Refilling the Woods

Good rain arrived 4 - 6 am this morning with thunder and lightning. Mesonet says NE Norman had 1.82 inches. My backyard gauge in central eastern Norman had 2.4 inches. I went to the SW Gate at 1 pm to see what the storm had done.

The Woods canopy has changed from lingering autumn remnant leaves hanging on, to bare clean canopies. Few trees with green leaves (Bumelia) stand out like a torch. Everything else is bare branches reaching toward a blue winter sky.

I was curious how much of the Woods would be flooded, and walked east up the Main SW Trail until I met the advancing front of water near the Carpenter blue stake in the sedge. I marked the spot and returned there an hour later (2:15) to find that the water had advanced west about two meters up the trail. Water was flowing 'upstream' at Beaver Dam.

Walking north and east I came to Island Crossing and found the new pallet bridge partly submerged with a shallow flow all across the 'island'. The flow in the West Wash had diminished since the morning, but there was a lot of muddy brown water moving down to the lower Woods. I walked south along the western levee towards the Elm Bridge. There was a good volume with rapids at the junction with the Eastern Wash. A break through the western levee, south of the morel patch, allowed a part of the flow to move out and flood the wider Woods through a network of braided channels, cut in previous floods. The lower south east quarter was well flooded through the forest of green ash and big cottonwoods. Much of the south central Woods also. Maybe 15-20% of the total 66 acres of the Woods was under shallow moving water. The trees and the soil will have a deep drink before deeper winter cold arrives.

Interesting creatures these past few days. One snapper turtle foraging in the East Pond, barred owl most days flying from its perch, armadillos foraging though the wet, freshly-fallen leaves, large metallic blue-black Meloid blister beetle today exploring slowly across the forest floor. Libellulid skimmer dragonfly couples dipping and ovipositing around the newly re-filled Northwest Pond. Two white-tailed deer moving northeast up to the upper terrace.

This was the good full fall rain the Woods needed before winter.

Thanksgiving Ecology in the Woods

 Wandering off trails in the Woods to see new things. (No ticks November.)

Ecological questions floating as I wander, some old, some new:

The variegated leaves of Smilax green briar, does variegation correlate with non-preference for herbivores? Do females laying eggs avoid leaves with more variegation because the light patches resemble feeding damage from previous insects? Same question for other plants with variegated leaves like "wild ginger" Hexastylix arifolia.  Someone has probably investigated this question and may have published some data.

What is the effect of forcing floodwater upstream west of the old beaver dam - where it can remain trapped for weeks, or longer? Nairn asked, Do the soils show developing wetland character? Old bur oaks have been drowned and killed by floodwater remaining too long. Green ash tolerate floodwater better. Can the amount of green ash butt swell be correlated to the longevity of flooding around the tree? Maybe a normal curve?

In dry summer months when 3-6 inch deep (or deeper) crevices open in the soil what communities of invertebrates and other species take refuge there? What happens when floodwaters rapidly fill and inundate the crevices?

Why do some species have very clear boundaries circumscribing their population? (Question similar to one that motivated former OU Prof Katie Marshall). Linda Wallace, late OU Botany Prof, and I puzzled together over the very distinct patches of the Carex hystericina sedge in the southern and western Woods. Patches of this are bordered so sharply. Linda had the same question about what limits the population of green ash in the Woods.

What is the community of insects associated with Solidago goldenrod galls on the SE border of the Woods? I've not seen the galls in any other nearby field, but there are several galls together in goldenrod in one small 3m x 3m patch in the SSE section.

Future projects for student teams: pick-up of old beer cans and other from western boundary? Styrofoam cups, pieces of paper blow in from Chautauqua. More of the same pick-up along the south boundary.

After the Rain, Raccoons

Back to the Woods after two weeks of cold and a light rain. 

The thrill is gone. The beautiful golden color of autumn leaves is gone. Ninety percent of the leaves are down from the trees. Brown leaves cover the forest floor with a pleasant blanket. With most of the leaves down, I can see through the trees, see the winter life in the Woods.

Northeast of the East Pond I watch three large raccoons (fat? thick fur coats?) ascend the steep slope of the escarpment. Likely going to their burrows for a nap. Big pecan above them on the edge of the escarpment broke and fell ten years ago. Its broad root base became a home for a colony of subterraneans - these raccoons? I wonder if the three were siblings, or maybe a parent or two with their progeny. They all looked large, full-grown.

Significant fresh glistening poop (raccoon-like) by old grave trail could have been from one of these three perhaps returning from a night of foraging at the trash station. Interesting to see the trail junction of the Tree Loop and the top of the West Loop trail has become a 'latrine' a location where vertebrates poop repeatedly to mark their territory and leave a calling card. Probably coyote? maybe raccoon?

Two deer crossing the NE field toward Jenkins. More deer 'snorts' west of the Elm Bridge and buck 'scrapes' marking the soil along the west side of the Tree Loop. Breeding and hunting season has arrived.

