Birds in the Forest

Out this late December afternoon to the Woods to escape ennui and see what the real world was doing. I wandered from the Northeast gate south along the Tree Loop and stopped to survey the view from the heights above the wash. In December it is possible to look over, down into, and across the Woods from this vantage point. The leaves are gone. The wash below has significant volume of standing water, despite our past many days without rain. I paused by the old walnut and remembered admiring its large size when I first walked this way. It would take one and a half of me to wrap arms around its circumference. I watched it struggle and lose its crown in a drought ten years ago, and hoped that it would rebound.. and it did, but not enough. It slowly declined until the year I searched its crown to find any green leaves. Now one low branch has fallen, and bark all around the base is falling away from the bole. Walnut wood is dense, heavy and strong. I expect that the snag will stand for years and serve as home for many denizens of the Woods. Already at the base there is a hole large enough for a small opossum or raccoon leading into what must be a fine dry home in the base of the hollow trunk.
South and west I walked to find a crew working along the southern boundary and the power line right of way. I am sad to see the trees there I have watched and gotten to know over the years of walking here. They will stop growing with chemical inhibition or be cut. Another encroachment of our civilization upon the precious remnants of local wild forest we have surviving.
Fifteen years ago when I first came to these Woods they were a small wildlife sanctuary where I found creatures, fox, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, armadillo, box turtles and snapping turtles, coyote, bobcats, deer, owls, hawks and nesting accipiters. The Woods were connected then through a broad corridor down to the wilder lands stretching for miles along the river. Then the new trash facility was built in the floodplain, cutting the corridor to a narrow 30 foot wide conduit of cane. All the cover that remains for the wildlife populations that used to roam into the Woods. Now the Woods are quieter, diminished. But still the miracles of trees and roots, of fungi and insects, of small soil animals and infinite microbial diversity in each micro plot persists. The community of trees and shrubs, 30 different species still stands. Their roots are what matters, what defines the individual. Storms may break the stems. Heat, ice and cold may damage or kill the canopy; but if the roots survive and sprout new shoots, the individual remains, and communicates with neighbors, not in a mystical or magical sense, but through mycorrhizae, root physiology, their communal biology.
Reaching the Southwest gate on Chautauqua, I walked north from the big bur oaks to the low SW Woods that was still largely flooded inches deep. I settled on the big green ash log and watched a passel of birds enjoying the warm winter day and the good habitat. A dozen robins took turns flying down to the preferred bathing spot, flapping their wings and splashing water on themselves while a smaller flock of goldfinches in camouflage winter plumage picked through wet leaves and the sodden environment. Two yellow-shafted flickers and three red bellied woodpeckers investigated broken snags and branches, looking for tasty spiders and plump grubs. Two blue jays flew into the branches of the mid canopy, watching for opportunity, and a pair of bright red male cardinals perched low in the fallen branches. The Woods on very cold days can be quiet. The birds move south, or seek shelter; but today they were busy enjoying a mild day in winter.

Flame in the forest and Deer Kill

Monday afternoon I returned to the Woods southwest gate to re-mark trail blazes through the southern section. Trails had been inaccessible here with recurring flood water. From the South Boundary Trail, I crossed the dune and beaver dam. Looking down along the drainage from the North South Trail, one tree stood out like a burnt orange flame in the bare forest. A young Bradford Pear. Standing eighteen feet high, the top half foot's leaves were gray black, killed in the recent sharp 14F cold snap. The rest of the tree was a beautiful rich orange, the only tree with full leaves remaining along the drainage.

I walked north to the East West Trail and spotted tufts of white fur 75 feet west of the broken elm. Then I saw the rumen, the dark grassy green stomach mass of a deer. A deer had been killed and predators had consumed the carcass leaving patches of white fur, a bit of bloody bone and the rumen of the gut. The rest had been eaten or hauled away to another place. I imagine the pack of coyotes that occasionally visit the northern ravines in the Woods had found a yearling, dragged it down and killed it. Could have been a wild dog pack too, but I have not seen any of those in the Woods for a few years.

South of the Elm Bridge I re-marked the trail leading to the south boundary and spotted two white masses near one of the big cottonwoods. It was two Coprinus mushrooms, just fallen and beginning deliquescence. They looked like Shaggy Mane, Coprinus comatus (although that is not our local spp.) the famously edible mushrooms (when fresh) that will make you sick when consumed with alcohol.

By 5:30 the western horizon was a dramatic deep orange of clouds and I walked the Southern Boundary trail back to the gate.

Coyotes and crickets

  Saturday late afternoon I went to the Southwest Gate of the Woods to enjoy a walk. I took a small bow saw with the intention of clearing a few hanging Ampelopsis raccoon grape vines and small trees fallen across the trail. I walked the South Boundary trail and enjoyed the peaceful silence. A mile north, football fans, perhaps 80,000, gathered for a night game with Iowa.
  It was a mild late afternoon. I disturbed one white-tailed buck, north of the big bur oaks. He snorted in alarm, flashed his white tail and trotted north deeper into the Woods where tree crickets were singing. This will likely be the end of the cricket season, and the end of the lives of this generation. Another warm day Sunday with a forecast high of 71 F, then a cold front from Siberia arrives Monday night, with a forecast low of 19 F. The sudden drop may kill the late season songsters.
 Clearing a few logs and vines I walked east, and then north to cross at Beaver Dam. At the southern base of the old dune I remembered my close encounter with a barred owl. I have not heard any barred owls in the Woods in the past few weeks. I wonder if they have moved to different woods.
  I stopped by the patch of bittersweet I had been battling and thought I could still see green leaves up in the canopy, but in the low light it was impossible to be sure. I puzzled again over the remarkable flush of new fresh green leaves of scattered red elms and box elder in the under story south of the East West trail. What could be going on there? If we hit 19 F Monday night I imagine these leaves will all die and be left hanging black on the trees.

