High Cotton

Returned to the summer Woods today. After good spring rains in mid May, it has been warm and every species of green plant, tree and shrub is in full growth mode. Healthy green everywhere. The Woods 'are in high cotton'. The big female cottonwood trees have released thousands, or millions of seeds accompanied with the white fluff, seed hairs, that makes them drift on the wind, to new ground. With warmer weather, orb-weaver spiders have been busy spinning silk and their webs glisten in the light with captured cotton from the trees.

The NW pond was looking good. One red-eared slider basking on a log on the far side watched, was on alert as I walked by, but did not tumble to safety in the water.
The East pond had declined a little. There were small minnows foraging in the muddy water. On the wet soil around the NE corner there were small bits of bright red.. small fungi, Sarcoscypha or Peziza.

I saw one deer leaping away from me, heading south along Hackberry Alley. Beaver Dam was dry. The wetland bottom area above the dam had been continuously under inches of water for months. Now its surface is dry although still mucky wet beneath. Bright green cotyledons are scattered growing on the newly available seed bed. Water still filled the Wash from Island Crossing to Elm Bridge.

Across the sand dune, I stopped to pull away a couple of invasive  Amur honeysuckle Lonicera maackii stumps regrowing stems after I cut them back last year. I spent some time at the patch of invasive oriental bittersweet, Celastrus I have been fighting. Pulled another 50 stems.. mostly all small. I suspect there were at least another 20, I might have found if I worked another hour.
I visited the patch of Hedera english ivy I've been working to eradicate and found a few more green leaves but it is scarce now.

Cardinals were calling, one re-tailed hawk was crying as it circled above, the brrrr of one cicada sounded above the canopy - sound of summer.

I cleared (parts of) three big trees blocking trails and walked 80% of the trails checking for problems.