Entering Autumn

Entering Autumn

October 24, 2015

Autumn was in full “bloom” by October 24, bursting with fiery colors. Some green still dotted the wood-scape.

We had been through a long, dry period. I went to Cottonwood Pond twice on October 24, the second time after a light rain. It was not enough to make up for a drought, and was absorbed quickly.

The Creek bed was barely distinguishable.

The mass of Jewelweed plants between the Creek and Cottonwood Pond were obviously spent, but still a faded green.

As would be expected, the main “pond” was dry, save for some dampness in the mud.

This time, though, the bottom was almost covered with fallen leaves. Of course, there was nothing to flow through the Seep.

Start of Seep, at corner of Pond

Bark Ledge at end of Seep, at Creek

After the rain, leaves on the bottom glistened with moisture.

In 2013 at this time, there was some water in the main pond. As leaves fell, they collected gently on top until they covered the water surface. More leaves piled on top of those. The extra weight caused the bottom layer to be submerged. As they became submerged,, they absorbed water, darkened and sank to the muddy bottom. After awhile, there was a layer of almost black leaf detritus on the bottom, seen through the water. Eventually, organisms broke down the detritus, and also lived in it, until it became part of the bottom soil.

In 2014, leaves were absorbed into a muddy bottom (see “Cottonwood Mud Hole" – November 13, 2014.)

This time, dry, colorful leaves accumulated directly on the bottom, with very little moisture. Any precipitation settled on top and was likely to evaporate if the wetness was not significant. If we had no more rain for a long time, or very little, the breakdown of leaves on the dry bottom of Cottonwood “Pond” would be the same as that on the forest floor, with significant water introduced at some later time. How would this affect the cycle of life?

The canopy, from whence come the leaves on Cottonwood Pond …

 Jewelweed plant growing in a damp, protected spot on Mud Pile #2

The Cove

I looked at the top edge of the Root Ball. Yellowed Poison Ivy leaves decorated it like a laurel leaf crown.

The Maple Sapling, still green(which was decorated by a Northern Water Snake in May of 2014):

Green Maple sapling in lower left

As seen from the top side of the Root Ball

The claw-like rootlet hanging from the Root Ball bottom was still holding onto its ball of mud, which hadn't disintegrated much ...

  

... but when I made my second visit that day it was on the ground, broken off.

  

It looked like it would hang on to its ball of mud no matter what.

The Inlet was, of course, very clear.

Looking across the main Pond to the Inlet

As seen from the southeast

Looking down on the Barkless Log, the main pond on the right

The normally soggy area just before the Inlet, where water pours in to the pond

On the other side of the Root Ball, Wood Nettle plants hung limp and dry with remnants of green color …

  

… while vibrant, green Wood Nettles still lived along the damp base, near the Trunk.

Looking across "little pond"

In fact, the top part of the Root Ball was damp and dark, compared to the relatively bare, dry Root Ball bottom, and tiny gnats swarmed around there. 

Some thin vines trailed down:

Below the Trunk, I spotted a tiny Chorus Frog! The light rain must have brought it out of hiding.

Something had been digging a hole under the Trunk.

There was something that I decided merited attention. On top of the Trunk, near its base, there was a Blue Beech sapling which has been growing rapidly. The interesting thing is that it was three-pronged at its base; one branch extended horizontally along the trunk while two branches extended vertically from that same point. There was another vertical branch a little further along the horizontal one.

This will be interesting to watch, and as it matures it will have some affect on Cottonwood Pond.

These are its leaves overhead:

I decided to follow the Trunk up the slope ...

… to where the top was lodged in the crook of a two-trunk Red Oak at the top of the slope.

The top of the Cottonwood separates into two limbs. Here is the tip of the upper limb …

… and the tips of branches (extending from the top right in the photo) at the end of the lower limb.

From the giant root base to tiny branch tips, this grand, fallen tree has provided new life for other organisms and a story for me to follow and tell.

*******************************************************************************

This year, so far, our weather and Cottonwood Pond have gone from one extreme to another. Early in the year, rain was almost relentless, over-filling the pond and Creek. The whole area was like a swamp. Later, after a drought, the “pond” completely dried up. I went from watching water-loving creatures from the far edge of the water (wearing boots) to simply standing in the middle with dry shoes.

Gary Trudeau, author of the comic strip “Doonesbury” created a character in the early days of the strip called Zonker Harris. I've always loved Zonker's child-like zest for life, and so I could relate to his disappointment when this happened at his beloved “Walden Puddle”:

In the Middle

In the Middle

September 22, 2015

Mid- morning of the Autumnal Equinox

It started out somewhat cold in the early morning, a fresh taste of Autumn. It was a clear, sunny day that warmed by mid-morning, but remained pleasantly cool. The open, sunny area were filled with yellow blossoms of Goldenrod and wild Sunflowers, while small grasshoppers jumped ahead of my steps in the grassy places.

At the edge of the woods were fluffy white flower head of White Snakeroot,

deep inky purple fruit of Pokeberry,

and dull-green seed stalks of Common Ragweed, thankfully beyond its pollen-ridden stage.

To the sounds of crickets and birds, I made my way down the sparsely vegetated, shady slope. I saw ahead an expanse of green with orange dots. The expanse was so thick that I couldn't see the Pond below the Root Ball.

 Spotted (Orange) Jewelweed was in full bloom.

Often, an area full of Jewelweed is also active with the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds that love them, but it was still too cool in mid-morning.

The Jewelweed seed pods were still green, but some were just swollen enough with seed to pop open with a little provocation. I heard the tiniest, faintest snapping sounds as I brushed through the Jewelweed grove.

