Woke on a pleasant 48 F degree Sunday morning in late November. That was the high temperature. The wind was coming.
At 2:30 and 28F I stopped by the Northwest entrance of the Woods for a walk to see what was happening.
The wind was roaring.
I quickly walked down the slope into the lee of the northern slope and entered the relative calm under the trees. The winds were roaring overhead now and I wondered if trees would come down. I came to the NW pond and there stood the tallest great blue heron I think I've ever seen. It stood silently on the far side of the small pond. It colors were great camouflage with the gray and brown stems behind it. It tracked me as I walked past the pond, slowly turning its head. I did not linger or disturb it further.
Walking past the big tilted Carpenter cottonwood, I was glad it had shed its leaves and was standing bare, with less surface area for the wind to tug. Approaching the East Pond there was a burst of life as three white-tailed deer stood and bolted away from the SE side. They disturbed a large barred owl that flew silently from my NW side of the pond.
The Woods are largely bare now except for the incongruous green of the invasive Euonymus heart's a bustin' shrub with its red berries, on the SW shore of the East Pond and south next to the second largest cottonwood #200.
On the south side of the main East West Trail, east of Fence Corner the red elms in the under story have flushed new green leaves, a few weeks old. The under story there looks a bit like April. Odd..
Just south of East Pond, and again west of Elm Bridge, small passerines, wrens and other species were disturbed, flying rapidly around, scolding and chasing each other. I couldn't see a predator. I wondered if they are stressed and hustling to ready themselves for the sudden change in the weather.
The water depth in the NW Pond was 2.49 feet and in the East Pond 2.15 feet. There was still water in the Eastern Wash, and all the way to the Elm Bridge, but it was not flowing, dry from the Elm Bridge southward. Dry at Island Crossing. The NW Pond is covered in a light chocolate mouse brown of old pollen, now shoved up in a wrinkled skin to the eastern shore.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Monday, November 19, 2018
Cool Twilight
Went for a nice twilight walk at 5:30 from the NE Gate, quickly escaping down the path away from the highway traffic noise and into the sheltering quiet of the trees. Down across the Wash at Elm Bridge, I stopped to look south at the still yellow golden sky with darkness closing. The leaves have recently completely dropped and revealed once again the skeleton of the woods in silhouette. You can't see this during the day. Too much light and too much detail and distraction. But after sunset, with just the black silhouettes of the stems, branches and trunks against the yellow golden sky, you can see the structure of the trees. The way they interact, compete and grow. You could study this for a long time and learn a lot about trees.
Walking north along from the Two Pecan trail there was a barred owl calling. I stopped and gave a screech owl call. The barred owl paused a longer time, as if puzzled, then called again. I answered with the screech owl five or six times looking in the fading twilight out to the larger trees and then thought I saw, farther off, a large bird flying away north. I think my owl didn't know what to make of me.
Walking north along from the Two Pecan trail there was a barred owl calling. I stopped and gave a screech owl call. The barred owl paused a longer time, as if puzzled, then called again. I answered with the screech owl five or six times looking in the fading twilight out to the larger trees and then thought I saw, farther off, a large bird flying away north. I think my owl didn't know what to make of me.
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Brief Glory and Death in the Woods
On a mid November Saturday - a delightful fall day - I went to the NE corner of Oliver's Woods. Supposed to be mid 60's F most of the day and then a drop to near frost with cold front coming at sunset. I entered the Tree Loop and noticed the big yellow orange leaves scattered on the ground beneath the black hickory. Favorite tree in autumn in Oliver's Woods. Its rich butter yellow leaves glow in the understory, a brief glory. Now the last of the fall colors are gone and most of the autumn leaves are down. The Woods are beginning to open up, as they do each fall. You can again see more distant things.
I spot two whitetail does bounding away westward from near Elm Bridge. Along the Tree Loop at the cutoff junction, there is a large 'scrape', a square foot of soil scraped bare by a buck marking the place with his scent. Walking along the Barney cutoff a hundred feet northeast of the patch of bittersweet I discovered the recent remains and entrails of a whitetail a couple of weeks ago. My attention was captured first by abundant tufts of white and brown hair along the trail.. and then the odd grassy off-green of the rumen from the gut of the deer. Maybe an animal shot by a hunter, escaped to the Woods and died; perhaps carcass consumed by coyotes or other scavengers. No sign of the bones left. Perhaps I will find this winter.
