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.