Rain in Black Fox Hollow

     The bad weather which was promised for this evening set in shortly after noon.  There is now a pretty steady rain which the birds at the suet and sunflower seed feeders are ignoring.   It is interesting to notice that the rain seems to trigger greater cooperation among the birds. Two and three species sit next to each other feeding.  A Downy woodpecker is sharing the suet with a Carolina Wren.  Even the Cardinals, who are giants compared to most of those at the feeder and who usually cause those gathered to scatter, is sharing.  

     I'm sitting at the window looking out into Black Fox Hollow.  Of course my eyes are attracted to the little blue flags that mark the new trees in the hollow.  That's because six of those flags are for trees that I just planted yesterday.  I knew that the rain was coming and I'm lucky to have them all in.  We return west next week.  We've been working to find under-story trees and large trees that will be able to replace our big mature trees when their time comes.  In the succession of a temperate deciduous forest we have a mix of the last two stages - mature forest (oak, hickory) and climax forest (beech, sugar maple).  Fortunately we are more in the mature forest succession which will hopefully give us time.  We do have one elder beech, but most of these last succession trees are still young.  Of  course Pamela and I won't see the fruits of this labor of love in our life-time, but if we are followed by people who will continue to protect this patch of forest, that seems to be more and more surrounded by the starkness of suburban sprawl, we will be happy. 

     Water is already gathering in an area just west of  the trail and our depression.  I think, if we really pushed it, we could get the area designated a wetland.  It takes very little water to have a couple of inches standing.  The depression - we have been told it isn't a sink hole - has a giant Beech standing like an island in the middle, flanked by a Sycamore in the lowland and a Chestnut Oak on slightly higher ground.  We have two PawPaw (Asimina triloba) between the Beech and Sycamore.  They like wetlands and will be good under-story trees.

     The county agent, who gave our trees a clean bill of health, said that he wouldn't be surprised if our depression isn't an entrance to a nearby cave that has filled in.  He knows that it goes under the school less than two-hundred yards away.  There are a few deep, dark holes that make us wonder.  Actually, if it is a hidden entrance, it most likely connects to the famous Mammoth Cave.  The Mammoth Cave National Park is less than sixty miles from here. Black Fox Hollow sits right in the heart of the Western Pennyroyal Karst area.  Our magnificent limestone outcroppings attest to this.  Digging in the hollow is anything but fun. If you don't hit rock you hit tree roots.  In attempting to plant one of the Eastern Red Buds I had to try three times.  But I wouldn't give up a single rock or root.

     Given the privilege of protecting this parcel of natural history is what keeps me sane as we return twice a year to visit family in the over-populated eastern US where you can not drive anywhere without being in sight of human influence.