Holes

Holes

November 11, 2015

It was another dry day, with no rain to speak of since October 28^th. Overall, there was still autumn color in the woods, but the trees were more bare and most of the leaves were, of course, on the ground, where they had piled up in dry, flaky layers. There was some dampness below them.

The Creek and the Seep were dry and buried under a carpet of leaves, barely discernible from their surroundings:

The Creek

The Seep

I went down to Cottonwood Pond to investigate. Perhaps because of dryness, I noticed … holes. Holes as portals. Holes as nests and shelter. Holes resulting from someone eating. Serendipitous holes.

Cottonwood Pond is all about one large hole, created when the great Cottonwood fell, its roots ripping out of the wet bottom land.

There are holes created by happenstance:

The space below the fallen Trunk

 A hole, in a sense, were the top of the Cottonwood landed in the crook of a two-trunk Red Oak

There are holes made by the action of water over time:

 The Inlet, where water flows under the Barkless Log into the main Pond. This started as two to three small holes, then wore down into one long one.

 And the Cove, which formed from water pushing under the Root Ball between the main Pond and “little pond.” The Cove especially seems like a portal to another world.

 Where erosion is washing away soil from the north edge of the Root Ball

There are holes created by small animals tunneling into earth or wood, in search of food or shelter:

 In the bottom of the dry main Pond

 Where Mud Pile #2 meets the Bent Blue Beech at the south edge of the Root Ball

 Tiny holes in the Very Rotten Log

 Sawdust evidence of drilling in the Trunk

 Tiny holes drilled into the dry mud of the Root Ball Bottom. What made these? What's living in there?

 And a sizable burrow (almost the size of my palm) in the Root Ball Bottom, even with freshly excavated debris tossed outside. I really wondered who made that one and hope to see it peek out of its hole sometime.

This filmy web, like a gauzy sheet draped across branches to dry, leads to a tunnel and hole in the Root Ball Bottom where a spider waits. When something gets snagged on the wide web, the spider can scurry out of hiding to nab its prey.

The Root Ball Top, shaded, cool and damp, was full of mushrooms, some peeking out of holes in the mud:

Some holes were made by somebody chewing:

 An insect or larva likely started the hole in this Slippery Elm leaf by eating it when it was fresh. After the leaf dried and fell to the woods floor, other agents started working on it, breaking it down.. The hole will be gradually enlarged by fungi, bacteria, water, pressure (being stepped on, for example), freezing and thawing.

And, then, some decorative holes are created by just plain serendipity:

Holes are curious things. Or, rather, they incite curiosity. Like Winnie-the-Pooh entering Rabbit's den through a hole, or Alice going through the looking glass, we tend to want to know what's on the other side, what's inside, who's inside, and why.

I'm especially curious about the holes at Cottonwood Pond that are made by animals.

And I'll be watching.