So Much Activity!

So Much Activity!

August 16, 2019

It's always a joy to slip down to Cottonwood Pond in the bottom of my woodland and try to find out what has been going on there.

Going down the slope - pretty bare this time of year, except for the occasional plant, like this Poison Ivy

The Swampy Spot area, to the southeast side of Cottonwood Pond

To the NNW of Cottonwood Pond - the Two-Trunk White Ash, and Temporary Creek #2, which flows away from "little pond"

When it has rained, it's so much easier to find the signs of activity. On that bright day in the sun-dappled woods, the mud yielded its stories of both traveling animals and moving water.

The Creek near Cottonwood Pond, on the upstream and downstream sides of the Barkless Log

The Creek on the downstream side of the Barkless Log, further carving out the "Island"

Crawdad holes (chimneys washed away during higher water) above the running Creek

Fresh Crawdad chimneys below the Mud Pile of Cottonwood Pond

At the base of the Mud Pile - a Raccoon track and a mysterious v-shaped impression - perhaps where the Raccoon slipped in deep mud

Creek water on the downstream side of the Barkless Log (another angle)

In the same area - a Deer and a Raccoon track side-by-side, but likely they happened at different times

More animal tracks in the mud near the Barkless Log

The Isthmus and "little pond", where water has been pushing forward shards of bark fallen from the Cottonwood Trunk

Lots of animal tracks in the muddy bed of Cottonwood Pond ....

… including some from my dog Babette

Water pooled in the lowest spot of Cottonwood Pond, just inside the Inlet

The north end of Cottonwood Pond, and the Isthmus, full of animal tracks and evidence of recently flowing water

Temporary Creek #1, to the southeast, where it runs into the Swampy Spot

Water trail from the Swampy Spot, going under the Cottonwood Trunk toward  "little pond"

Plant life was also flourishing – blooming, seeding, or just starting out – and some displayed more signs of animal activity. 

Clearweed, next to Cottonwood Pond

Honewort in seed next to Cottonwood Pond

A Wood Nettle patch in bloom

False Nettle going to seed

Virginia Knotweed at the end of bloom ...

... and some just in bloom

Well-chewed Jewelweed leaves

White Snakeroot just starting to bloom

Tiny seedling growing in a rotten, mossy log

A Jewelweed patch on the Mud Pile in front of the deteriorating Root Ball - one orange blossom

American Hornbeam (Blue Beech) seedlings growing from a crevice in the Barkless Log, over the Creek

Looking up into the branches of the American Hornbeam next to Cottonwood Pond - those that grew from the base of the Broken Blue Beech

The mixed canopy above Cottonwood Pond

Tall Elderberry shrubs next to Cottonwood Pond lean over, but their berries are almost completely picked by wildlife, or fallen

Possibly remnants of Tent Caterpillar webs - leaves have been completely chewed away from this section of Boxelder branch

On Monkeyflower blooming in the Swampy Spot

An old White Oak leaf rests on the moss- and lichen-covered old Cottonwood Trunk

All of that moisture brought out some fungus, too.

It also softened old, rotting wood, showing the work animals had been doing.

"Sawdust" on the lower log, from something "drilling" on the upper log

The pile of debris between the Barkless Log's trunk and root base, from increasing animal work and deterioration, is also creating an increasingly larger home for whatever animal made this burrow

There is so much happening in late summer. If we could hear all of the flutterings, skitterings, chewings, scrapings, and water-dippings, it would be deafening. Instead, the signs I found this day at Cottonwood Pond told me stories of what was happening at different times, sometimes in the same spot.