A Summer Solstice Visit

 A Summer Solstice Visit

June 20, 2013

It's been quite awhile since I've been down to Cottonwood Pond.  It's been an intensely busy time.  There have been programs for large groups of children at Ouabache Trails Park, and the preparation time for those.  There have been other presentations.  And, of course, it has been the most intense period of the gardening season.

In the meantime, I have been by the pond a couple of times, during forays into our woods, and peeked at it.  Every time I have been there this spring, at least one frog has jumped in before I could see it.  One time, I got to see a young bullfrog sitting in the seep.  I took a photo (and lost track of it in the deep morass of my digital photo files), and then it hopped to the pond and jumped in.

Since the last time I recorded a visit, we have had many rains, some rather heavy, and at least a couple of severe storms.  I was very curious about the effects this may have had on the pond.

I should have put on bug repellent before going down, for the air was full of gnats and mosquitoes.  Since I did not, my visit this time was relatively short.

Plant life was very lush.

 Stinging Nettle

Stinging Nettle was predominant all around, and Poison Ivy abundant in the seep.

 The Seep

The antidote to both of those was all around, too, in the slippery sap of Jewelweed stems, growing knee high or more.

 Orange Jewelweed

Some Orange Jewelweed were just beginning to bloom.

 Honewort

The delicate, tiny florets of Honewort bloomed beside the pond.

Of course, a frog jumped into the pond well before I could see it.  I heard one brief “EEEEP!”, then a plop, and saw nothing but ripples in the water.  Frogs disappear into the pond sediment, out of my sight.

However, sometimes bubbles rising from the bottom, then floating on the water surface, belie a frog's presence.

As I watched the pond, a small black blob loosened from somewhere in the deep, rose to the surface, and floated.  Closer inspection with the camera lens (though a bit blurry, as I was constantly brushing away biting insects) revealed a dead Backswimmer.  Or, was it a live Diving Beetle, coming up to replenish its bubble of air?  

I will have to bring a scoop net to the pond sometime, and then inspect more closely.

A dead Water Strider floated nearby.  There were a number of live Water Striders, though, skating and darting across the surface, looking for prey existing just below the water's surface.

Off of the middle edge of the pond, it was evident that a good amount of sediment had washed into the pond, piling up and creating a small, shallower area.

Heavy, dry dirt clods hung from the root ball above, ready to fall and add sediment to the bottom of the pond.  I wondered how many had dropped in since my last visit.

Old spider webs clung to sections of the root ball, strung between roots and dirt clods.

 

A White Ash leaf, missing one of its seven leaflets, had fallen from a tree into the water.

On the other side of the root ball, the topside was more lush than before, with maturing vegetation.  The smaller part of the pond on this side had a dark, secretive atmosphere as it neared the trunk of the fallen Cottonwood tree.

Large leaves of Stinging Nettle held themselves like umbrellas over the root ball surface and the topside pond.  On some, opaque, egg-shaped galls, the color of limeade, were perched like fallen jewels.  Attached to the leaf veins, they were created by a small gnat called Nettle Gall Midge, or Dasineura urticae, which laid its eggs into the plant.  This disturbance caused the leaf's material and juices to create a “house” around the developing insect larva, which uses this gall for protection as well as first food.  A cross-sectional drawing of the gall can be seen at:  www.fineartamerica.com/featured/nettle-leaf-gall-midge-larva-dr-keith-wheeler.html

 Jelly fungus on a nearby dead log was flourishing in the wet climate.

It was the end of this short, mosquito-ridden trip to Cottonwood Pond, near the Summer Solstice.  Next time, I will wear bug repellent.  And, next time, I also plan to be taking various pond samples to find out what is really lurking within.

Some time spent near the pond at dusk and after dark will be interesting, too – what lurks there in the dark?