   At Elm Bridge there was still a good wide channel of water backed up to Island Crossing. This evening it was still. By Tuesday it will be iced over and I wondered if it would be thick and strong enough to walk or skate on - probably not. I enjoyed a moment there at 5:40 PM watching the full moon rising in the eastern sky. The sun had set, leaving a golden gloaming of all the western horizon through the branches of the trees.
  As I turned to make my way back across the Woods I heard a lone coyote howl off in the distance, probably south along Jenkins Rd. Silence followed for two or three minutes then it was answered by a chorus of other coyotes joined in singing their up and down calliope of sound.
  Nice farewell to the Woods for the evening.

November weeds and swingblade

   Sunday morning was cool and clear. I took my old swing blade to the northeast gate to clear a path to the Tree Loop. The entry to the Tree Loop has had the entire growing season of 2019 to heal some of the damage from the over zealous line crew right of way clearing. Annual weeds have grown waist high and thick enough to obscure the entrance trail. Native Symphoricarpos coralberry or buckbrush and exotic Ligustrum privet have grown in. The steep slope down to the Wash and the trail along it, is now stabilized by shrubs and annual weeds. Down along the Wash, invasive Sorghum Johnsongrass is thick and high and made a bed for two deer. They pressed down the vegetation where they lay but kept a sheltering wall of tall weeds. (Through the Woods there are numerous new small buck scrapes where male whitetail have scraped away the leaf litter and marked the soil to mark their territory).
The northeast section of the Tree Loop has also grown up in panic grass and other grasses. enough to obscure the way. I cleared a path through overgrown areas along the Pipeline Trail and to the top of the Levee Trail.
  I noticed fewer than 20% of the leaves of the bur oak and pecan had fallen. The oak leaves were still quite green and healthy. I wonder if this will change quickly now with our recent sharp cold temperatures down into the mid 20's F.
  I watched one squirrel out gathering winter food. It looks like the bur oak may have had a mast year for acorns(?) not entirely obvious.
  I walked down to the patch of invasive bittersweet and found two more largish older vines, both with green leaves up in the canopy. I pulled them up by the roots. Surprising how many of the vines there are. I keep thinking I have eradicated all the large ones, only to find more.
  At the beaver dam the crossing was dry, although Island Crossing was still fairly full.
  Around the Woods with cool mild fall temperatures and some good rains the new growth of winter green plants is beginning, grasses and annual forbs both.

Water Boots and Trails

   This year I have not cleared sections of trails in the southwest corner of the Woods. Too much water backed up on most of the trails, then I was away when trails dried in late summer. This morning, with more rain expected before evening, I put on my water boots and went to see the SW trails.
  There were many, many large elm branches down, blocking trails from the continuing decline of elms with Ophiostoma ulmi Dutch elm disease, and the flooding from Lloyd Noble parking lot run-off.
   From the SW Gate I walked and lightly cleared the Main SW trail to the Beaver Dam; and up the West Trail adjacent to Chautauqua up to the NW Trail; the Two Friends Trail; and the Cutoff Trail up to East Pond.
   Woody debris in this section of the Woods is unusually abundant. I wonder if the periodic flooding may be suppressing decay, rather than facilitating it. It will be interesting to see what species of trees takes over in this section: cottonwoods? willows? sycamore? Each of these would tolerate the flooding that is gradually removing the big bur oaks, green ash and elms.
  I also continue to see odd new patches of green leaves just flushed in the past month on elms and other species scattered through the Woods. I'd like to know more about what is going on there, the physiology. Is it a 'mistake' for the tree, or a potential benefit, a means of getting a little more photosynthesis at the end of the growing season?

Clearing blocked trails before the rain

I returned to the Woods late in the afternoon. Under gray cold skies, I walked to the big pecan watch tree, on the Levee Trail, and cut and cleared a heavy trunk and dead branches fallen across the trail. I noticed that some of the English ivy is beginning to return near the big cottonwoods. I need to continue to eradicate. On the northeast side of Island Crossing there are still Helianthus sunflowers with a few bright yellow petals brightening the dark green under story. Almost all the other flowers are gone for the season.
I circled back to the SW entrance and drove into the city transfer station. After help from James, I walked in via the small waterway draining the Woods and began clearing the broken canopy of a large green ash that was blocking the South Boundary trail.
I finished carving a tunnel in the branches and walked east along the south border to the southern end of the North South trail where the slow collapse of a large dead elm was partly blocking the flow from the Woods. With significant rain forecast for Tuesday I dragged away some of the larger branches and woody debris. I will revisit the Woods trail when the weather clears.
As I was leaving, heading up Chautauqua I found Sawyer injecting TGR into large elms along the west fence line. Working as a contractor for OGE he showed me the three trees he had treated. He thought that as they grew, they might threaten the lines. He mentioned he also planned to clear and treat more trees along the south border. I asked him to walk the line with me and show me what he planned. Recent previous clearing along the south border and the north border has not shown any awareness that the Woods was a special protected reserve with various research projects underway.

Bittersweet battle and potential new invasive.

