Color and Rain

Color and Rain

November 6, 2013

Things have changed so much.  Our woods became a blaze of color:  dandelion yellow, crimson, deep orange, hot red, bronze, russet, rust.  There was still some green.  We had some “Indian summer” weather for awhile, but lately it had been getting colder. 

 We had also been having rain.  Before this day, it rained steadily during the night and all morning, and promised to rain all afternoon and evening.  This was a classic November day in Indiana – blustery, nippy, wet, colorful, with steely, overcast skies.  Wet tree trunks and limbs looked like dark streaks against the vivid fall colors.

I love these November days, and I needed to get outside, in the rain.  It was a good time to check out Cottonwood Pond.

I slipped into the edge of the woods and worked my way down the slope toward the creek and Cottonwood Pond.  Beneath my feet I heard the slip and crunch of wet leaf layers, and the snap of twigs fallen during the morning's wind.  The wetness of long rain dampened the scent of decaying leaves.

 Leaves collected on the woods floor:  Sugar Maple, Black Maple, Sycamore, Tulip Poplar, Wild Black Cherry

On top of the old, brown, rotting layer of last year's leaves lay the layer of vivid, newly fallen leaves, their shapes, designs and identities still discernible.

A yellow Tulip Poplar leaf bore marks of age and experience from the past spring and summer.

The golden leaves of a Sassafras sapling were waving in the wind, shiny from rain.

The creek was flowing, rippling, babbling along in the bottom of the lowland.  It was evident that it would soon be clogged with the autumn leaves that it gradually pushed along in the current, or shoved off to the muddy banks.  

The orange flowers of Jewelweed were long gone, and the creek banks were covered with brown, wilting plants.

Cottonwood Pond had acquired a new beauty, a Monet-like gathering and scattering of autumn color on its surface.  

I remembered when it had been reduced to just a puddle during the summer, and when it had been revived after we finally had rain.  The next time I went down there, it had gone to almost a puddle again.

This day, it was almost filled to capacity, though not at the levels of last spring.

It was not high enough to send water over the corner, through the seep and on to the creek.  The seep, though, was very soaked from rain, and my boot slipped in the mud.

Despite the rain, an Assassin Bug was hanging out among the dying green plants an the leaf litter. 

Most animal life was hiding somewhere, out of the rain.  I did not see much wildlife.  Even the birds and squirrels were fairly quiet.

I did see one sign of animal life on the pond.  A white speck landed on the pond and hopped around on the surface.  I had not brought equipment for catching it, so I could not get a close look.

Though I was not able to retrieve this bug and look at it closely, it was so distinctive that it didn't take long to identify it through a search.  It is a Springtail, a very tiny wingless being that used to be classified as an insect (three body parts, antennae, three pairs of legs), but now is not. It is of an Order called Colembola.  Sometimes it's called a Water Flea because of its tiny size and jumping habit, but it's not a flea at all.

Most Springtails live in the leaf litter of the forest floor and dine on things like fungi, algae, bacteria, etc., but not live plants.  Some, like this one, are able to spend time on the surface of water.

The distinguishing characteristic of a Springtail is that it has a sort of a mousetrap contraption that makes it jump very far for its size. A forked appendage, called a furcula, is tucked under the body and held there by a structure called a tenaculum.  The Springtail can make the tenaculum release the furcula, just like a mousetrap, and, there goes the bug, springing forward!  To me, it sounds like kind of a fun way to travel.

Here is a web site from New Zealand that includes a photo of an upside-down Springtail.  You can easily see the "mousetrap" contraption:

soilbugs.massey.ac.nz.collembola.php

Another good site that has short and sweet information and photos is:

www.happydranch.com/articles/Springtail.htm

The rotten log in front of the pond had deteriorated more, its old wood shredding to bits (perhaps with the help of animals searching for bugs).  Winged seeds of Ash had fallen there, with a good chance of germinating in the softness. 

  The beginnings of tiny orange mushrooms speckled the wood below.  The root-like mycelia below them, inside the wood, take nourishment from the released nutrients of rotting wood, as hard cell walls break down and allow mycelia to wind its way into the depths.

At one end of the pond, where a young American Hornbeam had been bent by the fallen Cottonwood, it leaves were bringing more attention with shades of  topaz, copper and rust.

On the other side of the root ball, the “little pond” was also almost at capacity, and was also filling with colored leaves.  If there were any prints of passing coyotes or foxes nearby, I couldn't see them for the layer of leaves that had gathered since early morning.

The top of the root ball had changed character.  The “jungle” did not seem so dense as before, with leaves falling, stems becoming bare sticks, and the grand Stinging Nettle plants fading.

On the root ball top, a dying sapling sported a long row of colorfully striped Turkey Tail fungus.  They reminded me of moths I had seen over the summer, at rest with their wings spread.

Nearby, a long cluster of orange sherbet-colored mushrooms was developing on an old log. 

This has been a great time for the vast array of fungi, and it is truly a treasure hunt looking for them in the woods.

   These must be tasty to someone....

               Little brown umbrellas....

I have to say ... aren't these fantastic?!

  Fungus and lichen....

From uphill, the root ball looked like a tiny round forest, with a young, golden Sugar Maple just above the hidden pond and creek.

Tree leaves and winged seeds of Black Maple were beginning to sink below the pond surface and create layers beneath.  Soon they will all settle on the muddy bottom and turn to deep blackish-brown.  Their organic nutrients will leach out and become part of the water and sediment.  The new debris will become a substrate for algae, diatoms and other living materials a the base of Life.  Microfauna, snails, and insect larvae will use that for nourishment and become food for larger organisms.  

 The “siltation spot”

I remembered looking into the pond in the late winter and seeing the rotting leaves and twigs from the previous autumn, gradually becoming covered in food for little critters.

The cycle will continue.  It will be interesting to see what new plants and animals appear throughout the next year.