The creek and its tributaries are the only natural
source of open water at Blue Jay Barrens.
From Fall through Spring, the creek provides drinking and bathing water
to a wide variety of birds and mammals.
Summer water is less dependable.
It is common for the creek to stop flowing for several weeks during
August and early September. Occasionally
the dry season extends for months.
I have always enjoyed dabbling in water. As a child, I could spend hours exploring a
puddle in the yard. Finding mosquito larvae in the air conditioner drip pan was
like discovering a gold mine. My parents
didn’t appreciate my efforts to increase water opportunities by enlarging
potholes in the driveway or excavating beneath the downspouts. My neighbors seemed to share this
attitude. So it’s only natural that once
I reached a point where other people’s opinions had no bearing on my actions, I
would create pools of water wherever I pleased.
The water garden, as artificial a body of water as you can get, proved
quite effective at drawing animals as well as plants into position for my
enjoyment. It does freeze over easily
though and doesn’t provide a reliable source of open water for the local
wildlife in winter.
Even though my later attempts at developing open
water are still artificial creations, they function more naturally than the
water garden. The established toad pool
in the foreground and its under construction counterpart behind, are intended
to provide a breeding environment for toads.
A declining toad population is coinciding with a decrease in Hognose Snake sightings. The snakes feed on
toads, so it seems logical that increasing the toad population will benefit the
snakes. It’s just a happy bonus that the
pools also benefit a wide variety of other animals and give me more places to
play in the water.
The new toad pool is still under construction. The dam creating this pool is composed of
topsoil that will eventually be used as topdressing over the permanent
dam. The center of the planned dam will
be along the line of stakes sticking from the water. Pooled water slowly seeps through this
temporary dam and emerges clean on the downstream side. This keeps sediment from actually leaving the
construction site during the winter.
Seasonal springs emerge just above the planned water
line. The springs are almost keeping up
with the seepage loss through the dam.
This makes me optimistic that the springs will easily keep the pool full
of water well into early summer. Deer
visit the pool every night and seem to delight in running and jumping through
the mud.
Cold weather caps the pools with ice. The established pool is fed by a single small
spring, but that is enough to keep a bit of water unfrozen.
The same conditions occur in the pond, an artificial
water body that was created long before I purchased the property.
A strong seasonal spring produces a continuous
stream of water entering the pond throughout the winter.
The warm water from the spring maintains a large
area of open water. Even through the
coldest winters, this portion of the pond remains unfrozen. When other water sources freeze over, birds
flock here to drink and bathe.
Water from the spring also helps maintain adequate
water for the survival of the breeding salamanders. The view may be blocked by snow, but the
salamanders are busy with courtship and egg laying activities beneath the ice. I would never threaten the native prairies of
Blue Jay Barrens with a water development project. I’m just glad there are a few areas of
undesirable vegetation available for conversion to open water.
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