In the Woods, I hear flickers calling, cardinals and robins, even warm enough for a lone cricket to sing by the NW Pond. A few other insects are still stirring. At Tall Stump a slow Polistes wasp lands briefly on my jeans and moves on.. likely a queen seeking a good shelter under a chink of bark or in a rotten log where she can pass the winter. In the spring she will emerge and begin laying eggs for her new brood who later will help build or expand her summer's nest. One last Vespula yellow jacket going to ground. Most of these will die before the real winter, leaving just the new queens already inseminated surviving the winter in their hidden shelters.
I roll a few of the rotting logs from the big pecan that fell 4-5 years ago. I previously cut 2-3 logs to open the path east and north of the Elm Bridge. The logs are beginning to have some good decay and I find some large sluggish Scolopendra centipedes curled and sheltered there. I also disturb nests of tiny ants, Monomorium? and snails. Good to see the logs picking up some inhabitants.
The NW Pond is well-filled (2.48 ft depth) and silvery. A surface skim of dissolved organics covers the pond and begins a slow counter-clockwise grey as a light west wind blows across the water.
There is new green in the Woods.. always happens and always interesting in November. The large nearly heart-shaped leaves remind me of Digitalis, foxglove.. but it isn't in the Woods. It isn't Smilax, greenbrier, maybe basal leaves of Elephantopus, elephantsfoot. I will have to figure that out. There are also side-by-side new fresh green leaves of Geum, avens with old avens leaves of this summer, now light brown or darker around the senescent edges. Also hardy green Euonymus. The three invasive 'L's' are all there with new leaves too: Liriope monkeygrass, Lonicera, Japanese honeysuckle and Ligustrum privet. Some of the braver (or foolhardy) native tree species are producing some new green leaves: small new box elder leaves and an expansive display of dozens of understory red elms with many fully flushed green leaves.. like April, almost.
Down by Beaver dam there are a half dozen mosquito wrigglers still growing in the remaining water. Just one adult mosquito there for the entire morning. Last turtles I've seen this year were with entomology class back on Oct. 26 a hundred yards east of the NW Pond.
This summer's life in the Woods is coming to an end. The leaves held on, and then fell quickly almost in a day after our late first freeze. But it is messy. Everything is there ready to make new life, standing water, muddy soil, abundant propagules, lots of organic carbon and nutrient elements to recycle into new life. Starting soon.
.. and a 'thanks' for the encouraging appreciation left on windshield.
I spot two whitetail does bounding away westward from near Elm Bridge. Along the Tree Loop at the cutoff junction, there is a large 'scrape', a square foot of soil scraped bare by a buck marking the place with his scent. Walking along the Barney cutoff a hundred feet northeast of the patch of bittersweet I discovered the recent remains and entrails of a whitetail a couple of weeks ago. My attention was captured first by abundant tufts of white and brown hair along the trail.. and then the odd grassy off-green of the rumen from the gut of the deer. Maybe an animal shot by a hunter, escaped to the Woods and died; perhaps carcass consumed by coyotes or other scavengers. No sign of the bones left. Perhaps I will find this winter.
In the Woods, I hear flickers calling, cardinals and robins, even warm enough for a lone cricket to sing by the NW Pond. A few other insects are still stirring. At Tall Stump a slow Polistes wasp lands briefly on my jeans and moves on.. likely a queen seeking a good shelter under a chink of bark or in a rotten log where she can pass the winter. In the spring she will emerge and begin laying eggs for her new brood who later will help build or expand her summer's nest. One last Vespula yellow jacket going to ground. Most of these will die before the real winter, leaving just the new queens already inseminated surviving the winter in their hidden shelters.
I roll a few of the rotting logs from the big pecan that fell 4-5 years ago. I previously cut 2-3 logs to open the path east and north of the Elm Bridge. The logs are beginning to have some good decay and I find some large sluggish Scolopendra centipedes curled and sheltered there. I also disturb nests of tiny ants, Monomorium? and snails. Good to see the logs picking up some inhabitants.
The NW Pond is well-filled (2.48 ft depth) and silvery. A surface skim of dissolved organics covers the pond and begins a slow counter-clockwise grey as a light west wind blows across the water.
There is new green in the Woods.. always happens and always interesting in November. The large nearly heart-shaped leaves remind me of Digitalis, foxglove.. but it isn't in the Woods. It isn't Smilax, greenbrier, maybe basal leaves of Elephantopus, elephantsfoot. I will have to figure that out. There are also side-by-side new fresh green leaves of Geum, avens with old avens leaves of this summer, now light brown or darker around the senescent edges. Also hardy green Euonymus. The three invasive 'L's' are all there with new leaves too: Liriope monkeygrass, Lonicera, Japanese honeysuckle and Ligustrum privet. Some of the braver (or foolhardy) native tree species are producing some new green leaves: small new box elder leaves and an expansive display of dozens of understory red elms with many fully flushed green leaves.. like April, almost.