What is green now in the Woods? The abundant evergreen Euonymus vine, the young Ligustrum privet shrubs regrowing from their roots after 2021 killing February cold. Other exotics, Nandina Heavenly bamboo, Lonicera Japanese honeysuckle, Amur Honeysuckle, Liriope monkey grass, Holly, English ivy, Elaeagnus Autumn olive, Clematis, Multiflora rose, and Pistacia Chinese pistache. Many exotics have a longer green period. Some natives are still green, Sideroxylon Bumelia or Chittamwood, Juniperus western redcedar, two species of Smilax green briar, the twigs and young stem (but not leaves) of Acer negundo box elder, Chasmanthium Inland sea oats, some field grasses Festuca and others growing on the east side of Tree Loop. Some annuals or vines are starting new green growth before the greater winter cold, Stellaria chickweed, Geum Avens, Carolina snailseed, young poison ivy. Some individual trees hold their green leaves after others of the species have dropped them all, the galled red elm above the Eastern Wash, a pin oak on the Tree Loop.

The Woods has now donned its late autumn look and will remain like this until the first significant snow.

Sinkholes

Walking along the Main SW Trail about 200 ft NE of the Grandfather Cottonwood,  I noticed a small depression, the size of a couple of cottonwood leaves. Thinking that it could turn an ankle I thought I'd fill the depression with a bit of weathered wood. I selected a 4 foot long 2 inch diameter dead elm branch and pushed it into the soft soil. It went all the way down - disappeared into the soil. Some sort of mostly hidden remarkable subterranean cavity. I shoved two more sticks in before quitting; and left wondering what had caused and maintained the deep cavity. In the killing heat of the very dry summer, the soil there was broken into irregular polygons with deep fissures between. I wondered then about the fissures as potential refuges or hiding places for smaller fauna. How much more so to have substantial four foot deep cavities in the soil. Refuges for hidden life.

I remember 10-15 years ago walking a quarter mile west from this point, on the same kind of dried wetland soil in the Woods during another La Nina winter like this one, as a substantial rain was pushing fingers of inch deep water through the area. At 2-3 fascinating places the water was sinking, flowing into the soil with a constant boiling of bubbles of subterranean atmosphere pushed out of subterranean chambers. The bubbling went on for a full day. Evidence of hidden worlds beneath the surface of the soil.

Three white-tailed deer running north into the Woods from the Dune trail. They may know they are safe there as hunting season begins.

Leaves

 Thursday walk in the Woods from the southeast gate. Last few days of gentle breezes have brought down more leaves. From the upper canopy seventy percent are down. Tall elms, green ash, pecan are mostly bare. But in the lower canopy seventy percent remain. Sugarberry, walnut, hickory, mulberry, are still in full leaf. I watched golden leaves trickling down in the still, warm air under the cloudy sky. After Friday's storm front many more (most) leaves will be down.

Last two years, dozens of understory trees, mostly mulberry and younger elm in the southeast quarter, re-flushed fresh new leaves in the early autumn. This autumn I see only three trees that have done this. Perhaps the tough summer drought and heat suppressed this.

Walking along the trails they are carpeted in gold.

Scores of robins through the Woods are 'flighty', busy foraging, I think the cloudy skies and sullen heavy moist air must tell them a storm is coming. There are many gathered around the East Pond. Some are dipping for a drink from small teacup-size depressions filled with water in the bottom of the otherwise empty pond. Woodpeckers are flying too, downy and flickers.

One full grown white-tailed deer dashes away. In two weeks, deer hunting season begins on the 19th. I expect to see small herds of deer move into the Woods for protection until early December.

Walking to the Northwest Pond I pass by the fallen Carpenter cottonwood. Its massive upper branches smashed against other large trees, green ash, box elder and locked upright against them. They stand there now like giants locked in combat, a testament to the destructive power of falling canopy trees and the huge weight of their crowns. Elsewhere below the big tree grove, three large trees have fallen together, as if uprooted by some giant's breath, one striking another and that one bringing down the third like dominoes.

I stop to turn over a small rotten log and see the colonies of busy small ants scurrying on the underside. I break off the top third of the spongy rotten log and open the interior where there are three Mesodon snails taking shelter. I imagine they have crawled into the log to find an insulated shelter, safe from the colder weather coming. I wonder why the ants do not bother them. With just a tinge of guilt I put the log back together rebuilding the snails' refuge.

Light rains the past two weeks have started the growth of new agaric mushrooms, two clusters of perfectly formed gray brown agarics with white stems from the base of a half-dead elm and two patches of much smaller golden orange agarics through the bark of a down box elder. Along the Barney's cutoff trail there are a hundred perfect small parasol mushrooms in one cluster. Only good for a day or two, a few have already begun to deliquesce, their caps melting with their spores.

I see new steps built in the Woods. Engineers providing a help on two of the steeper trail sections.

A peaceful golden few hours in the Woods. I will have to return after the storm Friday to see what leaves remain.

