April Progress

April Progress

April 15, 19, and 24, 2018

April 15

April 19

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

April 15:

There's nothing like an April snow to dust the new greenery with crystals.

Woodland and Creek to the Southeast

Woodland and Creek to the North

Fragile Ferns

Moss

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

Then, on April 19 – back to just green!

It was a cold, sunny day, still-bare trees reflected in the clear, calm water of Cottonwood Pond.

The Creek was running clear, also.

I neither heard nor saw the Chorus Frogs (due to the cold), but some other animals had been busy at Cottonwood Pond and throughout the woodland.

Raccoon tracks by the Creek

White-tailed Deer tracks at the Creek

Large Crawdad chimney

Animals had been clawing at this rotten log, looking for food

Large holes in log, probably made by Pileated Woodpeckers, also looking for food

There were tiny new leaves on Blue Beech trees, and Boxelder leaves were starting to pop out in the soggy bottom land.

Boxelder

Other wetland plants proceeding through spring:

Honewort

Young Elderberry

A blurry Dwarf Larkspur blooming

Wild Chervil with its tiny white flowers

Jewelweed seedlings with two sets of true leaves

Virginia Knotweed coming up

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

April 24:

Alas, I could not locate my photos from April 24, not matter how hard I tried.

So, here is a brief report of that day:

• It had rained all night previous. This day was cold and cloudy, with light rain.
• I could hear Northern Cardinals, Eastern Towhees, White-Throated Sparrows, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, and Blue Jays.
• The Creek was flowing,  with the “lost Creek” section still in action.
• Sediment was piling up around the large broken-root debris at the base of the Mud Pile.
• Sediment had been pouring into the large space between the broken Very Rotten Log sections in the main pond, near the Inlet. There was no more evidence of the broken-off section. Had it been buried under silt? Had it rotted away?

Plants:

• False Solomon Seal was up and arching over.
• Honewort was a little taller.
• Mayapples, Sweet Cicely, and Wild Geranium were in bud.
• Fragile Ferns and Waterleaf plants were growing steadily.
• Cleavers had grown longer, stretching over the ground.
• There were new Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants coming up.
• There were Wood Nettle seedlings, and Jewelweed seedlings had two sets of true leaves.
• In bloom: Toothwort, Spring Beauty (some, and others were in fruit), Virginia Bluebells, Prairie Trillium, Blue Violet, Yellow Violet, False Rue-Anemone, Small-Flowered Crowfoot.

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

At this point, I had some speculations about Cottonwood Pond, in general:

1. Had the main Creek, far upstream, branched off to both the main pond and Temporary Creek #1, so that Temporary Creek #1 would become no longer “temporary”?
2. Would the Cottonwood Pond area become a group of creeks and sloughs moving through, going around an “island” formed by the Root Ball?

Stay tuned for further adventures of Cottonwood Pond!