Water Garden

The Water Garden has now been in existence for 14 years.  In that time, the composition of flora and fauna has been constantly changing.  I’ve tried to guide that change to create what I believe would be the ideal situation, but the Water Garden has proven to be a dynamic force that will not be tamed.

Water Lilies are the only introduction I made of plant species not found on the property.  Even these lilies don’t follow my original intent.  Planted in weighted pots, their root systems become so massive during the summer that they rise to the surface to float about as islands.  The root masses have totally engulfed the pots along with several bricks that I tied on in an attempt to keep the roots on the bottom.  Several species of aquatic plants have colonized the islands and survive the winter immersion while waiting for the islands to pop back to the surface in summer.

Water Lily flowers always fascinated me as a child.  I would spend hours staring at them.  This year, you have to view these white flowers early in the day to catch their brilliance.  Tree pollen is falling so heavily that white quickly turns to yellow as the day goes on.  The bud to the left has collected several rings of pollen already.  The pollen forms a skin on the water’s surface that remains until a rain causes it to sink to the bottom of the pool.

I put in some pots of native aquatic plants when the water garden first filled.  Since then, a variety of seeds has arrived to add diversity to the pots.  The actual lip of the pot is about an inch below the water surface.  Accumulation of moss, roots and organic debris has raised the soil level above the water line and doubled the diameter of the original pot.

Common Milkweed arrived on the scene just a few years ago.  Although I have several stands of milkweed around the yard, the plants growing next to the Water Garden are most favored by the Monarch butterflies.  Even though the plants become quite unruly later in the year and lean out to threaten visitors to the house, I’ll leave them to grow here.  With all of the reports of possible Monarch extinction, I would hate to deprive even one individual the opportunity to deposit some eggs.

Field Horsetail has now formed an almost solid border between the driveway and the Water Garden.  Along the creek, where I originally collected this plant, the horsetail grows in tiny patches and seems to be struggling to maintain a presence.  I was hoping it would maintain this same pattern in its new location.  Instead, it has set out on a campaign to claim as much territory as it possibly can.  If I didn’t keep it in check with a little glyphosate application, it would have taken over the driveway and half the yard by now.

I collected some rushes from the pond and installed them in pots on the back side of the Water Garden.  They have formed a floating mat that bridges the pots and extends into deeper water.  The floating roots are unable to keep the tall plants upright and the tops soon fall over.  Other plants have colonized the rush mats, including the invasive Narrow Leaved Cattail.  The one in this photo will be cut and sprayed.

The cattail leaves do make a sturdy support for a dragonfly nymph making the transformation into an adult insect.  Several species of dragonflies deposit eggs in the Water Garden and the discarded exoskeletons of mature nymphs are a common sight.

Being a permanent water body, the Water Garden has provided conditions conducive to the establishment of aquatic predators.  I no longer see explosions of tadpoles, crustaceans or insects, because the various established predators keep those species at lower levels.  Dragonflies are one of those predators.  This dragonfly skin may be empty, but you can still see the labium, or lower mouth part, used by the dragonfly nymph to capture prey.  The nymph extends the labium like a long arm to reach out and snag any creature small enough to hold. 

At the end of the labium is a set of curved hooks that trap the prey and hold it while it is consumed.  A pool full of dragonfly nymphs can easily cut down the number of smaller organisms.

Another predator with a never-ending appetite is the Red Spotted Newt.  These guys will feed on any animal matter, dead or alive, that is small enough to swallow.

In time, larger predators arrived.  The Common Water Snake feeds on the larger pool inhabitants, including other predators.

Bullfrogs have massive mouths and will try to eat anything that moves.  When Bullfrogs move into a small pool, they quickly consume the smaller frog species.  I’ve tried removing predators in an attempt to keep the pool in an earlier stage of development, but have decided that type of activity is not practical.  The Water Garden will be left to those species adapted to living in a permanent pool environment.  I will construct new pools with the proper conditions for the other species I enjoy so much.

The Water Garden still holds Green Frog tadpoles from eggs laid last year, but there are no adult Green Frogs left.  The tadpoles feed algae and other plant debris.  More tadpoles mean clearer water.  This tadpole has been skimming pollen from the surface.  I guess next year’s tadpoles will be those of the Bullfrogs.

Water Boatmen colonized the Water Garden before it had completely filled with water and have maintained a continuous presence since then.  These are true bugs with the signature tube-like mouth parts.  They feed primarily on algae and decaying organic matter.

Air is carried by the Water Boatmen as a film covering the body surface.  This gives the bugs a shiny appearance and makes it difficult to view body details.  They stay submerged by anchoring to stationary objects and periodically come to the surface to exchange stale air for fresh.

Great Blue Herons have eaten all of the goldfish, so the 100 gallon tub has lost its top predators and algae eaters.  Algae is a quality food item and where food exists, something will come along to eat it.

Since a population of new predators has not yet had a chance to colonize the tub, the Gray Treefrogs have a safe place in which to lay their eggs.  New egg clusters are placed almost daily.

The tadpoles develop quickly and it won’t be long until they are growing fat on the algae.  I’m looking forward to seeing what other changes this year brings to my Water Garden complex.

Wood Frog Eggs Hatching

Wood Frog egg masses are falling apart and the developing larvae are breaking through the egg membrane into open water.  Even though they have left the egg, the larvae are not yet free swimming.  Most just flutter to the pond bottom where they will rest for the next couple of days.  During this time they will use up the remaining yolk in their egg sack as they develop into a more typical tadpole shape.