Changes

 It is the golden time in the Woods again. Yesterday afternoon I went to the Woods' NE Gate to see how the Woods have changed. We have now had some good 1-2 inch rains. The ground is no longer parched. Daytime temps have fallen to pleasant 50's-70's - a favorite time of the year. Fifty feet inside the NE Gate there stands a young black hickory with beautiful rich, butter yellow leaves. There are a half dozen of these in the Woods. They light up the under story in late October.

 Along the trails a diverse carpet of yellow leaves light the way. Yellow from the green ash, and elm, and sugarberry. Red from persimmon and haw and Virginia creeper. Beautiful sight and fresh autumn smell of fallen leaves. Later leaf drop species like bur, pin and blackjack oak, most of the cottonwoods, and willows still hold green leaves.

 To my surprise, the light rains have resuscitated some wilted shrubs like the Callicarpa beautyberry. In August, all of these had leaves that were dry as paper, wilted or shriveled. They looked beyond the point of survival. But rains saved the leaves of half or more of the beautyberry. They will get in one more shot of photosynthesis to feed the roots, stem and new buds for next year before increasing cold induces leaf drop.

Other species did not do as well. There were three of the Euonymus spindle trees in the Woods (that I knew of). I enjoyed one nearest the second largest cottonwood tree in the Woods. It held its green leaves later than others, but it did not survive. A larger spindle tree on the SW side of the East Pond is better and producing its distinctive decorative seeds.

Some trees and shrubs are maturing their fruit: the soft red berries of Symphoricarpos buckbrush, the red rose hips of multiflora rose, the large incongruous grapefruit-sized bright green fruit of the one Osage orange, or bois d'arc in the Woods. Squirrels have chiseled down some of the nuts from the large pecans, but most of the pecans are still holding on.

There is work needed with some large pecan tree tops down, massively blocking trails and requiring a saw to clear. I will wait until after first frosts put the ticks and chiggers to bed for the year.

I stopped to investigate under the bark of a large log and found a gathering of beetles that I did not recognize. Flat, the size of two grains of rice, cordovan color with black eyes, antennae that looked like darkling beetles. A half dozen were feeding with some smaller saw-tooth grain beetles on fungi beneath the bark. Exciting to find new species in the Woods.

And the greatest new change in the Woods is a new bridge across Island Crossing. Looks well designed and well built, with a set of log steps down the steep bank. This is a great addition and will be helpful for wet days and winter.

Drought, Apical dominance and Invasive shrubs

Mesonet this morning reports that this 30 day period just finished, is the driest period across these dates in the past 100 years. However one views the data, it is clear the Woods are in an unusually dry period. I entered the SW Gate at 10 AM to walk through the southern Woods and to see what may have changed. The canopy of the Woods is still green. Few leaves have fallen or begun to change color. Many box elder along the trail had stump sprouts or growth of green shoots and leaves from axillary buds along the stem. I wondered if this could be a response to inadequate auxin from poor growth at the top of the tree, resulting from the heat and summer drought. Need to check with tree physiologists.

As I was contemplating this, another form of 'dominance' erupted - mobbing. Five crows, sounding like 50, began raucous calling and harassment, likely of some hapless predator they'd found. A sleepy barred owl or young hawk. The uproar continued for several minutes until the whole flock of noise flew west.

I walked the South Boundary Trail of the SW loop. West of the Beaver dam, small lines and patches of light fine sand were accumulating on the bare dry cracked earth along the Main SW trail. I've seen this before in other dry, hot La Nina years. This looks like the result of the process OU professor Asa Weese described as the potential source of the sand dune in Oliver's Woods. Prevailing SW dry winds carrying sand from the South Canadian River and depositing it in Oliver's Woods. An extensive dry period five thousand years ago may have been the time of the growth of the dune. [Weese was a distinguished academic, President of the Ecological Society 1931, Ecologist of the Oklahoma Biological Survey, President of the Oklahoma Academy of Science 1931-1933. ]

https://www.esa.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2022/02/Weese_AO.pdf

Walking along the NW side of the dune, I enjoyed seeing a monarch butterfly out in the sunshine. Their migration south is continuing. The sunny patch was an opening produced by die back of several large invasive Ligustrum privet shrubs. Privet all through the Woods was killed by extreme February cold 2021. Now dead stems of privet carry small patches of a white decay fungus, likely turkey tails, Trametes versicolor. 

Crossing the dune on the West Dune trail there are several invasive Amur honeysuckle Lonicera maackii that should be removed before they can start to take over the Woods as they have in other local preserves (e.g Riley Park Noble OK).

Monarchs and Beaver

 This last day of September I went early to the Woods to see what the change of season might have brought. With southward-migrating monarchs flying over the Northeast Gate, I started along the Tree Loop. 

The Woods are parched. The still-green leaves of the Callicarpa beautyberry are drooped in a full wilt. The leaf litter crackles underfoot. Some early leaf drop has started, mainly stressed leaves of elm and sugarberry. No significant rain since 1.5-2 inch at the start of September. But most of canopy of leaves remains, and is still a weathered green.