  Returned to the Woods this chilly Sunday morning to remove a couple of Amur honeysuckle on the Dune Trail and to clean up some more of the remaining bittersweet stems. Both projects were more extensive than I anticipated. I had spotted two invasive Amur honeysuckle Lonicera maackii, one filled with bright red berries. Cutting and treating the stumps was straightforward, but then I noticed more of the Amur honeysuckle in lower folilage. I had cut four or five there last year, and almost all had started to regrow. I cut and treated them again and then found another large Amur honeysuckle I had not noticed before, again loaded with berries. I cut and treated it and resolved to check this area again next year.
  I hopped across the water at beaver dam and walked north to the patch of bittersweet. It appears things are improving. It is harder to find the bittersweet leaves now.. but then I crawled under a couple of old dead half-fallen junipers and there were dozens of sprouts. Many of these were from stems and roots I had broken off last year and they had grown back. Many of them. Not easy to get to in the tangle of vines and tough branches under the juniper. I dug and pulled to get up as much of the roots as possible.. but I am not sure if it is better to leave those in place so that, when treating, the treatment is carried through the root. Worked a few hours on this and was pretty tired, but thought I had done well. Then looked up in the tall pecan leaning over the dead juniper. There, and in an adjacent live juniper, there were large bittersweet vines ascending to the canopy. I dug, pulled, cut and treated as best I could. These were the two largest bittersweet vines alive in the patch this summer. I know I will need to return to his spot - maybe in a couple of weeks and certainly next year.
  In the afternoon I decided to go with the warm 72 F weather while it was here and do some re-marking of trails with blue tree paint. Got much of this done. Found one white-tail deer in the SW section and one armadillo in the central east near the big old pecans and near the wash.. both in the morning.
  The water on the Main SW trail was receding well.. probably because it had been dry for so long. But strong cold front is due to arrive tonight with more rain on Tuesday. Sure enough, at 4:20 there was a sudden shift in the light southerly breeze. It became a cooler northwest wind and began a rain of falling leaves. Busy full day. I headed out back across the beaver dam and saw a half dozen roseate skimmer dragonflies Orthemis ferruginea, beautiful red libelluid skimmers. Active patrolling territories. Hope they and their next generation stick around to keep the mosquitoes down.
  Spotted one more invasive I'm afraid.. Berberis.. one on the Tree Loop (near Pipeline Trl jct) and one elsewhere. I need to confirm identity and then go after it.

   The long warm/ hot late summer drought of the past 9 weeks, August into late October, was decisively ended by the last three days of near continuous rain, four and a half inches, a gentle, long soaking. Forecast has moved from highs skirting low 80's to near freezing lows in a matter of days. Good time to return to the Woods with no fear of ticks.  Saturday morning at 10:30 I entered via the NW entrance and the NW Pond. I brought a saw to clear a dozen or more trees fallen across trails during the summer and autumn months. The Woods felt and looked like they had been abandoned for the summer, left to the wildlife and the trees. Good. Lots of things to see. This morning the place was full of life. At the NW Pond the water was up to 2.55 ft, almost, but not quite to the highest stepping stone. In the sedges along the sunny northern edge, the water roiled with basking Gambusia mosquito fish. Good to have them reducing chance of mosquito survival.. but it also means they are eating all the larvae of the 'good' species, dragonflies and such. The East Pond was up to 2.12 feet in depth and continues to look very different now with full sun. The big cottonwood that fell across the pond is not giving up. From its roots there were three or four patches of vigorous growth, green sprouts and new leaves, a few inches tall and grazed by deer. Maybe the roots will survive to build a new main stem.
  The northern entrance to the Tree Loop is beginning to recover from the over-zealous line crew clearing the 'right of way' too far into the Woods, cutting tagged, numbered trees, data from previous class studies. The walnut cut down to 1 m height has regenerated 5 or 6 stems and will survive. The same for a nearby honey locust. The stem-wounded Mexican hickory had a good crown this summer and will survive, although the healing wound may be the entry point of fungal stem rot pathogens that cause its demise, years from now. The slope down to the big, decapitated cottonwood is now a riot of chest-high, weeds that will help hold and heal the soil until shrubs and trees can regrow. Standing in the tall weeds, a loud buzzing heavy insect flew to my field cap and orange Stihl ear protectors for an instant, then landed 10 feet away on the bank. I picked up the handsome cordovan Cebrionid Scaptolenus rain beetle. Admired it for being out conducting its affairs (looking for mates?) on the cool wet morning after the days of rain and set it back on the ground, where it landed. A moment later a 'sleepy orange' Abaeis small butterfly landed near the beetle, its wings were a deep rich orange.
  Down by the Elm Bridge crossing, the water was too deep to cross, so I walked a bit downstream and jumped across some islands of gravel and accumulated woody debris. Upstream, Island Crossing was possible to jump too.
  On the south side of the Woods there was a pretty, 2 foot long garter snake, basking in warm sunlight near the Two Friends. I rarely ever see snakes in the Woods, average < once per year. The old cottonwood of the Two Friends is disintegrating progressively. Much of the bole is decaying back to soil. All through the Woods, elms that have succumbed to the elm disease, with the rain, have sprouted abundant big floppy growths of brownish-blonde flaccid fungi.
  On the Tree Loop, there are still tasty Mexican plums on the forest floor, north of the old persimmon trees. There is also a bumper crop of new walnuts on the ground by the oldest Albizia mimosa tree I cut 3 or 4 years ago. Green pecan nuts are falling too. Many have been harvested and dropped by squirrels.
  I was glad to see a couple of frogs hopping about in the Woods far from the ponds. There are small pools of rain water, bathtub-sized that would be good for them to colonize, scattered through the Woods.
  No deer, no flocks of robins, and no sign of other large quadrupeds, apart from one pile of scat on fallen log, filled with the 'berries' of Celtis sugarberry.
  I was happy to be able to walk up the Main SW trail a couple hundred yards, up just past the fallen, hanging elm. The flood water filled the trail from that point north and eastward.
   The old, weathered leafy crowns of the green ash stand and the big cottonwoods, sugarberries and elms have lost maybe 70% of their leaves.  The nut trees, oaks and pecans, still hold almost all of their leaves. The Parthenocissus Virginia creeper vine leaves are beautiful wine-red up the trees. The few poison ivy vine leaves are golden yellow. Along the western fence line small-flowered purple asters still bloom.
   I re-visited the patch of invasive Bittersweet and was not surprised to find a few more green leafy stems, surviving my eradication effort. More work for tomorrow.

