Post Flood Pond

The storm has passed, all of the excess water has drained away and the pond is full of chocolate water.  This condition won’t last long.  Within a week, the water will clear and the level will drop by about 18 inches. 

The extra water has not slowed the breeding activities of the Wood Frogs.  Frogs cover the pond and continue their courtship activities whether it’s daylight or dark.

A lot of courtship action takes place in open water, but when the time comes to lay eggs, the Wood Frogs move to the inundated shrubs.

Egg laying began just over a week ago and new batches of eggs are still being laid.  The frogs seem to prefer attaching the egg clusters to live twigs at a point near the surface of the water.

The dark masses are egg clusters that were laid within the last 24 hours.  They can’t be any older than that, because prior to the big rain, the branches were above the water.  The unfortunate fact is that those branches are not going to stay submerged for very long.

The weight of the eggs will pull the branch down for a while, but eventually the water will drop away and leave the eggs hanging in the air.  As the water level falls, I go around with my pole pruner and clip the branches containing egg clusters.  This allows the eggs to remain submerged for the two to three week period prior to hatching.  Once hatched, the tadpoles don’t seem to have any trouble in moving with the changing water levels.

Mud Flow into Pond

February 29 brought a series of intense rainstorms that topped off all of the various Blue Jay Barrens water supplies and added enough extra for everything to go into flood mode.  Runoff water from the township road always brings muddy water into the pond.  In this event, conditions were set for a dramatic influx of sediment laden water.  Two days ago, the township crew graded the road.  The loose, uncompacted material was in a perfect condition to move with the water.  The surge of mud into the clear pond water was an impressive scene.

The runoff water was several degrees cooler than the pond, so it rolled in beneath the clear water.  Even when it reached the center of the pond, the turbulent surface of the muddy water maintained its separation from the warm water above.  It’s a neat thing to witness, but I would much prefer to not have the muddy water entering the pond.

The water flowing from the Blue Jay Barrens fields is not a problem.  I’d be very happy to have all of the water entering the pond to be as clean as this.  Unfortunately, I only control a portion of the watershed that feeds water to the pond.

Here’s where the mud comes from.  Blue Jay Barrens is on the left side of the road.  Mud from the road and other points upstream makes its way via the road ditch to a low point in the road.

Just above the pond, a culvert brings the water beneath the road.  You can see in the upper left corner how muddy the road is after receiving a maintenance treatment.  A short travel distance and steep slopes make it difficult to filter out any sediment before the water enters the pond.

So, muddy water enters and the pond spends a few days looking brown. 

People tell me that they are surprised by the fact that I don’t do something to protect the pond.  I explain that the pond is an artificial creation that was here when I bought the property.  I also point out that this is a very poor pond site because of the uncontrolled watershed that allows the import of muddy water and because of the poor soil that allows the pond to leak.  I would have never built a pond here.  If I truly wanted a good pond, I would build one somewhere else. 

There’s no way to fix this pond, but I do manage it for the life that has been able to thrive here.  Brown water is not the best water, but it’s better than no water.  The fact that amphibian use of the pond continues to increase, indicates to me that there are some benefits to the pond despite its deficiencies.  Brown water moving in beneath their bellies didn’t slow the courtship activities of the Wood Frogs even a little bit.

Picking Up Some Dog Trash

The dogs have been back pulling their favorite toys from the youngest of the Blue Jay Barrens archaeological sites.  I usually just gather up their litter and put it back near the edge of the junk pile.  I finally got tired of picking up the same items each month, so I took a paper feed sack back to gather up those pieces that are continually relocated.  I just can’t understand why those stray dogs put so much effort into dragging this stuff around.

This seems to be the dog’s all time favorite bit of debris.  I’ve found the shoe as far as 200 feet from the pile.  The last dog managed to make two pieces out of it. 

There are several fresh doggie tooth marks in the heel.  This must be a good tasting piece of plastic.

Plastic bottles are another favorite.  Most of the plastic has turned brittle over the years.  The dogs chew the bottles into small bits that can be aggravating to collect.

This aluminum casing from an old radio tube was carried away, but not chewed.  A previous owner of this property worked in a TV and Radio repair shop.  He regularly brought home old TV sets and radio chassis.  Some of this stuff was dumped over the hill and the rest was left sitting around the barn yard.

The dogs couldn’t get the cap off of this whiskey bottle.  It doesn’t look like the contents are all that appetizing.  I used to have a dog that could have chewed up this bottle and eaten the broken glass.  He was like the old stereotype goat that would eat tin cans.  His droppings used to sparkle in the sunlight.

Raised letters warn that “Federal law forbids sale or reuse of this bottle”.  That warning was required on liquor bottles from the end of Prohibition until 1964.  I guess the dogs weren’t aware that they could wind up in Leavenworth for turning the bottle into a toy.

Walking the Indian Grass Field

I took a walk in the field just to enjoy the tall Indian Grass stalks.  During the next few months the dried stalks will disappear as their bases decompose and the dead grass falls to the ground.  Once they are down, the stalks quickly decompose and provide nutrients for new growth.  The transformation from dead growth to living is an unobtrusive process that leaves you wondering where all of that dead material went.