With drought and heat, it is notable that the western wash is still full at Island Crossing, and at Elm Bridge. I was startled (and delighted) to see fresh beaver activity in the Wash. A young elm along the Wash, near the south end of the Tree Loop, had been cut down and its bark chewed partly off. It has been over a decade since I last saw beaver in the Wash. The water is something of a mystery - its been flowing for a few weeks. None of it is from recent rain. It is coming from the OU campus, perhaps along Timberdell somewhere, a pipe break? I want to know if it is dilute wastewater, irrigation water or something else.

The flow has been sustained for enough weeks that minnows and aquatic surface insects are present; and now, beaver. At Island Crossing a small garter snake appears to have adopted the area and swam away before I could snap some pictures.

Walking west, I surprised three or four whitetail deer. As they romped away I lost sight of them beyond the shrubby undergrowth. I heard several snorts of the doe calling the yearlings back.

Trees along the trails have sustained some breakage. Up on the North Rim trail, a large sugarberry crown has been torn down and blocks the trail. But trails I walked on were mostly clear. The earth along the Main Wash by the Grandfather cottonwood is cracked dry and broken into irregular polygons, waiting for rain.

The Northwest and East Ponds are both dried across their basins. Pushing a rod into the damp soil near the water depth post, there is water visible about 6 inches below the surface. Most of the annual wildflowers, Elephantopus Elephant's foot, Verbesina Frostweed and Crownbeard and others along the trails have wilted, drooped leaves. Not sure what a rain might do to restore. The season is probably complete for them.

Armadillos have been plowing through the leaf litter searching for a meal, beetles, snails, other invertebrates. They've left their characteristic furrows in the dried leaves.

Although very dry, the Woods have become pleasant again for walking and exploring. The highest heat of summer is gone.

Late summer turtles

 Returned to the Woods Tuesday to clear two large fallen trees from trails. I was interested to see what changes late summer had brought after unusually dry hot July-August and recent 2 + inch rain Sept 1.

Entering via the NW there was a nice display of yellow asters and white Verbesina crownbeard with a Three-toed box turtle Terrapene carolina beneath them. I found 3 box turtles on the trails I walked today. I did not see any of the ornate box turtle Terrapene ornata. Charles Carpenter did extensive work with turtles in the Woods in the 1950's. I wonder if he found the ornate box turtle to be common seventy years ago. Did the 2017-2018 illegal collection of a thousand box turtles from Oklahoma for export sale include turtles from Oliver's Woods?

The Sept 1 rain and subsequent small shower of a third of an inch have not refilled the NW or East Ponds. They are both empty with only a bathtub-sized area of wet mud near the center. The hundreds of small young leopard frogs that were in both drying ponds a month ago are all gone. 

There is a substantial flow of turbid water in the West Wash. At Island Crossing there was one small young garter snake swimming and all along the Wash there were small fish (minnows?) feeding. Did these migrate up from the long connection down to the South Canadian? 

I wondered if the flow of unnaturally turbid water might be from a broken pipe or part of the OU water system, as was the case for a week or more in early August. But following the water upstream, it remained in a regular watercourse west of Lloyd Noble, west of the Museum of Natural History and east along Timberdell. I did not find a break.

The Beaver Dam crossing was dry with no water or mud anywhere west of there, although it was clear water had recently flowed 'upstream' pushing sticks and debris westward, probably during the 2 inch rain when the Western Wash flooded from southeast to the southwest.

One armadillo ran away (15-20 m) as I walked the northwestern side of the Tree Loop. I often wonder how they survive with such an ineffective escape run.

Snake in the Woods

 I rarely ever see a snake in Oliver's Woods. This morning I encountered a slender garter snake, skimming away from me on the drying mud shore of the East Pond. It may have been attracted there by the scores of small young leopard frogs sitting on the soft damp soil, all that is left of the East Pond. The Northwest Pond is in a similar condition with a bit more soupy mud remaining in the center. The fish that were in the ponds (mosquito fish?) must have been scooped up by predators as they became stranded.

Oddly, the West Wash was still moderately well-filled with water flowing past Island Crossing at perhaps 2 gallons or 10 liters/ minute. The water in the wash was turbid and I am thinking it must be from a anthropogenic source. Maybe a burst water line? I should check this out.

I had gone to the Woods to see how the trees and other plants were responding to the heat and drought. Nothing catastrophic. The forest is under stress. Blackjack oak Quercus marilandica, Pecan Carya illinoinensis and red elm Ulmus rubra had some premature yellowing of (only some specific) leaves. Like a form of programmed self-pruning or programmed death of select units. The crowns remain green, not yellowing generally all over.

Taller mulberries and elms are now starting to drop a large number of leaves on the forest floor, enough to make the forest floor begin to look like early autumn east of East Pond. Happy to see this, as that means trees are forming natural abscission layers after setting buds for next years growth; rather than leaves simply dying and turning brown, hanging on dead branches.