I am sure the very slim, carefully placed bill of a hovering Hummingbird would not set off the pods, but a fully-grown Grasshopper landing on a leaf might set off a chain reaction.

There was no water in the Creek.

It was just mud. A long, practically rain-less period had allowed vegetation to fill the edges and fallen leaves to begin filling the Creek bed.

A stunted Great Blue Lobelia plant at Creek edge

Likewise, there was no water in the Seep, not trickling down the line nor over the Bark Ledge to the Creek.

I stepped into (or onto) the Creek bed and made a careful path through the Wood Nettles and Jewelweed on the other side, to Cottonwood Pond.

Seed head of Wood Nettle

There it was – Cottonwood Mud Hole.

 Looking southeast

I have written about Cottonwood Mud Hole one other time, but this time it was dry enough to have mud cracks.

I did something I had never done before at Cottonwood Pond. I walked in and stood in the deepest part...

… and so did Silas.  

  

For the first time, I left a shoe print in the middle of Cottonwood Pond.

This was maybe not as significant as Neil Armstrong's first boot print in the dust of our Moon. But, still significant. There had never been a human footprint here before.

This was the spot over which, in the water-filled past, I had to hover the pole of my Handy-Dandy Homemade Depth-Measuring Device, while I teetered on the Pond edge, to lower the rock-weighted twine so I could find out how deep this spot was at that time. I would say that this day it would measure about, oh, say zero (0).

I thought of all the wriggling, skittering, squirming, tumbling, back-swimming, diving creatures I had seen in this place since I started observing over two years ago. I thought of the Frogs that had jumped under the water and disappeared into the loose mud of the bottom. I thought of the Raccoons leaving prints at the muddy edges while they dipped their fore-paws in the water, searching for morsels.

Where were they? It was another thing to learn – where water-dependent creatures go when the water disappears.

From this rare vantage point (for me), I could finally see the environs of Cottonwood Pond the way creatures in the Pond would see them. Almost.

Though the Inlet space had enlarged considerably over time, it still wasn't large enough for even a small human to shimmy through. But, now I could crouch down and see through for myself.

Raccoon print in hole under log

And, I could get a closer look at the Cove:

Close ...

... closer ...  

... and through!

 

I finally could see the same view of the other side as Frogs, Raccoons and perhaps Opossums, and who knows what else. It was a “window to another world.” I believe that a new way of seeing something IS another world because each new view expands our perceptions.

I stood and looked to the top edge of the Root Ball to see it studded with orange Jewelweed blossoms. I would love to see Hummingbirds up there.

Investigating the face of the Root Ball Bottom, I found,

  the claw-like root still holding on to a dirt ball,

  spider webs,

and a new vine, which was probably Poison Ivy.

        I was able to walk through the “Pond” to the north end, past Mud Pile #1, and toward the    
                                Seep corner,  Isthmus and the Two-Trunk White Ash ...

                                                           Approaching the Isthmus

… and on around to “little pond” ...

... which Silas and I found to be as dry/muddy as the main “Pond.”

Past the dead grasses at the edge of “little pond” to the Cottonwood Trunk,

I paused in the middle of “little pond” to view the canopy from this new spot, in the glow of an Autumn Equinox morning.

Blue Beech and Sugar Maple saplings on top edge of Root Ball

Looking down again, at on the other side of the Trunk at its base, I saw the other side of the Cove.

 Early change – leaves of Bent Blue Beech

I turned to look up the Trunk.

 Cottonwood Trunk – at far end, at the top of the slope, it is wedged in the crook of a Two-Trunk Red Oak

So much bark had fallen from the Trunk over time.

The disintegration of the fallen bark was obvious. Instead of large, furrowed sections, the “furrows” had become individual, loose pieces.

Silas and I went under the fallen Trunk to the other side.

Looking toward the Root Ball and upper limb of the Barkless Log

The Sharp-Winged Monkey Flower plants (formerly known as “Mystery Plants in the Swampy Spot”) bore dry seed capsules in the leaf axils. Gone were the lavender flowers with monkey faces.

Like the Creek and Seep, the Temporary Creek was barely discernible.

 Low wet area to southeast of Inlet, where water from Temporary Creek usually flows

View from southeast of Cottonwood Pond, including the Barkless Log (below), Bent Blue Beech and Young White Ash

The Inlet from the southeast, with a Daddy Long-Legs on the Barkless Log. The log also has claw scratch marks and spots of Lichen

 

And then I did another thing I had never done before:

I stepped over the Barkless Log into the “Pond” …

… and sat on the long for awhile, my feet dangling in the “water.”

I have often mentioned that the Very Rotten Log is more rotten the farther it is from the Creek, and that the part of it extending to the other side of the Barkless Log (to the left in the photo below) practically disappears into the soggy soil.

Sitting in my unusual spot, I could easily see the decaying of the Bent Blue Beech.

How long will it be before it breaks and collapses to the Pond, and what changes will that bring? There are live branches from the decaying trunk, though, pointing upward as a signal of continuation.

I had come full circle.

I again stood in the middle of the main “Pond”, in the deepest part, and took in the view all around, from this new vantage point, from north to southeast.

 

I have no doubt that I can experience this view time and again. We may well have a “fall drought”, and there will be other years with long, dry periods. But, the scenery will change around it, the mud will become more deeply covered in fallen leaves, and flowers will fade. There will be no more sculpting of the Inlet, Cove, pond edges, Seep and Creek until we have a significant rain, or a big snow melt.

From the Middle, during equal hours of night and day, teetering in a season of transition …

Cottonwood Pond.

Bonus photos:

 Small White Aster

 Mild Water Pepper (a Smartweed)