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.