Coming Back to the Woods

This week I have begun returning to the Woods after a summer-long hiatus. I am relieved that after two vigorous half days clearing down trees blocking trails and swing-blading through tall trailside grasses, I have encountered no ticks and only a solitary mosquito. The Woods are very dry. The month of September has been very dry. But now, at the end, the days are cooling into the mid 80's.
There are very few leaves down, apart from some premature drop from drought-stressed trees. Most oaks and the black hickory have leaves that still look good. Some elm leaves are browning around the periphery. Recently I've only encountered one deer. That will change quickly when hunting season begins.

I think now the Woods are coasting. They had a good early summer with good rains and milder temperatures than previous few years. They did well and built reserves when their photosynthetic abilities were at peak with new leaves. This end of the summer has been stressful, but I don't see trees dying. They are OK with reserves. They just need a good long deep drink before winter. The trees that are coming down, are tops breaking out of two and three year old snags. Lots of elms continue to fall.

Blooming in the Woods are Verbesina frostweed, a pretty white flower attracting late season pollinators.. also a late generation of Elephantopus elephant's foot, with small blue flowers.. although the great majority of these have gone to seed. Polygonum ladies thumb has taken over more of the Main SW trail. I cut a meter wide trail through. I cleared away the Cnidoscolus bull nettle that was crowding over the Opuntia prickly pear at the W Dune trail crossing.

It is a nice time in the Woods. I'll start enjoying late afternoons, early evenings and other free time there again.

Wild Woods

Hot, heavy, humid air; smelling of the green Woods.

This morning I returned to the Woods to see what several weeks of the summer had changed.
In the northeast Woods, the trail-sides were grown up thickly with Elephantopus, elephant's foot beginning to set seed. Along the Main SW trail, there were thick stands of knee or waist-high Polygonum ladies thumb. The Carex sedge around the NW Pond was lush. Grasses filled other trail segments around the Tree Loop.
I took a chain saw to cut away dead-fall and blow-down blocking trails from the past two months of neglect. I'll need to finish clearing a few more of these later by the Catalpa trio; near the SW Gate; and south of the West Dune trail.

It was what I had hoped for the summer. An undisturbed time for plants and creatures to renew the Woods, rebuild roots, forage without interruption. I saw four box turtles: two together at Elm Bridge. The Wash there was empty, but still damp. Two more turtles along the Trans OW trail. There were two white-tailed deer: one west of the Elm Bridge( curious yearling, in thick understory hesitated while I sang to it) and one north of the North Loop (snorted and ran south).
The East Pond was almost gone - open water down to the size of a wash basin was guarded by a libellulid skimmer on the post. The West Pond was way down but the surface area was still two thirds normal. Nice white and pink Hibiscus shrub blooming there and two Anax junius Aeshnids were busy chasing each other. A squirrel by the water, but no sign of the turtles.
The Wash still had water at the old tank, but none at Isld Crossing.
I found a new species of fern for the Woods (on the levee trail?) Yellow tiger swallowtail floated upslope from the NW Pond.
There is an Agelenid funnel web spider population explosion in the usual SW corner. It would be interesting to trace the north and east extent of this and figure out why they are, where they are.
Here and there around the Woods, there are green pecans and green persimmons coming down with squirrels or other rodents chewing on the green husk. Along the Main SW trail, there are several to many young boxelders establishing - a few inches high with 3-5 leaves. The combination of rain and dry must have been just right. Along the western fence Campsis trumpet vines are blooming or beginning to drop their orange flowers; and white Clematis flowers are still there.
One last treat was along the S Boundary Cutoff trail. Old, burled horizontal trunk of elm 36 had broken down and revealed a long-used wood rat or cotton rat nest stocked with small sticks and holding one skull of a opossum or raccoon(?)
This is going to be a good year for the Woods.

High Cotton

10 AM Sunday I returned to the Woods for one of my now infrequent summer visits. I wanted to see if there had been any major changes. From the NE Gate to the Tree Loop I dropped down to the western leg along the Wash. A large sugarberry branch had fallen across the trail and taken off the top of young persimmon 13.7. We'll see if the persimmon can produce new branches, buds, leaves and survive. This got me thinking about how the continuation of the life of a tree is more about the invisible roots than it is about the top. The purpose of the stem, branches and leaves is to feed and grow more roots.. and when times are good and the tree is ready - to reproduce. The top can be smashed or broken but the persistence of the tree - its existence, is centered in the invisible roots. I cleared some of the heavy branch from the trail but I'll need a saw to clear the rest.
I walked out the Pipeline Trail to Island Crossing. The soft sand around the pool there was full of tracks. Out the Northern Loop I did not see any surviving Ailanthus Tree of Heaven at the junction with the Rim trail; but I imagine there are some remaining.
At the East Pond there was cotton all over the pond. It looked about 60 percent full. We've had moderately good rains this month. The Woods looked to be 'in high cotton'. Trailside grasses and Elephantopus Elephant's foot were doing well. Tall slender white daisies were in bloom here and there. This will be a good growth year for the trees. Despite a dry spring, summer rains came when they had to, and trees were ready to use the rain.
Mosquitoes were moderately abundant even with DEET, but not outrageous. I found only 3-4 mid-sized ticks on me. No tiny ticks.
The green plums of the Prunus mexicanus were full but not ripening yet. By the Grandfather cottonwood, the Polygonum ladies thumb was larger and filling in but not as thick and overgrown as last summer. There was a solitary whitetail yearling there. I stopped and sang to it.. while it looked at me with curiosity.
The Woods feel like they are resting. Growing new roots, vines and leaves; regaining some of the density and cover lost in previous hot dry summers. I did not see turtles. Driving out, I stopped in to the SW Gate. Outside the gate, the weeds are rank. The Woods inside the gate along the Southern Boundary trail all looked good. Along the Chautauqua fence line the orange-yellow trumpet flower was in bloom here and there.