Bittersweet attack

Monday morning quick follow up to my Sept 18 attack, three weeks hence, on patch of invasive oriental bittersweet in the Woods.  I walked from the NW entrance past the two ponds.. both still with reasonable water levels for autumn. Its been dry. Several robins on the south side of the NW Pond.
There are now two different blockages of trail that will require chain saw to open, one by invasive Nandina corner, one by big cottonwood in Big Tree Grove (also NE corner by west end of Pipeline).
Fair number of spider webs but no spiders observed on webs. Flowers have almost all gone to seed except white Verbesina virginica Frostweed.
Small group of four white-tail deer moving south from Big Tree Grove; maybe two yearlings. Soon there will be more deer in the Woods, when hunting season begins.
The bittersweet patch has lost most of its big vines climbing up to the canopy and I was glad to see the area nearest the trail seemed to now be clear of them where I had cut and treated. But back in the thicker thicket under branches of leaning dead juniper there were many small resprouts I had cut, but not treated earlier in the year. Today I cut and treated for another hour. Hope in a few weeks it will be mostly gone, although I know some will remain. Eradication takes persistence.

Old leaves and tools for the season

[From October 2018]
Out to the Woods' SW Gate for a quick break from reading and office work. I took my old swing blade, thinking I could clear the path through the Polygonum knot weed east of Butterfly corner, where the thinning elm canopies let in the light. Under the closed canopy of the big trees more leaves have come down.. not just the serrate edge elm leaves; now there are butter yellow rounded leaves of green ash. The canopy is still solidly there, mostly green.. no streaming leaves falling from the sky; but leaf drop is increasing.

I had not used the swing blade in a number of years. It worked well for the task.. less fuss and annoyance than a loud weed-whacker. Sunday morning and the Woods were pretty quiet.. two whitetailed deer down by the beaver dam. It was dry and hot for late October.. the low 80's in the midday shade. No turtles or signs of other wildlife.. a few nymphalid Question Mark butterflies.

Summer return, a fallen friend and bittersweet

I returned to the corner of Oliver's Woods after a summer-long hiatus. 10 AM I walked down into the Woods from the NW Chautauqua entrance. It has been a wet and warm early summer, followed by a dry and hot mid, late August continuing now into mid September. The trees should have had a good summer of growth, lots of water and sunshine. But the forest was quiet, as if the relentless, too long heat had taken a toll. The NW pond is green with sunny scum. Healthy green bull frogs hopped from the rushes. The pond level has fallen and shoreline receded 1-2 m from the last of the step stones.. still a good body of water. No turtles visible.
The trail had healthy overgrowth of yellow Helianthus sunflowers, blue flowering Elephantopus elephant's foot, and some other 'stick-tight' seed producers. A good number of spider webs across the trail, mostly Micrathena, will have been busy  reducing the bug populations. I heard no mosquitoes (I applied DEET before setting now). Here and there, along the way there were branches down. A few rotten snags had dropped short logs across the trail. I did minimal clearing, wanting to let the area of the trail recover with normal under story growth, and roots to enrich the soil.
I was pleased to see the big old (leaning) cottonwood by the Carpenter steel post, standing tall and looking good; but coming to the East Pond there has been a big change. The middle-age, tall cottonwood (#142) that stood right on the N shoreline of the pond had broken and fallen directly across and now bridges the pond, right next to the water depth post. The break revealed the tall column of decay that had finally, weakened the bole until it could no longer stand. The fall has brought significant change, a large gap in the canopy right over the pond. The East pond was always shaded, a bit anoxic and had a different life than the NW Pond. Now they are both sunlit and covered with light green algae producing oxygen. There is light on the forest floor around the pond when before there was shade.
I turned south along Hackberry Alley and walked past Tall Stump towards the patch of invasive oriental bittersweet vines that I knew I would find. I found this patch two years ago and had attacked it two or three times with loppers and pulling up roots where I could. But I knew it would regrow. There was still some solid growth of bittersweet up in a juniper snag but there were fewer new sprouts than I thought I would find. I removed a few more vines and 30 new sprouts and am optimistic that with another visit in a few weeks, I may have knocked it all back to a level where eradication is possible. The vine is a fast-growing ubiquitous threat to forests, once it really gets started.
Wandering south, to Beaver Dam I was not surprised to find it dry. There was no water flowing at Elm Bridge but a low pool remained just above there, with skimmer dragonflies touching their abdomens to the water, laying their eggs. The young may have a fresh flow of cool water with the forecast of rain tomorrow and for the next few days.
Walking north towards the Tree Loop I noticed the big pecan that fell years ago blocking the trail, has a handsome new fresh growth of polypore shelf fungi. The log is beginning to mature, decay and soften all over now. The west segment of the Tree Loop has similar changes, growth and death. # 42, a small redbud is dead; there was good crown growth of the once struggling pecan, and collapse of the old elm snag that had been leaning across the trail. By the old persimmon trees, there were some Indian Plums on the ground, ripe. I tried one and enjoyed the tannin-filled sweetness. The Northwest entrance by the NW Gate is a riot of weeds but I was pleased to see a few of the young, numbered, tree tutorial specimens, including a walnut, senselessly cut by line crew, had survived and were putting up tall healthy sprouts.
Returning via the North Loop a large Sugarberry had snapped off 25 feet up the trunk and dropped its bole across the trail. There were green healthy spouts from the top of the snag. It will regrow and survive. Island Crossing still had water in the upper pool, but there and everywhere else by water, I did not see the tracks of deer, raccoons, opossums, skunks, armadillos and others I expected. I wondered if the pack of coyotes I heard in the north Woods in the spring had taken up long term residence and might be suppressing the wildlife.

