What is a Great Horned Owl Thinking

This last Sunday of January, exploring the eastern Woods towards the end of the day, I heard the Great Horned Owl a hundred feet away across the dry ditch. At 5 o'clock I was wandering, purposefully off trail and looking for hidden new things. I was by the giant bur oak that had washed out and fallen eastward across the Wash. The owl was in good full view in a tall juniper. I sank down and rested my head against a large rotten log on the steep bank behind me, pulled out binoculars to watch the bird and thought what life was like for the owl. After initially observing me,  the owl regally looked away to the southwestern horizon. The setting sun blazed and lit the owl's eyes. I could see their glint through my binoculars. I wondered what the owl was thinking as it began its 'day' with twilight approaching. The dry wash below it would be a good open highway where it could fly low through mostly unobstructed space. Maybe there was a family of mice along the wash the owl had tried for earlier. Maybe it was considering returning to places where it had been successful before.
I wondered if the owl had a map of the Woods with regular flight routes repeatedly taken.. a personal interstate or branching routes that all the birds of the Woods knew.
A brave wren with 'attitude' was chirping, scolding and hopping from perch to perch in the Wash below the owl. It was probably safe because of its size and also the surrounding brushy cover of tangled vines.
The owl scarcely paid any attention to the wren although I think it did have a look at me.. and probably decided that I was a little to big for its dinner. I sat and enjoyed the peace of the Woods contemplating the higher branches of the big pecans and elms and sugarberries. These upper boughs are the dominion of the owl and its avian compatriots. I wondered how well they knew the upper branches of these trees. Throughout my quiet half hour with the owl, it barely seemed to take notice of me. But when a barred owl called 200 m WNW from a big pecan tree, the great-horned owl quickly reacted with a turn and brief stare.

Snowy Woods and southern dogs

Beautiful snow this Sunday morning from dawn to noon, 3-4 inches. Afternoon was below freezing but snow was clearing, so at five I went to the SW gate of the Woods, to see what tracks I would find.
Along the South boundary trail there were no tracks for 100 m or more.. maybe one squirrel. Then there was a well worn but otherwise hidden thoroughfare heading south under the fence. It looked like it might have been raccoon. Further east, at the main break in the fence, there was the principle dog entry and I was sad to see from abundant tracks, that they were still here. I crossed south through the fence and found the five young dogs together on the east side of the new trash station. They ran off around to the front and entered the station to forage in the bags along the west wall. I followed them to the entrance and stomped my foot. They ran barking back north and east into the Woods. We have to get those dogs out of the Woods. At the fence break by Carpenter's G-0 post there were again lots of tracks including one that looked like a bobcat. . rounded pads and no nails.
With the sun setting I wandered north back into the Woods.
Leaving the southern portion of the Woods I encountered the first deer tracks. The snow is a great recorder of wildlife activity showing the hidden routes that the animals in the Woods know and use. Sometimes they use the cleared trails. Sometimes they have their own ways.
The deer tracks all through the Woods seemed like mostly young deer. I wondered what impact the dogs were having in suppressing wildlife.
I found no evidence of dogs north of the dune. Most of the deer tracks stayed north of the dune.
Beautiful time to be in the Woods with snow outlining the dark trunks of the trees. The glowing sunset colors lit up the Woods reflecting from the white forest floor.

Spring Zephyrs Mid-January

Destructive ice storm late December, polar-vortex deep cold for central OK early January. Now blustery  30-40 mph winds in a 70 degree day. By 5 p.m. the Woods were calm. I walked in past the NW Ponds. Along the trail I  find small patches of cooler air.. meter by meter. I  either encountered the afternoon's remaining warmth or distinctly cooler air. Where does the returning cool come from? down by the cooler ground? collecting and drifting down ravines and draws - yes, but no significant continuing downslope wind currents.. Is it blowing in from the winds above? Can't tell. Topsy-turvy patchy zephyrs must make it difficult for animals relying on smell.
 The Woods are very open now. Even some of the privet and winter green shrubs lost some leaves in the ice storm. Small groups of 2-3 deer are there most days. This evening at 5:30 I heard the singing of a distant group of coyotes off to the south. Maybe they'll come through the Woods and eliminate the family of young dogs that are living there along the south boundary.
  Beautiful sunset with bands of gray or light pink clouds I associate with early spring. Sky and near full moon made me want to stay out.

