the big ones I could find with a small pruning saw I had with me and pulled up 30-40 smaller stems. There are scores of small stems remaining.
  At the NE Entrance to the Tree Loop I discovered that the northern boundary of Oliver's Woods along Hwy 9 had been cut this week. Looks like crews from a power company had a tracked vehicle and chainsaws to cut a swath about 20-30 feet south of the fence line.  They've cut and shredded trees marked with blue flagging with numbered permanent metal tags we used for phenology and species ID tutorials.  The clearing is excessive, and conducted without regard to the special conservation/ education status and the Oklahoma Registered Natural Area status.  I was saddened to see this. It would be good if the power company could have the understanding that Oliver's Woods has special status for conservation, education and research and they managed the right-of-way to have the minimum possible impact. Instruct the sawyers that the forest is valuable and they should cut only what is necessary. It does not look like there was appropriate restraint. Sad to have this damage and reduction of the Woods.

Turtles, Herons, Green Tigers, Old Skulls, Oh my.

Beautiful Sunday morning, I went to the Woods via the NW Entrance about 9:30. Sweet, welcoming perfume with new yellow and white Japanese honeysuckle flowers at the entrance.
The green woods have grown a lot in the past week.
Box elder leafy twigs, fresh greenbrier tendrils, multiflora rose and all the young trail-side trees, pecans, coffee tree, soapberry, sugarberry, walnut, viburnum, dogwood and many others all had extended fresh new growth out into the trail.
Approaching the NW Pond, I was happy to see the yellow-crowned night heron again, resting still-as-a-statue where the new diatoms were found. The pond still continues to the western wetland, closer to Chautauqua, and provides shade & cover for birds to rest. Water level is down some, but it's still good and full.
At East Pond there was so much disturbance/ digging/ tracks in the east end wet mud, I wondered if hogs had gotten into the Woods. More likely coyotes, armadillos and maybe some turtles.
I spotted two box turtles, one at the east end of East Pond, and one on the west side of the gully west of Elm Bridge. Wonder if either are older than me. Lots of soft green new vegetation for turtles to eat today.
Northeast of Elm Bridge I noticed a half dozen black ants (size of small Camponotus carpenter ants) guarding and collecting honey dew from a small patch of aphids on a box elder. Then I saw that they were all over the apical leafy twigs of the six foot tall tree. Larger soldiers were trundling up the stem of the tree too. Something I did startled the six ants I noticed first, and they all jumped into hyperactivity running up and down, searching every corner of each leaf and twig in their four or five inch patch, looking for threats to attack. Looked like someone had produced an alarm pheromone with instant effect. Reminded me of Janzen's acacia ants; but these ants were benefiting only the aphids, at a cost to the box elder. Might be fun to do some studies.
On the East West trail, in a splash of sunlight, there was a flash of emerald, a brilliant green Cicindela sexguttata tiger beetle. As the beetle ran along the trail, a bright yellow and black, bee mimic  assassin / robber fly Laphria zoomed off its sunny perch. I found only one spider web across the trail. I wonder if strong winds past two days had an effect?
All along the trails -  dry and wet - there was substantial digging, like something a dog or coyote would do, small 3-5 inch deep excavations.
At the twin trunk big pecan west of Hackberry Alley, there was an old deer skull with one forked antler attached, someone had brought there to chew. Had some green algae growing in one spot. It had been laying somewhere in the forest for a while. I didn't see or hear any deer, although there were plenty of tracks, and I didn't walk the southern trails down by Beaver Dam (where there is still water). I wonder if coyotes denning in the Woods would mean fewer deer; or if the deer have so much to eat everywhere they don't need to come to the Woods for dinner.
On the Tree Loop a murder of crows was raucously harassing something. I couldn't tell if it was the barred owl or a red-shouldered hawk.
Only showy flowers were the tall white daisies in a couple of locations, although hundreds of Avens Geum were pushing out greenish flowers, before making more burs for my socks. Note to self: bring knee boots to avoid ruining socks for next few weeks.
Brought home a half dozen ticks (that I found). A few mosquitoes buzzing at the NW Pond, but hardly worth mentioning. The Woods are full of life and growth. A marvelous place today.

Turtle Morning after Big Rain

2.35 inches of rain Wed/Thur this week. I walked the NE Tree Loop in the Woods at 10:30 on a beautiful Saturday morning. The Woods may be most alive now. Understory box elders have flushed out full new leaves, still fresh. The multi-flora rose is blooming white. Spiders are just beginning to weave webs. Only a few across any of the trails. My sentries were a couple of crows announcing my progress as I walked along. Nothing alarming, just a two syllable call. At Elm Bridge there was a school of maybe twenty to thirty 1.5 inch-long minnows/ guppies or similar. One yellow-white gold fish? schooled with the minnows. Someone must have introduced the fish.. maybe to eat mosquito larvae? In the upstream pool I watched through binoculars as something fairly large and submerged, disturbed the water over and over. Maybe a red-eared slider feeding? Never could spot it, but it moved fairly quickly and was fairly large (bull frog? turtle? water snake? Loch Oliver monster?).
I encountered three box turtles along the trail: one by the largest old (dead) walnut along the Tree Loop; one about 40 ft north of the leaning big Cottonwood with Carpenter's survey post; one on the east side of Island Crossing top of the bank (small/ young). There was also a red-eared slider basking on a floating log south side of the NW Pond.
The big broken hanging elm is re-greened by luxuriant growth of Parthenocissus, Virginia Creeper, up in the sunlight, sharing the crown with wild grape.
Twenty feet south of Fence Corner, along the trail there was a mystery vine.. large well-grown. Whitish bark, rounded leaves with a tip.
The ponds were well-filled: East Pond at 2.35 ft and NW Pond at 2.5 ft. Blooming flowers other than the rose - just white and yellow daisies. Did not see deer today. Good 'greens' for them everywhere.
   
 Several earlier days in the Woods with cool temps over the past two weeks. One midday entering via the NW Pond I heard an ambulance siren moving W along Hwy 9. It was answered by coyotes (maybe two or more) nearby top of hill above the East Pond. Leaving the Woods an hour later there was another ambulance and again the same answer from coyotes. Most days this fortnight, I see 3-5 white-tailed deer.
Began a new informal cross trail from Hackberry Alley over to south side of the Big Tree Grove. I like it. Just marked with 2-3 flags of blue tape. Great over-mature clump of white and brown agaric mushrooms there, looked like Coprinus almost. Week earlier I enjoyed finding fresh big oyster mushrooms and having a bite.