Flowing water, flashing sunlight, Woods becoming a Wetland

Floating snails, flying tiger swallowtails, fat polywogs. Sunday morning I checked the southern Woods after recent inch and a quarter of rain (past 3 days) and two and a half inches (over past five days), an unusually wet April and wet spring. Water's been standing in the southwestern portion of the Woods for the past four months. The tree species there have variable ability to tolerate flooding and drowned roots. Willow, box elder and cottonwood can handle this best. Elm, ash, sugar berry, persimmon, chittamwood, not so well. Bur oaks don't like drowned roots. This summer the southwest corner of the Woods will dry completely. But the longer water covers the roots of the trees, the more stress (and mortality) of trees there will be. The water comes mostly from OU Lloyd Noble Ctr parking area, roughly the same size as Oliver's Woods. Until 2000 the parking area was gravel and rain there percolated into the water table. In 2000 the parking lot was paved with asphalt. The water flashes off the asphalt, into the western drain and culvert under Hwy 9, and into the Woods. Quick rains flush too much water down the Wash into the Woods, water breaches the western bank levee and flows across the south central Woods, 'upstream' through the old beaver dam and then sits in the southwestern Woods until it can all drain south into the Canadian River. Draining can take weeks to months.
Along the south boundary fence, I came to the center point and the exit flow of water from the Woods. From there eastward the water was rippling and sparkling in the bright sunlight. I checked the flow upstream to the old beaver dam and beyond, all along the Main Southwest trail.. all under water.
Hundreds of fat polywogs wriggled ahead of me. They'll metamorphose soon to young frogs. They must have been feasting on mosquito larvae (and algae). I was not bothered by one mosquito. I think I saw a few minnows too.. maybe opportunistic migrants from the overflowing NW Pond's cattails, foraging into the drowned Woods. The most common animals on the move were thousands of snails floating individually down stream. They looked like little bits of old charcoal. Each had its own bubble keeping it up at the surface.
If a warming climate keeps more water in the atmosphere, with heavier spring rains in central Oklahoma, these shallow floods will continue and over time the Woods will become a wetland with standing snags of old drowned trees.

Nut trees and butterflies and bittersweet.

Walking through the Woods with my eyes up watching the crowns of the trees, I love seeing the beautiful spring green of the expanding leaves. Over the weekend, I noticed that the pecan and walnut trees were some of the last to flush their leaves. Box elders, elms, bur oaks, viburnums, cottonwoods, plums, mulberry, red bud were all in the early bunch. Sugarberries, green ash, were later. Pecan and Walnut were two of the latest. I still haven't seen any leaves on the exotic invasive Mimosa. I wonder why pecan and walnut are often late. Do they invest in less freeze tolerant tissues, like maybe compound leaves?

Near the East Pond by the large pecan at the bend in the trail, the first yellow tiger swallowtail flitted by me, floating in the under story. Earlier I've seen several/ many of the goatweed leafwing (one of our two common earliest butterflies), many red admirals on the Elaeagnus autumn olive, some painted ladies, a few viceroys (looking rather worn).
Last couple of days ran into Jenna, Sonia, Ellen at the NW corner, looking for edibles.
Spring time need to find and cut new threatening exotics like amur honeysuckle, Ailanthus tree of heaven, Nandina heavenly bamboo, and Celastrus oriental bittersweet vines. Yesterday went to reduce the patch of bittersweet. Going to be a long task. Small area less than 50 feet x 50 feet there are hundreds of spring sprouts with new leaves. Each must be carefully sorted out, cut and treated. I gave up after >50 as day was closing. I think I may need to use strategy of waiting for larger bittersweet vines to climb up over a meter tall, then cut and treat those, hoping to eliminate the entire plant. Cutting scores of 2-4 inch tall sprigs, each 2 mm in diameter and partially hidden in fallen leaves or under native vegetation, requires long periods of kneeling or sitting. With ticks starting to move in the Woods, that may not be a great idea.

Aquatic Woods, day after big rain

Saturday it rained from mid morning to late night. 2.5 inches.
Today, Sunday, I went to see the Woods. Glorious. Clear skies, fresh sunlight playing in the upper branches of all the trees with their new leaves flushing.
I entered the SW Gate with my rubber boots, and walked up to see the water. It now extends to the first big cut bur oak logs.
I walked the southern boundary to the outflow and cleared blockage up from the culvert and several places along the watercourse.
The new clear water everywhere was mostly shallow less than 2 feet deep. I watched dozens of dytiscid diving beetles exploring the expanded habitat looking for prey, mosquito larvae or other protein. There were very young tadpoles (maybe from bullfrogs?) able to feed as herbivores on the refreshed mats of aquatic alga,, or as predators upon mosquito larvae. By the western end of the watercourse I found the black squiggly mosquito larvae, that would be become adult mosquitoes in a week or less. But there were also minnows (Gambusia). My guess is  that they spent the winter in the NW pond and when the fresh rains led the pond to overflow and spread aquatic habitat over much of the rest of the southern woods, the minnows ventured out. They may be / should be a good help against the mosquitoes until the water gets too shallow.
I had seen cranefly adults - like giant mosquitoes for a few weeks, but they had been waiting for a day like this. They were now common and numerous.
The water depth of the two ponds: NW Pond 2.59 feet and East Pond 2.84 feet.
The NW pond had two large old slider turtles sunning on a log on the far side. The East pond had one red-eared slider sunning itself on a floating log.

