Saturday morning March 29 I went to the Woods to see what changes the spring has brought. Peaceful beautiful morning. All the boxelder are flushing new leaves and there was new green everywhere. I stopped at the East Pond and watched ripples give rise to a nice massive snapping turtle snout. I stood and watched with binoculars as it stared in my direction for 3-4 minutes. I imagined it with vision blurred with dripping water trying to make out if the thing it could see standing along the shore represented a threat. The turtle was foraging underwater along the shallow eastern shore where there are usually dozens of Gambusia. I noticed there were no /few Gambusia and wondered if that was the turtle's lunch.
I walked down towards the beaver dam and stopped at the site where I have been fighting the invasive oriental bittersweet. After a year of visiting destruction on the plant in a 30 m x 30 m area, pulling and cutting and treating every stem and root I could find.. and feeling pretty good about my success; it was disheartening to see more than 50 new sprouts. All were less than knee high but clearly I am going to have to keep after the stuff for another year or two. I need to check on the invasive Amur Honeysuckle stumps and see if they are dead, or resprouting as well. And the one site with exotic English ivy seems well on its way to being controlled.. but I know there are a few remains still there.
Stepping across Island Crossing there were dozens of pretty Viola sororia purple violets..just there.
The trees along the Tree Tutorial Loop are looking good. Always fun to see the new smallest leaves of post oaks and pin oaks and all the trees just beginning to expand.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Monday, March 2, 2020
Every year I enjoy looking for the first new green things in the Woods.
Leap Day, March 1 & 2 the Woods were beautiful and peaceful, warm mild weekend weather. 77 F Sunday at 3 PM.
I worked along the quarter mile Tree Tutorial loop in the NE Woods, renewing the numbered tags on the 120 trees of 28 species identified there. Pecan, oak, walnut, hickory, ash, redbud, elm, cottonwood, juniper, wild plum, sugarberry, mulberry, haw, chittamwood, black locust, dogwood, soapberry, box elder, more. The familiar names are a comfort to pronounce and remember.
Through binoculars I watched a young red-tail hawk circling over me as he watched me from his height. There were also a pair of turkey vultures soaring over me, a big flock of robins enjoying the area around the E. pond. Cardinals exploring the multiflora rose and leopard frogs chuckling at the end of the day around the NW pond.
I worked along the quarter mile Tree Tutorial loop in the NE Woods, renewing the numbered tags on the 120 trees of 28 species identified there. Pecan, oak, walnut, hickory, ash, redbud, elm, cottonwood, juniper, wild plum, sugarberry, mulberry, haw, chittamwood, black locust, dogwood, soapberry, box elder, more. The familiar names are a comfort to pronounce and remember.
Elm flowers were opening. Bradford pear flower buds were
swelling almost open. The Woods are on the cusp of waking up.
On the forest floor, Allium wild onions are rampant in the SE quarter, lots of young Stellaria chickweed leaves everywhere, some (not as much) green Galium bedstraw and a few small Veronica flowers in the cottonwoods. Rabbits will be happy and well fed after the dry rough food of winter. A few Cardamine toothwort flowers by the beaver dam with one lone whirligig beetle circling in the small pool there. I looked for invasive oriental bittersweet leaves at the one location where I've been fighting it but did not find yet (glad). I enjoyed the 4 beat of woodpecker there chiseling bark for a snack and drumming trees for territory. There were even a few insects flying, a bright red admiral butterfly suddenly landing at my feet, a dark Polistes wasp exploring cottonwood bark looking for lunch, and one old coreid leaf-footed bug basking in warm sun on a dead sycamore leaf. I wondered if it was attracted to the soft tanned smell of the dried old leaf remembering earlier days, or attracted to the remnant sycamore chemicals and dreamed of the fresh leaves coming in the spring.
The lower Woods water table is full and high. Good because I think the small beginnings of a La Nina are whispering the chance of a drier spring. Standing water there at the start of the growing season should power good growth at an important time for the trees. The ponds were up near full, 2.56 ft for the NW Pond and 2.42 for the East.
On the forest floor, Allium wild onions are rampant in the SE quarter, lots of young Stellaria chickweed leaves everywhere, some (not as much) green Galium bedstraw and a few small Veronica flowers in the cottonwoods. Rabbits will be happy and well fed after the dry rough food of winter. A few Cardamine toothwort flowers by the beaver dam with one lone whirligig beetle circling in the small pool there. I looked for invasive oriental bittersweet leaves at the one location where I've been fighting it but did not find yet (glad). I enjoyed the 4 beat of woodpecker there chiseling bark for a snack and drumming trees for territory. There were even a few insects flying, a bright red admiral butterfly suddenly landing at my feet, a dark Polistes wasp exploring cottonwood bark looking for lunch, and one old coreid leaf-footed bug basking in warm sun on a dead sycamore leaf. I wondered if it was attracted to the soft tanned smell of the dried old leaf remembering earlier days, or attracted to the remnant sycamore chemicals and dreamed of the fresh leaves coming in the spring.
The lower Woods water table is full and high. Good because I think the small beginnings of a La Nina are whispering the chance of a drier spring. Standing water there at the start of the growing season should power good growth at an important time for the trees. The ponds were up near full, 2.56 ft for the NW Pond and 2.42 for the East.
Through binoculars I watched a young red-tail hawk circling over me as he watched me from his height. There were also a pair of turkey vultures soaring over me, a big flock of robins enjoying the area around the E. pond. Cardinals exploring the multiflora rose and leopard frogs chuckling at the end of the day around the NW pond.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)