Some egg clusters lost their globular shape and floated about on the water’s surface.  This did not seem to affect hatching at all.  Even so, there were several larvae that emerged on the upper surface of the raft and seemed in danger not making it down into the water.

Other egg clusters fell to the pond bottom.  No matter where they ended up, all of the egg masses produced healthy larvae.

Egg masses laid a little later in the season were still in the early stages of development.  The pond was ice covered on many mornings during the past two weeks.  I imagine the cold temperatures played a part in the delayed development.

The floating tree branch did an outstanding job of keeping the frog and salamander eggs from being exposed during times of falling water level.  A shortage of rainfall during March caused the pond water level to drop to record low levels for this time of year.  I was able to maneuver the tree branch into the deepest part of the pond and the eggs on the branch were spared exposure to the air.

Jelly masses that once protected salamander eggs broke lose and floated freely about the pond.

Almost all of the jellies were empty.  Most successfully produced salamander larvae, but a few contained unfertilized eggs that were consumed by fungus.

There were just a few larvae that had not left the egg.  Now I just have to wait a few weeks for the larvae to grow large enough for me to see them in the pond.  Water won’t be a problem for a while.  Thunder storms earlier today dropped 1.2 inches of rainfall and the pond is now near its full level.  More storm clouds are hurrying in from the west and I’m rushing to type this and get it posted before the heavy rain once again blocks my internet satellite link.

Pond Breeding Streamside Salamanders Confirmed

Wood Frogs had a brief breeding frenzy just a few days following the salamanders.  In some years the Wood Frogs spend as much as two weeks in the pond.  This year they’ve been active for a night or two and then absent for a couple of nights before returning.  I try to keep twigs and branches away from the shoreline so the frogs and salamanders are forced to deposit their eggs in deeper water, but winter ice storms broke some branches from the shore hugging dogwoods and these ended up getting covered with eggs.  Fluctuating water level can easily leave these eggs hanging in the air.  Part of my daily routine is to check the eggs to see if a rescue operation is in order.

My floating branch, staked out in the deepest part of the pond, successfully attracted the majority of breeding frogs.

The Wood Frog egg masses have effectively camouflaged those of the salamanders.  This branch rises and falls with the water level, so the eggs are safe from desiccation.

A few egg clusters were attached to dead twigs floating in the water.  Those that I’ve found at the edge of the pond have been relocated to the toad pool.

While gathering up some Wood Frog eggs, I noticed this patch of moss that had come loose from the pond bottom.  On the underside of the moss was a collection of eggs that had to have come from a Streamside Salamander.  I want to make it clear that the moss I am referring to is the terrestrial type that established itself in the pond bottom during the dry season.  This is not algae, which many people refer to as pond moss.

Streamside Salamanders, which normally lay their eggs beneath flat creek rocks, have utilized the moss mats as an alternate substrate.  I imagine that the activity of the breeding salamanders detached a large area of the moss mat from the pond bottom and that is the reason so many patches of egg bearing moss are now floating free in the pond.

Embryo development is well underway.  The pond water temperature fluctuates and tends to stay warmer than that in the stream.  I suspect that this accelerates development of the pond reared Streamside Salamanders over that of their creek bound relatives.

There are dozens of moss chunks floating about the pond.  Oxygen produced by the moss causes the mats to float green side up.  Most of those I checked carried a load of eggs beneath.

Eggs could also be seen around the edges of moss mats still maintaining contact with the pond bottom.  I imagine that the bottoms of these mats are also egg laden.  Now I know that the Streamside Salamanders are definitely breeding in the pond.  I’m happy to have this confirmation, but presence of the Streamsides in the pond also makes it less likely that I actually have the look-alike Smallmouth Salamander living at Blue Jay Barrens.

Frog Egg Rescue

The flood a week ago caused the Wood Frogs to lay their eggs high in the branches of the flooded shrubs.  The water level in the pond has been gradually falling until the eggs are now in danger of being left hanging above the water line.  I would normally clip the egg laden branches by reaching out with my pole pruner, but these were out of my reach.  My only alternative was to do some wading.

The outside layer of the mass dried slightly to form a skin, but the eggs are still in good shape.  A few years ago, I found an egg cluster that had been in the air for a couple of days and felt almost leathery.  I dropped it into a tub of water beside the barn and a few weeks later had a tub full of Wood Frog tadpoles.

Many of the egg masses were still well below the water’s surface.  I won’t bother these unless the water drops down to their level.

Some branches were cut through and others were only hinged to allow the eggs to drop with the water level.  Since the frogs tend to leave their eggs near the surface, I try to maintain that placement as much as possible.

This batch of eggs was laid about a week before the flood.  The embryos are well on their way to becoming free swimming tadpoles.

I also found fresh salamander eggs that were laid during the flood.  I’m guessing these to be from Spotted Salamanders.  Spotteds were reported to be active several places in the County during that time.

Since I manage a Xeric environment, I have little use for waders and never replaced my old pair when they finally succumbed to dry rot.  If there’s water in my way, I usually just walk through and get wet.  On this day, the air was cold and the water was colder.  I knew that my wife would kill me if I fell over and drowned because my legs went numb from the cold, so I had to devise a makeshift pair of waders.  In order to keep out the cold and wet, I dressed in this order:  Socks, Long underwear pants, Trash bags – one per leg, Socks, Jeans, Old boots.  My legs remained warm and dry.  The plan had a slight complication when I decided that I should just strip off the wet clothes and hang them on the front porch to dry.  After arranging the jeans, boots and socks in a good drying position, I recalled that I had come out through the rear door and the front door was locked.  My wife gets upset when I run around the yard in my underwear, but she wasn’t home, so I just strolled around to the back of the house and went inside.