April in the Woods

A rainy cool day, close to 2 inches of slow, all-day 40-50 F rain. Will it slow or speed the changes of this past fortnight? The first week of April the forest floor of Oliver's Woods turned green. The Symphoricarpos deerbrush produced its leaves. The Galium bedstraw and Stellaria chickweed exploded in rapid growth accompanied with patches of abundant violets. I wonder how it is that a plant can grow that rapidly.
By the 10th of April, the ground was closed.. covered in green. White-tailed deer have gone. Have not seen them since March. Now there is food everywhere for them and no hunting season. Harsh winter storms are gone. They do not need the shelter of the woods or the food. I met Tim and we discussed morels in the Woods. He pointed out first box turtle of the year a few feet from me. It did not move for our entire 30 minute conversation. I mentioned that box turtles could outlive either of us.. could be 100.. and never leave a home range greater than a couple of classrooms.
First one or two mosquitoes but no great numbers. First single tick on me.. that may signal the coming of the end of my visits to the Woods until late autumn. Maybe just a few more spring walks.
I was delighted to find again the single uncommon Botrychium grape fern.. the only place in the Woods where it grows. This year just two fronds near the big cottonwood trio along the western wash. The blooms of the redbuds were beautiful but are falling and will be mostly gone or going after the all day rain of this storm. The sweet smell of the Elaeagnus autumn olive is strong in the Woods and the red admiral butterflies are drawn to the nectar. The canopy of elm and sugarberry and ash is still no more than 60% flushed but most every tree has some green showing. The pecan, ash and sugarberry are the cow's tail of the phenology. I was surprised and delighted to find one lone Ornithogalum star of Bethlehem blooming white with the wild onions west of the Elm Bridge.
I was also delighted to see that some of the identified, numbered, tagged trees on the Tree Tutorial Loop, needlessly cut last summer by the line crew - are sprouting new shoots and look like they will make a come-back despite having been wrongly cut.
I stopped and examined young honeysuckle leaves and was struck that the first (lowest) three pairs of leaves were not intact ovals, but more like indented fern leaves with 7 or so lobes per leaf. Can't remember ever really paying attention to that.
The good big craneflies in the Woods have had good wet mucky conditions and I have seen several flying.. but no abundant swarms this spring. First few strands of spider webs are coming back to the trails - not many. I stopped and watched one spider in tis web by the East Pond. It had captured and wrapped a syrphid flower fly. I checked the stalks of the 3-4 young Ailanthus Tree of Heaven invasives, but have not seen leaves this year. The patch of bittersweet I cut last year has flushed leaves and is beginning to regrow.
The most startling, striking thing in the Woods this month has been a large patch of bright traffic orange flux on an Ampelopsis grape vine southwest of the Elm Bridge. Brilliant and striking. I had forgotten but then remembered seeing it once years before. Quite something. Caused by Fusicolla merismoides.   https://www.backyardnature.net/n/x/orgslime.htm
"Fusicolla merismoides (family Nectriaceae) is often considered the definitive tree slime fungus. This appears to be a large complex of many phylogenetic species. Almost every strain barcoded to date has a different sequence."
So, the fungus causing our orange slime/fungal volcanoes on Deep South grapevines apparently is actually several fungal species, see http://www.dnabarcodes2011.org/conference/program/schedule/treeslime.pdf

Green up and chill down

After days (M-Th) in the low 70's (F) and mild spring winds, I went to the Woods through the SW Gate to see what spring had brought.
Elms in the Woods in the past few weeks have produced millions of green winged samara seeds, each ready and capable of producing a full new tree with a lucky landing. Boxelder are flushing green winged samara seeds along with early green leaves, just beginning to unfold. When box elder fully flush their leaves, it will close the under story. That is not near to happening yet.. just a few of the larger trees. Mexican plum Prunus mexicana are in bloom all over the Woods and this is that short ten days when it is easy to see every wild plum in the Woods. They are flowering white blazes in the sparse deciduous forest before leaves emerge.
Across the floor of the Woods, all the green is beginning, but just beginning. The Symphoricarpos buck brush is just opening leaves. The Gallium bedstraw and Lonicera honeysuckle are growing fast and will be much more dominant before the upper canopy flushes its high leaves and takes the light. ( Interesting contrasting strategies plants select, either grow early and fast before canopy leaves put you in the shade, and benefit from a thermally sheltered near-ground environment, or wait and begin growing much later from high, on exposed branches, where cold winds could kill early growth, but sunshine will be abundant for all the main growing season. )
Spring onion patches are here and there. The rabbits and deer love them. Standing back from all, and looking, one can see the green is growing. It is now ubiquitous.. not universal.. there is still more bare brown winter forest floor than green growing spring verdure.. but it is changing rapidly.
Then came Friday with its cold N wind and overnight hailstorm. Saturday night we will have 29 F frost; but spring has started and will not be stopped. All the flowering trees will now survive. It will be a good year for their flowers and seeds. Water, moist soil, mild days. The local biota will grow well this spring.