In the under story, many/ most plants have wilted leaves. The leaves of the beautyberry shrubs Callicarpa are still a dry green, but they are shriveled and probably beyond resuscitation.

Trailside forbs, elephant's foot Elephantopus and lady's thumb Persicaria have drooping leaves but look they could return to life with a good rain.

There were two Three-Toed Box Turtles, probably, Terrapene carolina triunguis west of Island Crossing on the

trail. I did not disturb them. They reminded me to check on the upside down box turtle I righted - and hoped I had rescued a few weeks ago. I went to look for it, not there, so I am hopeful it survived.

Around the shore of the Northwest Pond fresh green pecan nuts were down, and some chewed open. Likely squirrels getting a jump start on autumn harvest. A few green walnuts had fallen but nothing feeding on them, the pungent smell of the green husk. On the same damp mud of the NW Pond a fresh Red-spotted purple butterfly and large yellow Tiger Swallowtail were 'puddling' taking up mineral nutrients, mostly sodium, dabbing their mouthparts on the soft mud.

There were two beautiful large Underwing noctuid moths that flew and landed on big bur oak and large pecan. Now late summer is good time to find these showy moths. As I was leaving, I looked at my jeans and noticed that the season of weed seeds is beginning. I snapped a few photos of the drying NW Pond to contrast with the days after first good autumn rains.

I imagine the snapping turtle that feeds there, has retreated under the shelf of roots on the south shore. Interesting to see the germinating seedlings on the drying East Pond bed. Wild grape, lady's thumb, other bits of green scrambling to start life on the bare wet soil. They will almost certainly be drowned when rains return but may have an ecological part to play before then.

Death or droop by drought

Relentless heat and unremitting drought are taking a toll on the natural world.

Leaves of Cornus drummondii, roughleaf dogwood are wilted to a vertical droop and rolling inward. Box elder leaves Acer negundo are turning green to brown, skipping their normal fall yellow. Entire small branches of red elm, Ulmus rubra are dying from green, straight to brown. Common poison ivy Toxicodendron radicans leaves are browning and dying from the periphery inward.

I wonder if (and hope that) trees can respond to thermal and drought stress with premature formation of leaf abscission layer, so that damage from drought stress can be reduced for the whole tree. I've seen a few yellow mulberry Morus rubra leaves and brown sycamore Platanus occidentalis leaves down. 

I am hoping for enough tree vigor left to form buds, and then form abscission layer and let the leaves go.

My entomology textbook tells me that most insects die at temperatures > 40-45 C (100-113 F). Could that be part of the local collapse of insects? It has been that hot.

The Great Heat

 Oliver's Woods Sunday morning the 24th of July. I went early at 8 to work when it was cooler.

I wanted to check the trails after a long seven weeks away and see how the Woods had fared during the great heat. The past six weeks has been one of historic June-July heat and drought. Day after day of increasing temperature rising over 100 F to triple digits, with no rain. I wanted to know how the trees, insects, vertebrates and biota were handling it all. I parked below the SW gate and walked a little ways until the main trail was blocked by a large tangle of branches broken from the crown of a dead elm. The trail ahead was also overgrown thickly with tall sedges. I took the south boundary trail. 

The ground there was bleached with heat, but the deep-rooted bur oaks looked OK. They had had a good wet spring and early summer. On the Two Friends Trail, I quickly encountered a disheveled opossum six feet up in a small persimmon, looking reluctant to put forth the energy to climb farther, if I was not going to approach closer. When I did approach closer, it slid around the opposite side of the tree and climbed a little more - slowly. The opossum and I regarded each other for a few minutes and I walked on north through the brush on the western end of the old windblown dune. Herbaceous annuals like Elephantopus, elephant's-foot were wilting, but small shrubs like Symphoricarpos buckbrush were not.

There were lots of dead branches, but not from drought. They were the abundant invasive exotic Ligustrum privet. Their tops had been killed by exceptional cold weather in the February 2021 freeze. I cleared them where they had curled downward into the trail - and disappointed orb weavers that had spun their webs overnight. There were just a few mosquitoes, hardly any, and it was too dry for ticks.

Katydids kept up their rising and falling droning sound. There were some wrens buzzing and woodpeckers drumming, a little ways deeper into the Woods. Descending the forested dune to the big cottonwood, the soil was dried into irregular polygons of organic silt muck. Each polygon was bound in place by roots from below and some from the sides of the polygons. I grew excited contemplating the abundant sheltered niches produced by the deeper fissures, 3-5 inches deep on all sides of each polygon. Out of the sun, in cooler and moister habitats, sheltered from the hot dry diurnal environment. I wondered how many species of arthropods and other invertebrates would be there now. What were the communities of these summer crevices like? What would happen to these crevices and their communities in the first moderate rains? An 'Ecology of Crevices'.

