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.