Down by Beaver dam there are a half dozen mosquito wrigglers still growing in the remaining water. Just one adult mosquito there for the entire morning. Last turtles I've seen this year were with entomology class back on Oct. 26 a hundred yards east of the NW Pond.
This summer's life in the Woods is coming to an end. The leaves held on, and then fell quickly almost in a day after our late first freeze. But it is messy. Everything is there ready to make new life, standing water, muddy soil, abundant propagules, lots of organic carbon and nutrient elements to recycle into new life. Starting soon.
.. and a 'thanks' for the encouraging appreciation left on windshield.
Something wrong in Oliver's Woods
October 7 and I decide to make a quick, short return to the Woods. I hear ticks are declining and mosquitoes are bad..but I can handle mosquitoes. At 5 PM I set foot again on the NW entrance trail - for the first time in 2-3 months. After the inch plus rain this morning the earth and trail surface are sodden. I go looking to see if there have been big changes. The air is full of warmth and humidity, like a tropical lowland rain forest; but I am troubled.. maybe it is the low barometric pressure. Tornado was sighted an hour south of here. Here the air is still. At the NW pond the water depth is 2.5 ft. One large adult whitetail deer on the south shore of the pond stands and runs, splashing a short 10 yards through the water then turns to look back.
No other signs of large vertebrates, no turtles etc. The water level is high enough to reach the second square stone from the trail, and almost to the first. Carrying on east through the big trees I see two monarchs pausing on their southward flight from Canada to Mexico. Been a lot of them through Norman this fall. Amazing that they can keep on course and make their way.
The East pond is 2.15 feet in depth and quiet.
Across the Woods new leaf fall is beginning, covering all the forest floor..but only a thin blanket. In the canopy > 96% of the leaves are still there. They should be turning and falling soon.
This warmth and humidity feels wrong. The warmest August the planet has ever seen. Temperatures have not fallen here in central Oklahoma. No crisp cool fall days. Cold front is coming.. but it feels odd now. With the changing climate, I wonder which forest species will win and which will lose. Maybe Celtis sugar berry and others continuing to put on new leaves late into summer and early autumn will gain an advantage. Maybe those with early leaf drop will lose some advantage. I see one spider on its web.. a Micrathena..usually a spring / early summer species.. no Araneus, more typical of late summer. I wonder if some species will begin to produce a second or partial second generation.
Walking in the Wood and feeling the unnatural warmth I have a slight feeling of foreboding. The climate change cliff threshold that has been so much discussed.. I think it is happening. I think we are going over the cliff, and that positive feedback loops are accelerating the rate of change..with release of methane from boreal / polar regions and other places like ocean clathrates. I think 20 years from now the natural planet earth will be very different.
No other signs of large vertebrates, no turtles etc. The water level is high enough to reach the second square stone from the trail, and almost to the first. Carrying on east through the big trees I see two monarchs pausing on their southward flight from Canada to Mexico. Been a lot of them through Norman this fall. Amazing that they can keep on course and make their way.
The East pond is 2.15 feet in depth and quiet.
Across the Woods new leaf fall is beginning, covering all the forest floor..but only a thin blanket. In the canopy > 96% of the leaves are still there. They should be turning and falling soon.
This warmth and humidity feels wrong. The warmest August the planet has ever seen. Temperatures have not fallen here in central Oklahoma. No crisp cool fall days. Cold front is coming.. but it feels odd now. With the changing climate, I wonder which forest species will win and which will lose. Maybe Celtis sugar berry and others continuing to put on new leaves late into summer and early autumn will gain an advantage. Maybe those with early leaf drop will lose some advantage. I see one spider on its web.. a Micrathena..usually a spring / early summer species.. no Araneus, more typical of late summer. I wonder if some species will begin to produce a second or partial second generation.
Walking in the Wood and feeling the unnatural warmth I have a slight feeling of foreboding. The climate change cliff threshold that has been so much discussed.. I think it is happening. I think we are going over the cliff, and that positive feedback loops are accelerating the rate of change..with release of methane from boreal / polar regions and other places like ocean clathrates. I think 20 years from now the natural planet earth will be very different.
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