I spotted one young white-tail dashing away from me through the young box elder. I had disturbed its quiet refuge where humans rarely ever intruded in the summer months. Back on the south side of the Woods closer to the quiet trash Transfer Station I heard a dog barking and saw the same stray dog that had been in and around the Woods for two thirds of a year. It barked and behaved like it would aggressively defend against any approach.  I left it and walked on west to clear broken branches across the south boundary trail. To my surprise, the dog came after me, quietly. It approached, stopped, yawned and then looking a bit nervous, passed by within five feet of me. I worked a while longer and then walked to an old oak log to sit and write. The dog approached me, probably hungry, but not aggressive. It lingered near me within 5-10 feet for a few minutes and I thought it probably has good potential as a 'rescue' dog. I know it does not belong in the Woods hunting rabbits and other vertebrates, disturbing the animals in the wildlife refuge. In my mind  I named the dog 'Oliver' and wished it well.. in a good home.

Heading north into the central and northwest Woods I was struck by the abundant 1-2 meter high growth of box elder leaves. They were a sort of green bandage covering the wounds of the woods, the places where trees had fallen, where other trees had been crushed. The box elder dominated the head high under story and made the Woods a place of hiding where all its animals could find escape and refuge.

Since my most recent previous visit in early June, large pecan branches  have fallen throughout the Woods. Green when they fell, their new leaves are now a relatively bright cinnamon brown. Must have been some stronger June winds to have ripped them down from the canopy, and pecan branches may not be that strong. By Carpenter's big fallen cottonwood large catalpa leaves are bright green and growing fast to benefit from the newly opened space. Smaller poison ivy leaves are sprouting here and there as well. Poison ivy had become uncommon as I removed it from trail sides and the closed woods was not optimal for it. I will renew my campaign to remove most of it from trails to make them safe for students who may not recognize it.

The NW Pond and East Ponds were both quite a sight. The NW pond was dried to a small remnant shallow pool, maybe one third the diameter of the spring. A large old snapper turtle moved slowly along in the muddy water over the soft muddy bottom. Master of the pond. There were scores of young frogs hopping along the shoreline and I thought the snapper was probably harvesting as many as it could hold. This may well have been the best feed of the year, the time that kept the quiet unmoving snapper alive through cold winter months. The East Pond was even smaller, the size of a few bathtubs united. No turtles foraging there, but there were the same hordes of small frogs hopping across the muddy shore of the pond.

Exhausted from clearing large tree tops and branches from trails, I emerged back into bright light and hot sun at noon.

Wild Woods

 Today I returned to the Woods through the NE gate, after several weeks of April & May away. The trails are almost hidden, full of green life they will hold until autumn.

Fifty meters up the trail, there was a noticeable mammal smell, like a deer, perhaps bedded down taking a siesta before I disturbed it. There was a square patch of the overgrown trail cleared, as if it had been marked as territory, although breeding season is months away.

Mosquitoes were abundant, but manageable, with some DEET applied.

From the NE Gate the under-story was rank and abundant, healthy. Some non-native Johnson grass, but more of the native coral-berry, elephant's foot and other annuals. With a mild spring and recent good rains, all the under-story herbs, plus the shrubs, and trees are healthy and sprinting, with their most rapid growth of the year. It will be a good year for early summer growth of the trees. With little or no human traffic, trail-side plants are extending their fine roots, rebuilding the soil, rapidly pushing up new stems and pushing out new leaves. Replenishing and renewing the forest (and capturing carbon returned to the soil.) The thick under-story below the Pipeline trail was flashing with iridescent Ebony jewelwing damselflies Calopteryx maculata. Frogs made swift, long leaps through the green grasses, leaving the overgrown trail. A new two meter tall streak of fruity-smelling flux extends down a medium diameter elm, attracting beetles, ants and flies.

Throughout the Woods, fluffy cottonwood seeds are floating, descending and drifting to new locations. The seeds may grow or fail. But who will use or eat the diaphanous resource of cotton that drifts and coats the ground? Collembola springtails? mites? fungi? bacteria? There is an ephemeral feast of the cotton available.

Spiders webs are back across the trails, but not many. I wonder when their webs will be abundant.

Along the Two Pecan trail just north of the hanging branch tree there was a mature box turtle upside down. It looked like it had inadvertently tipped over into a shallow, cup-sized depression of dried leaves and sticks and had not been able to turn back over. Who knows how long it had been trapped there? days? weeks? Thinking it might be alive, I smelled the shell and there was no whiff of decay so I was hopeful. I left it right side up and hoped it would not be there when I returned.

Along the levee I stopped to pull up more English ivy near and north of the big walnut #194. There was still quite a good bit, even after some dedicated efforts to pull it out in April. The same was true at the oriental bittersweet location. After scores of hours pulling and attempting to eradicate these two species, I think they may both outlive me in the Woods, and may dominate it. Could be a dystopian way of locking up carbon from the atmosphere. Interesting idea to unleash / encourage all the fastest growing invasives everywhere to lock up carbon in maximum growth (not serious). Interesting transition now happening with collapse and decay of the tallest invasive Ligustrum privet shrubs that were killed in the intense cold of February 2021. Watching to see if it fully returns, or if Ligustrum loses some ground to other species.