Despite a regular schedule of rain and wind storms, the Indian Grass has remained upright all winter.  A cold wind, combined with grass talks whipping my face, makes the walk a little less comfortable.  That turbulence is just a surface event.  Down in the grass, the wind remains calm and the environment is much more comfortable.

A small cedar hidden in the tall grass has been a roost site for some small bird.  The Indian Grass fields always contain a variety of birds.  Occasionally they’ll utilize a small shrub as a night time location, but more typically they’ll just find a convenient spot down in the grass.  I stopped taking nighttime walks through the Indian Grass long ago.  I felt bad about spooking the birds from their overnight roosts.

The most obvious sign of wildlife in the Indian Grass is the network of deer trails that criss-cross in all directions.  The deer create the trails, but all wandering wildlife species seem to utilize them.  Some trails have remained in place for several years, while others are created and abandoned seasonally.  They sometimes remind me of a county and township road system. 

Deer beds are located throughout the field.  These beds are located a little distance off the trails.  This is likely a strategy to avoid detection by predators that may find the trails to be a convenient way to travel the fields.  Most beds are located on the slopes or ridgetops where the ground is more likely to be dry.  A deer bedded down in the Indian Grass can avoid visual detection, be protected from the wind and benefit by the insulating ability of the grass stalks. 

Streamside Salamander Eggs

Frequent rains have given members of the mole salamander family many opportunities to migrate to their breeding pools.  Most species head for quiet pools where they lay a mass of eggs encased in a jelly-like envelope.  The exception is the Streamside Salamander, a species that utilizes intermittent headwater creeks as a depository for its eggs.

Streamside Salamanders anchor their eggs to the underside of flat rocks in the stream channel.  Large, well anchored rocks situated in moving water are ideal as a breeding site.  A rock such as this can accommodate several adult salamanders and allow them to perform courtship and egg laying activities completely hidden from the eyes of any aquatic predators.

Occasionally, a female will select as a breeding site a smaller rock that could be easily moved by fast moving water or a foraging Raccoon.  Eggs laid beneath a rock like this are typically lost, so those inappropriate survival genes are eliminated from the population.

This may not be a smart place to lay eggs, but it does give me an opportunity to get some pictures.  I never move the large rocks.  My tampering could easily damage the eggs as well as destabilize the rock’s position in the stream bed.  Based on the fact that the pools below the most promising large rocks fill with Streamside Salamander larvae each spring, I think have a pretty good idea of what goes on under those rocks.

Streamside Salamander eggs are laid individually.  Water flowing beneath the rock keeps the eggs clean and well oxygenated.

This salamander needs clean, rock bottomed creeks for breeding.  During most of the year, the adults spend their lives below ground in the neighboring forest.  Their appearance is almost identical to that of the Smallmouth Salamander.  I was told by one expert that the only way to be sure of a specimen in hand was to do a DNA analysis.  I just assume that those I find in the stream are Streamsides and those in the pond are probably Smallmouths.

The eggs are just beginning to develop.  The race is now on to make it through the larva stage before the creek dries up for the summer.

Wood Frogs

Weather conditions have finally spurred Wood Frogs to congregate in their breeding ponds.  They’ve arrived in record numbers at the Blue Jay Barrens pond. 

Wood Frogs have only been using this pond for about the last ten years and there were a couple years during that time that I didn’t hear or see any Wood Frogs at all.  Their numbers have grown steadily over the last three years.

This is the first year that there has been noticeable breeding activity during the day.  The frogs maintained a constant flow of ripples across the pond surface.

Males floated about watching for a passing female.

Sight of a prospective mate led to a chase.

In most cases, the pair plunged beneath the water at the moment of contact.  The sound and splash reminded me of a bass feeding on the surface.

The joined couple would then head down to the pond bottom to prepare for egg laying.

This is the anticipated outcome.  I’m hoping the pond will be full of these egg masses in a few days.

Woodcock

Woodcock are beginning to make their way back to the Blue Jay Barrens breeding grounds.  Several have already joined the odd male that has been displaying since November.  It’s not unusual to see Woodcock, but it is uncommon to get a recognizable photograph.

 

I’ve flushed several Woodcock in the last couple of weeks, but they usually move quite a distance before settling back down.  This bird took a short hop of about 30 feet and then tried to sneak away through the underbrush.  Woodcock take full advantage of the browns and grays of the late winter landscape.  When at rest, it can be both in full view and nearly invisible.

 

Its retreat was in the form of a slow walk.  As it moved along, the body swayed rhythmically forward and back.  I just stood and watched as it made its escape.

 

The bird flushed when I walked over to retrieve this glass bottle I had seen sparkling in the sunlight.  If the Woodcock had stayed put I’d like to think I would have seen it before grabbing the bottle.  Their camouflage is so good that I could easily have picked up the bottle and not noticed the bird.

 

When I flush a Woodcock, I always check to see if it might have come off a nest.  So far this year each resting site has had a fresh dropping left by the departing bird.  Mid March is the earliest I’ve ever found a nest with eggs.  So as to not endanger any Woodcock nests, I always stop my clearing and mowing projects by the end of February.  That just gives me a few more days to wrap up my current activities.