Luminous Woods Box Turtles and Cottonwood Tendrils

Yesterday morning exploration of Woods with Jessa at 9 mostly to see the Tree Loop for teacher workshop. We found three box turtles. One was down by the wash with its front legs into the water taking a drink. Jessa confirmed the red eyes were males and the concave vs convex plastron male/ female distinction works too. We came across two blow-downs blocking the trail: east of the catalpa cluster and north of the Elm Bridge. I made a mental note to remove them; but then decided not. I like the idea of letting the Woods trails go a little more wild in the summer. Give the Woods a rest. Let the trail-side grasses and buckbrush grow. Build some biomass to hold the soil. Let the turtles roam with some privacy. Trails being not-so-well kept may provide a bit of relief. That and the ticks. I found seven on me. Three embedded.
A few days earlier I had gone to the Woods early as morning rain was still falling but bright sun was shining. Coming over the dune and dropping down to the Grandfather cottonwood, looking east, the Woods were scintillating with silver rain drops dripping from the branches and leaves. A large patch of Polygonum pink ladies thumb was glowing with bright spring green color on the floor of the darker Woods.
Along the trail, odd worm-like green tendrils, fallen abundantly on the trail were the centers of this season's cottonwood flowers, their seeds dispersed.

Viburnum and Craneflies

 

  Nice Easter Sunday for a walk in the Woods.. softly overcast. I entered the SW Gate at 4. A recent very light shower produced the smell of fresh rain on warm soil - the first time this year for me.

Past Dragonfly Corner near 200 m, a moderate size elm killed by Ophiostoma elm disease had fallen across the trail in a tangle of branches. I broke and moved as much as I could but I need a saw to get the rest. Near the NE Gate a large wounded cimbicid elm sawfly along the trail was struggling with several ants. The sawfly was black with one orange antenna remaining and a bold white mark on its back. The water in the wash was diminished, but long full pools were black with organics and looked like they should be full of life. I saw one gerrid water strider. No turtles today although I checked both ponds and the wash. One small frog leapt into the water.

   The Viburnum rusty blackhaw are in good early flower now with cream white blossoms. The Elaeagnus autumn olive are still holding onto the end of their sweet fragrant bloom. All the live trees I checked along the tree loop now were producing leaves. The least, latest to develop, were the persimmon.. just barely breaking leaf buds, with some green showing. The soapberry were also just flushing new leaves.

  Two botany mysteries.. one a cluster of young 1 m high stems with new leaves like a walnut. Twenty stems in an area smaller than our home. It looked like a perennial invasive. The other is a common low herbaceous, simple, elliptical leaf with pinnate venation and a cluster of greenish purple blotches in the center of the leaf. There was a bright flowering cluster of daisies by the seep below the trail near the NW entrance.

  A small patch of the trail just west of the catalpas was curiously wet with dry forest leaf litter surrounding. I watched a dangling cut Ampelopsis fox grape vine dripping water from above.

  Beautiful woods with the bright green of new foliage everywhere today. Still 40% of the upper canopy tree limbs do not have their leaves but the understory shrub layer and sub-canopy trees (largely box elder) are well flushed.

   Several of the sugarberries had shriveled dead young leaves on twigs along the lower bole. It looked like young leaves had been killed by the sudden 28 F night we had a week ago. Upper branches and leaves on the same trees were fine. A few craneflies flying.. but not many insects. Two white-tailed deer at the SW gate as I was leaving. I stopped to say hello and sing to them for just a moment. They ran off but only 100 feet and stopped to browse again.

An explosion of life.

  In a small sunny glade just 50 m south from the NE Gate at noon today, I saw the first monarch butterfly in the Woods this year, taking nectar from the autumn olive which was in full sweet-smelling flower. There were 2 or 3 goatweed butterflies, a dark skipper, a small tiger swallowtail, two small least sulphurs. Almost every tree now has leaves starting. Even some of the older walnuts have first leaves emerging on small twigs out of the bole. There are small flies buzzing about and a large carpenter bee. Life is suddenly full on today. In the SW Woods, much of the trail is sodden with small pools of standing water. There are small midges or mosquitoes flying low over the soil.

  I placed another five stones along the soggy portion of the West trail.. and then heading south found Michael B. and Rachel F. recording data from pink-flagged trees.

It's Happened Again

It's happened again. I went to the Woods yesterday late in the day for a quiet walk and found that spring happened this weekend. It is on that one or two days when all the boxelder in the understory all unfurl their leaves.. coinciding with the flush of green young woodland grasses and Stellaria bedstraw on the forest floor and simultaneous with the flush of the leaves of Symphoricarpos deer bush in the shrub layer. It takes the Woods from the bare pending promise of early spring, to the full sprint of spring growth like a runner bursting from the blocks.
This evening out in the Woods there were 10-12 deer in a herd, more than I've seen this year. I stopped and sang to them in my normal voice as I usually do and they stood in place staring. Then I shifted to a lower register and most of them ran. No turtles this year so far. Both ponds are brimming full at 2.2 ' in depth or greater. The redbuds are out full and the tree loop is glorious, although the wild plum is now fading.