As Green as Green Can Be

As Green as Green Can Be

May 19, 2019

(Can you see it? Cottonwood Pond and the Root Ball, back there somewhere?)

How green it had all become! Solid green.

There had been much rain to encourage the growth, too. In fact, it had rained the previous day.

As I stepped into the woods during the early evening of May 19, the atmosphere was warm and sunny, but the wind was cool. The wind was what I mostly heard, other than a few birds, including a Pewee calling it's name intermittently in the distance. A storm was predicted, but I'm sure wildlife were well aware of the impending change without the “expert” opinions of humans, and that they were starting to nestle in to get through both the storm and the night.

Cottonwood Pond from afar

The slope and bottomland to the southeast

Slope woodland to the northwest

Bottomland to the north-northwest

The area was so thickly green that it had become difficult to recognize features that earlier had stood out so distinctly.

Cottonwood Pond as seen from the west-northwest

Cottonwood Pond as seen from the south - a jungle!

Cottonwood Pond and the Root Ball as seen from the southeast - saplings growing from the top

Looking from Cottonwood Pond toward the Swampy Spot (bald area) - can see a faint flow line through the greenery where water flows from the Swampy Spot to Cottonwood Pond's Inlet

At the Swampy Spot, looking toward Temporary Creek #1 (which drains into it)

There was evidence everywhere of tree activity, both current and future trees. These catkins were abundant – I saw them fallen on almost everything. I think they are the staminate (male) flowers of Red Oak, which had bloomed earlier but were then spent, the trees giving them up to the land below.

On a Mayapple plant

On Jack-in-the-Pulpit leaves

On the moss-covered Barkless Log

Inside a Crawdad hole

On the water surface of Cottonwood Pond

On the muddy surface of Cottonwood Pond

On the fallen Cottonwood Trunk

I sometimes saw them mingled with the remnants of Tuliptree flowers, prematurely torn from their trees by wind and rain.

Some Sugar Maple seeds had also fallen prematurely.

There were many signs of lush new life and activity, from the realms of plants, animals, and fungi, all in concert with one another.

Sprouts that took root on the rotting Barkless Log

Something has been feasting on the leaves of Virginia Knotweed …

… something else has been tearing away at Sugar Maple leaves ...

… and something else (a tiny wasp, perhaps) has laid eggs in the veins of Sugar Maple leaves, causing the leaf to form galls around the spots for protection

Pretty mushrooms on a stick

The gilled bottoms of the same

A type of coral fungi just outside the Inlet

A Common Black Ground Beetle ambles along the Barkless Log among oak catkins and old petals of Tuliptree flowers

Raccoon prints and very tiny Crawdad chimneys just outside the Inlet

Many sprouts appear on the upstream side of the Barkless Log - debris has piled up against the log over time as the rushing waters of the Creek have pushed it downstream - seeds have also lodged or fallen into the debris (the downstream side of the log shows almost no sprouts)

The creek was still flowing steadily from recent rains.

Part of the Creek rippling past Cottonwood Pond

The Creek on the upstream (top) and downstream sides of the Barkless Log

The "Island" forming on the downstream side of the Barklesss Log and the Creek cuts a new, additional channel to the left

The sky had suddenly darkened, and the wind had picked up strength. It was time to head back up the slope. As I got to the house it began to rain again, and the storm rolled in.

Looking over the Barkless Log/Inlet at a dwindling Cottonwood Pond