Southwest of Elm Bridge by the one white PVC marker, there was a carrion smell, perhaps a small dead armadillo, raccoon, or opossum, or part of a deer carcass. Very light winds wafting the smell. I tried using spider silk and then cottonwood cotton to get the direction of the faint breeze, but even then, could not find the source. Burying beetles and vultures would be better.

Returning north through the Big Tree grove, a large green ash has newly fallen, #502. The sunlight was bright and strong in the patch it cleared. Interesting to see which new herbs and regrowth will move in and be the first to take the sunlight.

Back at home a quarter of an hour later, I did a quick check for ticks. Found one adult and two tiny seed ticks. After a shower and a change of clothes I checked the car seat and found one more adult tick and five more tiny seed tick nymphs. Not surprising after grubbing around in the Woods pulling ivy and bittersweet. I remember this tick abundance in Oliver's Woods when I first began to explore there 20 years ago. I want to visit the Woods every day but the tick abundance keeps me largely away until frosty autumn days.

The Woods are waking up.

Marvelous spring days.

  Out in Oliver’s Woods a dance of warm days alternating with cold fronts and spring rains have warmed and wet the soil to push up green shoots. Chickweed and its small white star flowers, false garlic, Japanese honeysuckle, euonymus, blue violets, spring grasses and dozens of other species.  The forest floor is green.

  Overhead, the forest canopy is changing. Slippery elm two weeks ago flushed out chartreuse samaras. Box elder is the first to open its leaves. Cottonwood bud scales, shiny and glistening, are falling to the ground as the big cottonwoods prepare to come alive. The community of forest trees is waking up.

  Morels have been popping up, a delight for sharp-eyed mushroom hunters.

  Flowering shrubs, the non-native Elaeagnus autumn olive, have opened cream yellow flowers. They profuse the air with a sweet smell and attract bright yellow tiger swallowtails. The warm sunshine on the forest floor also brings out to bask and feed, orange Anaea goatweed butterflies, orange and black Polygonia question mark butterflies, acrobatic orange skippers, and elegant red-spotted purple butterflies.

  Also basking and feeding are big fierce-looking snapper turtles in east and northwest ponds along with red-eared sliders. One turtle adopts a peculiar posture, perched on a small floating log, body 80% above the water, in warm sunshine, and head and neck hanging down submerged in the pond waiting for passing prey. 

The shell of a recently dead snapper was sitting in deeper water at Island Crossing, about twenty feet from where I saw a snapper sitting quietly underwater about ten years ago. I wonder if it may have been the same individual. I think so.

  Joan showed me a bald eagle circling west of the NW entrance to the Woods. Quiet late morning walks are filled with calls of cardinals, buzz of wrens, startling cry of red-tailed hawk, taking flight from two pursuing crows. First skinks of the year scuttle quickly off the trail into the green new honeysuckle sprouts on a sunny slope above the NW Pond. Happily a yellow-crowned night heron has adopted the NW Pond and others join it.

The Woods are waking up.

Stopping by Snowy Woods

 Saturday afternoon, our daytime temps warmed enough so that I went for walk in Oliver's Woods. I walked in via the NW Pond. The sharp repeated one note call of a flicker punctuated the quiet. I watched as the bird worked its way down the trunk of small dead green ash by the edge of the pond. I wondered again how they could find enough food to sustain themselves on cold winter days.

On the trails, the ground was soft, for the first time in months. Enough snow had melted and seeped into the upper inches to re-hydrate the humus. A herd of 5 white-tailed deer danced away from me twice as I wandered through the refuge. Wildlife thoroughfares, hidden highways known and regularly used by the denizens of the Woods were revealed in the snow. Tracks of opossum, raccoons, deer, armadillo, and others (skunks?) Interesting to see where they followed regular human trails and where they diverged and went their own way to their well-known destinations, I've never visited.

 The small stream was running too deep to cross with my hiking boots.

The trunks of fallen cottonwood giants, southern hackberries, pecans and elms were topped with white crests of snow on top of the horizontal trunks wet with melting snow.

  Surrounded by snow, dark melt water pools, the size of two or three bathtubs, some inches deep, were filling. They will be used by frogs, salamanders and various aquatic insects in the next few weeks.

  On the way out of the Woods passing the NW Pond again, the call of a barred owl off to the east left me wondering if the snow made its hunt more difficult or easier.

 

Blustery winter day in the Woods

This blustery winter afternoon (25 F &  25 mph N wind ) I went to the Woods to see how life was responding to an abrupt change from balmy winter days at 60 F.

Path to the NW pond passes quickly into the protected lee of the upper terrace. The force of the N wind drops away. First moment in the quiet of the lee, I disturb a barred owl that flies away southward from its perch above the pond. Perhaps watching for small prey coming to the water, or more likely, just sheltering from the wind.

