Cottonwood Puddle

 

Cottonwood Puddle

September 15, 2013

It has been almost a month since my last report from Cottonwood Pond. We had still been in a long period of very little rain.  I wondered what I would find down at Cottonwood Pond, and if it would be a “pond” at all.

I found the Jack-in-the-Pulpit that had fallen over last time with a great cluster of berries.  This day, less than half of the fruit remained, the rest likely eaten by wildlife.  The fruit head was about to break company with the stem, and the leaves had decayed to invisibility, becoming part of the brown forest floor.

The log I had rested on during my night visit (see "Night and Day” blog entry) still undulated down the slope and was still covered in glowing white fungi.

The creek bed was more dry than before, though still damp.  The orange Jewelweed was blooming much more abundantly, a feast of nectar for the hummingbirds.

Long-blooming Jumpseed was still covered in tiny white flowers and buds.

The Stinging Nettle had lost its foamy sprays of vanilla-colored flowers and was going to seed.  Where flowers had been, there were some pale green balloons, looking like tiny grapes – the same type of midge fly galls that were on the leaves earlier in the summer.

Maple leaves near Cottonwood Pond were beginning to show signs of the upcoming autumn.

And there it was – Cottonwood Puddle.

 If I had been able to slog through the mud, I could have laid my hand on the bottom of the deepest part and my knuckles would have broken the water's surface.  What once filled this whole basin was now resting like an after-thought in a small bowl.

To the right in the photo is the “siltation spot”, the only place where I had been able to see soil being washed into the pond. 

 Where the big Red Squirrel drowned back in late winter (see "Searching for Signs of Life" entry).  Where I sunk my shoes into the mud in the spring, when the pond was first receding.

On this day, Raccoon prints covered the mud all around the puddle, and I wondered what they were able to find to eat.  Brown Sycamore and Maple leaves, premature drifters, were scattered about.

I did not see or hear any frogs.

It appeared that there were still Pond Snails on the bottom, those persistent, resourceful creatures.

I wondered what caused all of the little holes in the mud, or what was living in them, and what caused all of the little “relief sculptures” on top of the mud.  I did not have the tools with me to investigate these.

 Orange Jewelweed in bloom

I will return sometime to search further, and to see what other kinds of critters are managing to survive in (what is now) Cottonwood Puddle.