Clearing Trails

Couple of full days of hard work clearing trails of trees downed in the ice storm. Beautiful days, high today was 60F. (Hi tomorrow 31F and low 14F).  There were several large impassable wind/ice falls of trees across trails. The last one today I found was by the old tornado tree by the NW12 post. A massive boxelder trunk had snapped and fallen on a more massive ~ 90 cm DBH decaying pecan snag. Combined the debris was too much to clear. I re-routed the trail north and moved the NW12 post fifteen feet north.
Other large wind/ice falls on the Two Pecan trail, the Barney Jct cutoff (Barney is missing), the NW Ponds trail at the East Pond, the E-W trail at the vines west of the Elm Bridge and a few others on the south end of the Tree Loop. I still need to check the northern rim trails.
At 5:20 walking southwest from the center of the Woods, making my way out, the setting sun through the forest was a pulsing brilliant beacon of molten gold.
I saw three deer heading east along the South Boundary Trail at sunset. Earlier this morning I saw four of the puppies at the center south entrance where someone has spread a bale of hay. Unfortunately I also saw a new adult dog, a yellow golden long-haired (?) retriever-sized dog moving west from the Beaver dam.
There was still a complete covering of ice in shaded portions of the Wash. At the Elm Bridge where there was no ice, there were a half dozen delicate aquatic flies busy skimming and circling above the water .. size of chironomids but not sure what they were.
The biggest cottonwood (one of two camera trees) had lost a massive canopy branch from the south side.

Aftermath of the Ice

Transient warming in the Woods today, yesterday, tomorrow after the destructive ice storm and 3-4 cold days last week. All of the ice was gone today except in shaded nooks, so I took my saw at 9:30 and went to see what needed to be done.
 I walked the Tree Loop from the NE Gate, clearing small obstructions and some broken branches but nothing significant until I reached the southern end of the Loop.  A good-sized middle age sugarberry there had a large limb broken down on several other trees and the trail was impassable. Sugarberries in Olivers Woods have had the most breakage in this storm. I cut, hauled, pulled and eventually cleared the original path. I tried to cut as little as possible and pull broken limbs toward the base of the parent tree. By noon time I had finished the Tree Loop. If there is no more ice damage this winter, it will look good again by spring leaf-out.
After a noon break, I returned to walk the NW Ponds Trail at 1:30. The NW pond depth was 2.25 ft. (full). There was no sign of life there. The East Pond was inaccessible with a large fall on the north side of the pond. The West Trail was more clear than I had suspected it would be. There was one good sized mess just north of the junction with the the Main SW trail.
The worst ice breakage and trail blockage was on the north side of the East Pond. Large heavy oak, ash and elm branches had fallen along the trail. It was like a jig saw puzzle in reverse figuring out how to untangle, cut and remove it all. Happy to get it done.
Encountered just one group of four deer.

Icy Winter Solstice

Freezing rain began last night. By 3 a.m. power was going out. At 6 a.m. there were sounds of branches breaking and smashing to ground. Freezing rain had largely stopped by 2 p.m.  I went to the SW Gate at 5 p.m. to see what the ice had done.
Ice transformed the Woods.. beautiful drooping ice-covered branches, shrubs, privet - green leaves with ice, indian currant Symphoricarpos light brown stem and red berries encased in ice. Most beautiful was the West Dune Trail where the dense snail seed and honeysuckle vines overhead covered in ice made the trail into a silvery tunnel. Along oak trails, new fallen leaves of early winter were still 3 dimensional, not compressed into thin layers of decomposition.
Tree breakage was widespread. It was happening while I was there.. a sudden loud breaking sound of a solid branch followed by a silvery shower of shed ice falling.
I cleared many tops and branches that could be dragged away from the trail. I will not use the saw until a few days from now when ice has melted and trees, now bent deeply,  have rebounded as much as they will. Part of survival as a young tree or old in this environment. You adapt to ice, to sudden weight bending you double. to breakage of your top crown. Trees and branches are loaded to their limit. A small breeze rocking and swaying the trees triggers more breakage. I will walk all the trails in the Woods with saw and loppers to clear largish breakage/ blowdowns.
Water was high at Island Crossing - filled the Wash but did not rise to cover the Island. East Pond was full. Water along the main SW trail had backed up above the Beaver Dam and was rising but had not reached Grandfather cottonwood at 5:30. SW end of the E-W trail was underwater. I detoured, walking west, off-trail parallel to the rising water in the Main SW Wash. Beautiful, exciting unusual time to be in the Woods.

Walk before the storm

End of a cold overcast afternoon before the ice storm due at sunset, I went to the Ponds entrance to the Woods at 4 p.m. for an hour. Three deer around the NW pond. The Woods were fairly bare. The last deciduous leaves off the Bumelia are gone now. On a long walk around many of the trails there were some small branches down in the SE but nothing larger. Chickadees (and titmice) were scolding and active by the East Pond near Claire's observation point. There was water in the Wash but it stopped short of the Elm Bridge.. no water flowing at Island Crossing. The two ponds were fairly full. One place along trail there was a track of deer scraping the soil with its hoof.. like it was excavating.
Tonight fairly strong/ heavy ice storm. We'll see what is damaged.