The NW Pond has not frozen (yet) and as I stepped out to the edge, I saw deep swirls in the water of some invisible vertebrate, probably a turtle on a last foraging opportunity before the night air chills to the low teens and the pond freezes over.

In the sedges at the southeast corner of the pond, a group of three large white-tailed deer stand and stare, only for a couple of seconds, before dashing away with their white tail flags flashing.

The Woods provides snug winter homes for many animals that can shelter deep back in earthen burrows or hidden in the protected core of old snags. Squirrels, mice, coyotes, raccoons, other fur bearers. Armadillos dig holes in the earth that everyone uses. Box turtles burrow deep into ravines full of fallen leaves and stay there all winter.

A pair of downy woodpeckers inspect old hackberries and flocks of robins are busy foraging, turning over leaves in search of arthropods, beetles, snails and any other small snacks they find before the dark and cold tonight. Where do they go then? Up into twiggy canopies protected from predators, or in some lower niche seeking protection from the wind? I don't know.

The forest floor is very, very dry from the months of little or no rain, The stronger than normal winds over the same time, have blown the dried leaves away from exposed bits of the trail. The soil there is bare, while three meters away, dry leaves sit in wind-blown piles. I wonder if soil fauna can migrate. As drier, colder winter days come, do they migrate downward into protected, warmer, moister layers? If so, how deep? Earthworms, but also, all the micro-arthropods, springtails, mites, tiny spiders, millipedes; and even smaller, the microbes. Do they move away from the drying cooling layers of the upper soil? Can microbes migrate inches? feet? or do they just go dormant, dry up, and produce resting stage spores to wait for warm spring rains?

Through the Woods, the blustery winds that blew all last night, have brought down more old branches broken in the October 2020 ice storm, that have been hanging dead, or broken and partly alive over the year plus. At the edge of the northern terrace, there are captured visions of violence. Large trees snapped, large boles shattered where other leaning trees have fallen and hit them. It might be interesting to census the Woods for broken trees.  Which species are the strongest? Probably the big bur oaks. Which species are weaker? Pecans, cottonwoods, hackberries/ sugarberries. These grow plenty large, but are always dropping heavy limbs or sections of their main canopy. Ash, chittamwood and elms are tougher and do not splinter as readily when strong winds toss the trees, or bring them down.

Winter days are good days to see new patterns in the Woods. From up top of a fallen log I look out and see the large expanse of green wild 'onions' or chives' Allium around me. But this large irregular patch has a border. Inside the border, lots of green, outside the border, none. What makes the difference? What set the limit? Soil type? depth of silt or amount of sand? On one side closest to the Wash it is likely inundation, too much water, too long. A little farther south an almost equally large patch of dried grasses stands with foot high yellow stems above new green winter leaves. Again, the patch is defined, restricted, with a clear border. At the NW Pond a sharp border exists between the sedges and the cattails. What sets the border?  If I were floating higher above the Woods 30-50 feet up, I could see sharp boundaries around different stands of trees. Green ash in the SW quarter. Willows in the SE quarter with a sharp border set by wet soil.. and maybe others where location is more random walnut, coffee trees, soapberry, wild plum, hickory, post oak, chittam. Are the invisible animals, the micro-arthropods similarly arranged in either well-defined locations or randomly scattered in a manner that is typical for that species? Probably so. Enough questions in the Woods to never know it all.

Coldest day

 12 Fahrenheit. 

After weeks of 'unseasonably', pleasantly mild December days in the 50's, 60's and above, a powerful cold front brought 0.75 inch rain and in 24 hours abruptly dropped our dawn temperature to near single digits. I returned to the SW Gate at 2 PM, interested to see how the sudden change had affected the Woods.

I disturbed an owl near the largest cottonwood and it flew silently south through the Woods. Walking east then north, to connect to Two Friends Trl, I passed the old leaning elm I had watched falling apart, for a decade or more. A large portion of the bole that had fallen, had a new distinctive reddish hue from some unusual decay fungus digesting the rotten wood. 

Wandering NW I came to the fallen big cottonwood and found illuminated ice stalactites hanging below the tree at two points. Rain had soaked its way through the massive bole, picking up a caramel colored mixture of decay products, then  dripped out at two points separated by 20 feet. I looked and could not find any reason for the water to have exited at those points. Another example of hidden ecological structure that develops, invisibly until revealed by unusual conditions.

It was a sunny afternoon at the NW pond, with 20 robins gathered at the SE corner, the warmest part of the shoreline where free water had melted and was available.

The Woods were quiet. No human truck noise on this second day of January. No insects or arthropods moving after last night's deep cold. Winds with the front had shaken a few new branches down, but nothing significant.

Quiet peaceful winter Sunday afternoon. Happily.

As I was leaving, a large white dog (stray, no collar) bounded into the Woods from the SW corner, saw me and ran east along the south boundary. It was the same dog I photographed in the Woods weeks ago. Not good that it is still here and using the Woods as part of its range. It could be an effective predator and its scent could intimidate vulnerable wildlife.