Loud Frogs and Cut Soils

Spring phenology is growing stronger each day in the Woods.
Saturday St Patrick's Day March 17, I went with Sarah to hunt for steep slopes exposing a soil profile. A twelve foot high wall from the bottom of one of the northern ravines provided a good vertical cut through the Pleistocene parent material deposited by water and wind. The upper 10-12 inches, right beneath the litter of oak leaves, was a dry light brown, developing a more reddish hue a foot below the surface. A similar arrangement was also visible on a steep-cut bank of the Main Wash. Sarah collected samples to do an analysis of percent clay and sand. Interesting to think about the winds and floods that deposited the deep sand and clay soil, that was subsequently cut by the Canadian River, leaving the highest terrace of its floodplain, as the floor of Oliver's Woods.
The next evening, I walked into the Woods via the 'toe-slope' NW Pond at the base of the slope up to the top of the Pleistocene sediments. One loud frog was chuckling on the far side of the pond, almost like a woodpecker, a leopard frog? On the eastern side of the Woods spring peepers were lightly beginning their chorus as the day was getting late. Top branches of many of the exposed elms are beginning to swell leaf buds; but just as many smaller elms have no sign of spring coming yet. The water is still flowing at a good rate, out through the old beaver dam. I slowly chased a herd of five white-tailed deer as I walked the trails. I cut and cleared away two medium sized cedars blocking the trail east of Tall Stump. A greater diversity of birds, chickadees, junco, cardinals and other passerines were busy in the Woods.

Roaring Wind Dancing Trees

5 o'clock this afternoon with strong gusting 30-40 mph SSW winds I went to the NW entrance of the Woods to see what the past 24 hours had brought. Before dawn there had been some good thunderstorm rain with just over an inch of rain, followed by gusting winds that increased in the afternoon. I walked past the NW pond - well filled at 2.62 ft depth and then on to East pond, even more well-filled at 2.82 ft depth. The East Pond was up over the trail junction and I needed to step out well away to avoid soggy shoes. There were small branches down all around, and two small cedars blocking the trail where I will need a saw, just east of Tall Stump.
I stopped west of Fence Corner to watch the trees tossing in the strong wind. The bouncing crowns were moving chaotically back and forth, all out of synch. It struck me as I watched that the different crown shapes, compass orientation and height created this chaotic bouncing around and provided an extra measure of protection to the forest. If a stand of trees were all planted at the same time, all the same species, they would likely move together and would be subject to more torque and greater likelihood of blow down or breakage. The tossing chaos of the different height stems and different shaped crowns provided more turbulence and broke up the force of the wind.
Good that none of the trees had leaves out yet. That would have increased the force on the branches.
After a fairly long late cold spell, the Woods are now ready to pop their buds. Along the trail, the Liriope monkey grass was showing fresh green. The Multiflora rose was beginning to show 10% new fresh leaves. The Elaeagnus autumn olive had leaves 20-30 % open in the under story and of course the Ligustrum privet had its green leaves from over the winter.
Such enormous strength in the roots and trunk to hold up the largest trees, pecan, walnut, bur oak, cottonwood, even tilted over at an angle, in this roaring wind.

Who is going to eat all of that algae?

After a month or two of relatively dry weather, last night the Woods received three quarters inch of rain, with twice that on its way tomorrow. At 5 I went to the SW Gate to see the Woods after the rain.
The southwest Woods has been a swamp all winter with standing water all around the roots of the green ash, elm, sugar berries, persimmons, black willow and others. As I walked northeast, I encountered the new-flooded swamp water 20 feet earlier along the trail. I wonder when the soil eventually dries, as it must this late spring/ summer, how long will it take for earth worms and other soil invertebrates to recolonize the previously-drowned soil? Who will come first? Will the pioneers have rapid population growth with few competitors, or gradually, slowly increase into still challenging too-wet environments? Is the pattern the same each year - or set by random, stochastic factors?

Through the main portion of the Main SW trail where water has been standing the longest, there are great streams and mats of green algae attached to submerged fallen branches, twigs, exposed roots and partly submerged logs. The algae got a fast start more than a month ago during some mild winter weather.. then was exposed to prolonged, harsh, deep cold last fortnight. Looks like the cold killed some of the algae, changing the luminous bright green of new growth into yellow floating mats of damaged algae intermixed with healthy green.

Now all through the algae there are thousands and thousands of small Physa snails..living the dream.. like living in a bowl of ice cream. They should grow quickly. With the additional flooding from rain tonight and Tuesday, their algal feast should be well hydrated and available.

With my knee boots on, I walked the trail and observed the water flow. I moved small logs to open the flow from backed-up areas. The Woods are draining at a good rate now; but the water will be higher tomorrow and there are weeks/ months of water left to drain.

I wonder what native crayfish would do to the mix  in the Woods?

Cold winter day and fast sudden spring coming?

At 9 AM I went for a (short) walk from the southwestern gate of the Woods. The Woods were quiet and I did not stay long. I saw 4-6 white-tail deer up walking or trotting north over the dune into the Woods and wondered, 'How do they do it?' I was outfitted with warm wool hat, thick wool gloves and warm scarf, my best winter down coat, thick socks and solid shoes and was conscious of my vulnerability to cold. How do they stay out here, sleep out here, find enough to eat, find places to escape the wind etc. ? The same for a flock of 70 starlings in the rough grass lawn outside the SW corner of the Woods. How do the birds survive days/ times like these?

