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