Lively deep freeze

January 5 12:40pm 18.5F, sunny

I left my office, not sure where to find my mandala though I had an idea where to look. I located the mandala beside Gwynns Falls, in a tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)and white oak (Quercus alba) dominated floodplain. I was looking for a mature forest along the stream, not something messy with briars and thorns, somewhere that would be comfortable to sit and watch. Although I'm in the middle of the forest and have a nice sense of seclusion, I can see the campus walkway/bridge, the Academic Center, and dorms, but they'll disappear as trees leaf out. Evidence of human activity abound: Gatorade water bottle, a soda can, tire in the stream, and best yet, a tire swing over the creek 50m downstream. There's a gas pipeline 40m away in the opposite direction. Rosewood construction is not far away and flagging of a variety of colors is all over.

I wasn't sure how long I'd last after I sat down on my stool given the cold, but it hasn't been too bad and I'm surprised how quickly time has gone. I sat facing northeast with my back to the stream and the sun (dorms too). I'm beneath several tall, straight tulip trees and occasionally see their seeds fluttering down not unlike maple helicopter samaras. The tulip trees are easily distinguished with the remains of last year's flowers stuck in the canopy like nature's Christmas tree ornaments. My attention has largely been up, off the ground, which surprised me. I didn't expect much to be going on. One of the reasons that I chose this spot was because of the songbirds that were flittering about as I walked toward it. On my walk from my office, I saw no birds, just two squirrels (& one crazy cross country runner). Perhaps my nature senses hadn't woken up yet. At first, I saw male cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) quickly moving from tree to tree. Then a junco (Junco hyemalis) working its way up one of the tulips. I heard other birds chirping and a woodpecker pecking too. Then I found a Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) (smaller than a Hairy) making its way around a tree. Later, a larger bird flew above me, landed in the tallest tulip here. Once I trained my binoculars on it at 30' high, I saw that it was a Northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) with it's dull yellow-brown breast, red earmuffs, and bright yellow lines on its wings. If I remember right, these can be particularly noisy, especially if hammering away on a chimney cap or transformer 50' from your bedroom window. This flicker and its partner that joined later were silent, gently pecked at the tree, jumped to a small branch to stretch, then back to the tree to nestle like they were taking naps and avoiding the cold.

Soon after I sat down, several white tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) charged down the hill towards my flat floodplain. They stopped 50m away and browsed. There were 8 or so of them but I don't know exactly how many for they were never all together and constantly moving, albeit slowly. At least two were bucks including one smallish 4 point and a more commanding 6 point. They worked along the hill toward the south, disappeared for a while, then returned for seconds.

When I look down, there doesn't seem to be much. Lots of oak (white, red) and tulip leaves though the oaks are most easily distinguished, either due to abundance and/or resistance to decay. The ground has a mottled appearance with snow but not continuous coverage. There is some green including tiny, baby multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora), some grass, and other stuff. The trees don't offer much additional color though - ooh, a pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), I heard it before I saw it only briefly - the larger tulip trees are also mottled with lichen. A white oak, a very tall white oak 35m in front of me is more and more grayish-green moving up toward the canopy.

My fingers are numb and starting to hurt so it's time to pack it up and head in.