I walked over the southern dune to the old beaver dam and observed that water was still flowing at a reasonable rate. Despite little precip in the past month (0.63 inches) the SW Woods remain flooded. The 3-5 inch deep pools and shallower channels mostly have a layer of weak ice with a little open water.
 Although it feels like the world has been locked down by bitter cold arctic air, it is not really that cold, 22F;  but a north wind makes this a wind chill of 7 F,  pretty cold for March here. Often first week of March there are daffodils in Norman. This year they have all emerged and have their green leaves fully extended, even have their flowers partly formed and ready; but still closed protected in the bud. This cold wave will last a few more days, then it should jump 30+ degrees to mid 50's and stay that way for a week or more. That should lead to a sudden burst of spring flowers.. starting later than usual and going faster than usual. Should be interesting to watch how the trees in the Woods respond.

Thin Ice

Back to the Woods Saturday afternoon. On a drippy cool afternoon I escaped doldrums and headed to the Woods for a walk. Four large white-tailed deer bounded or sauntered west along the Pipeline Trail into thick junipers for cover.
In the SW quarter along the Main SW trail I sloshed through acres of inches deep water mostly covered with a thin sheet of ice. Breaking through with each step, I wondered what the ice does to (or for) conditions below: temp(?) dissolved gasses (?) oxygen, methane etc, and life in the water.. young aquatic snails or amphibians hatching from clear jelly masses attached to submerged sticks & logs. What does the ice do to sound in the woods? Is it like the acoustic effect of a tile floor instead of carpet? Are deer spooked by and avoid thin ice, when normally they trot through 3-5 inch deep water? Does it change navigation for nocturnal  vertebrates, mice, voles, shrews, skunks, raccoons, armadillos, opossums?

Draining Olivers Woods

This fine mild Saturday morning, I went to the Woods armed with knee boots and a hoe. I headed to the sodden southwest corner of the Woods. Water pushed in there months ago by heavy fall rains and run-off from the university parking lots around the arena has never drained or evaporated away. The SW corner has not historically been a wetland. It supports a closed canopy forest of elm, big bur oaks, sugar berry, green ash, persimmon, and others. The roots of these trees can only take inundation for so many days or weeks before they begin to die back and the trees are stressed or killed. I decided I would make small efforts to remove obstructions and increase the flow of the impounded water out of the Woods. This is not normally a good idea in natural wetlands. They should remain flooded as long as they are naturally.
Through the southwest gate and along the main trail I walked only a hundred yards before encountering standing water. I figure if I increase the flow rate by just a little it could have a positive effect over the days before our next forecast rain. There were acres of water, mostly just a few inches deep. I sloshed along through the continuous shallow lake noticing bright green submerged leaves of Polygonum pink ladies thumb, growing luxuriant mats of fine stranded green algae. There were small dime-to-half-dollar-sized floating light yellow 'puffs'.. something growing.. not sure what. There was here and there a fine sheen of oil. I used to take as pollution by petroleum oils, until I realized that natural decomposition of leaves and organics also produces this same healthy sheen.
I walked east and south to the old Beaver Dam. The water there was barely moving through the cut. Downstream the flow was impeded by mats of leaves and fallen trees. I started moving things aside and clearing a foot-wide channel to allow flow. Down by the big willows on the south boundary a large elm had crashed across the channel and blocked the flow almost entirely. I cleared branches and leaves using the backed-up water to assist clearing a channel.
After a few hours there was a clear flow maybe an inch deep. I felt good. That was success. Over the hours and days ahead, that would gradually allow the Woods to begin to drain.. not entirely. There were going to be low areas that held water; but the acres of backed up water could now begin to slowly move out. As I walked out, I thought how just clearing that small a channel a quarter mile away would start to have an effect on the water molecules, the tens of thousands of gallons and the many tons of water backed up to the west. I am sure there will be water remaining all along the trail when the next rains come. But hopefully the water level will be a few millimeters or centimeters lower and roots of trees along the channel may gain a partial benefit.

Owls and the Evening

To Oliver's Woods this January 20 evening at 5:30. The past week or fortnight each time I enter the NW entrance a barred owl silently flies away eastward in front of me. I think it is perched at sunset in the big pecan south of the NW entrance. I did not see it this evening. When I was in the center of the Woods I heard an owl in the distance, off to the east. I walked over to the junction of the East Wash and the West where a barred owl nested the past couple of years. There have been some big changes. Two of the largest old cottonwoods are down - one broken huge top lays across the wash by the big bur oak that washed out there. The juniper the owl used to perch in at sunset is still standing, healthy.
Hearing the owl in the distance I gave my  screech owl whistle imitation (poor) and got a reply from the barred owl -  over-calling me.

This time of the year the Woods are the most bare. You can see through to distant trees and sound travels easily. I noticed the forms
With the light falling and twilight coming on, I turned back west to depart.

Natural History and the Woods

After cold blustery NW storm winds, I went for an afternoon walk in the Woods. I did not find any largish branches, and there were no trees down across trails. Lots of small branches cut by Oncideres twig borers. The two ponds were both still well-filled and the Main SW trail was still flooded despite no significant precipitation in a week or more.
I encountered for four big white-tailed does at the east end of the North Trail. I waved to them and sang a greeting out loud. They looked uncomfortable, suspicious and curious. After a minute or two they moved away north.
Started thinking about the opportunity to bring small groups of people to Olivers Woods to explore/ learn about natural history, the deer, the trees, fungi, the invasives, reading the landscape, birds, beetles, insects, geology, human history, aquatic/ wetland ecology, tracks, other wildlife, etc.
Be fun to do this with just a dozen or fewer. Let everyone get to know the Woods. Maybe expand to other local areas, too.