It's Been an Interesting (and Mysterious) Year: 2013

It's Been an Interesting (and Mysterious)Year: 2013

(Note: to read more about Cottonwood Pond and to learn the specifics of what is referred to here, please read the various blog entries from 2013, starting with February 11. All but one of them include photos.)

Cottonwood Pond has now been through its first calendar year, and it is almost a year since I began to visit, watch and explore it, to see what happens with a newly-formed pond.

There have been many mysteries found, and some solved. It's been a very interesting year.

I introduced Cottonwood Pond in this blog on February 11 as a good-sized depression made by the hole left by the root ball of a fallen Cottonwood tree in the bottom of our woods. The depression had filled up after rains (some from the storm that felled the tree), and it has managed to subsist throughout the year, despite extremes in the weather.

The top of the fallen tree was caught, far uphill, in the V of a double-trunk Red Oak tree. I have noticed that, over time, the upper part of the Cottonwood has sunk deeper into the V, causing the Cottonwood's trunk, near the root ball, to have less space between the trunk and the ground. In fact, if Mystery Mammal passed that way back in February, it could have just gone under the trunk at the other side of “little pond”, instead of having to walk along the trunk (see “Tracking”, December 2) to find an open spot further along the trunk.

The pond was wider at the north end back in February, and there was no pile-up of mud between the main pond and “little pond”. Chunks of mud were barely starting to drop from the rootlets of the root ball to the pond. The rate of this dropping seemed to increase over time, especially when the root ball was dry during drought, and whenever hard rains pelted it. This mud-dropping has been, doubtless, adding to the bottom of the pond, and may affect the depth.

On March 6, I had found a dead Fox Squirrel, assumed drowned, at the edge of the pond. By March 27, it was covered by algae. By April, there was no sign of the body. Thus, The Mystery of the Disappearing Squirrel Body.

During March, the first small burrow appeared on the bottom side of the root ball. Eventually, there would be more burrows on this side, and others on the top side, those almost hidden by vegetation. I have not yet witnessed creatures entering or exiting these burrows. The Mystery of the Small Root Ball Burrows.

On March 27, the pond's water was clear, and fine mud had settled over the debris on the bottom. I made the first measurement of the deepest part, using my handy-dandy homemade depth-measuring device. It was 21 ½ “ deep. It was the same on April 25, and I eventually surmised that the clay bottom held water, the only incoming water would be from precipitation and snow melt, and any excess would seep out of one corner to the creek slightly below. We had had much rain before April 25, but the pond had established itself via the seep. Thus, I had solved The Mystery of the Unchanging Pond.

By July 23, when the weather was hot and steamy, the deep part was only 11 ½ '' deep. By August 19, after a long dry period, it had shrunk to 5 ¾ “ deep. By September 15, it had become “Cottonwood Puddle”, almost a ghost of its former self.

Despite losing water to much evaporation (and gaining no more due to drought), life still hung on in its own way. In early April, when the water was green and murky, I was excited to find, for the first time, that there was at least one frog at the pond. In late April, there were signs of Worms, Crawdads and Raccoons, and Spiders skittered around the edges. Also, broken acorns were left by a Squirrel on the rotten log that stretches alongside the pond. My first look at a water sample under a microscope revealed blue-green algae and Paramecium. The water was much less clear by then, due to a lot of rain stirring things up, so less sunlight was penetrating.

I did not get back to Cottonwood Pond until the Summer Solstice, when I found Water Striders and Backswimmers, among other very small things. In late July, despite the loss of rainfall and the shrinking of the pond, I found more critters. A scoop with a long-handled sieve attached to a broom handle brought up many tadpoles – the first I had gotten to see here. I was excited that Frog Life was being perpetuated. The scoop also revealed a Water Scorpion, a Backswimmer, and Pond Snails. The water was murky, and the action of frogs jumping into the water and burrowing into the mud stirred up more silt. There were also Water Striders, Raccoon prints, and a Daddy-Long-Legs (on the root ball top), and my first sighting of canine prints in the mud near “little pond”.

When the water was very low, in mid-August, I still found tadpoles in the mud, the strange larvae and pupae of Phantom Midge, a very tiny Bosmina (“water flea”), and an aquatic larva of the Nymphula Moth, the first time I had heard of an aquatic caterpillar. I was learning much more about life in a new pond, and solving more mysteries. And, the canine prints appeared again, still a mystery. The Mystery of the Unidentified Canine Prints.

At night, I heard Cicadas and Katydids all around, and saw many Fireflies.

There was another strange critter I had seen on the pond - a long, pale pink worm-like creature that looked as if it had many short legs. It was coiling and uncoiling on the surface, and a small black object had dropped from its “legs” to the water below. With some searching, I had found that it was an aquatic caterpillar called Hygraula that can survive in low oxygen conditions because it has haemoglobin. Most of those “legs” were actually cilia. It has two tentacles at the rear that is uses to catch prey that is floating by, and then it uses the cilia to transport the prey along the body up to its mouth – thus the strange movements I saw. This also explains the small black object, which was (possibly) a Backswimmer that had been caught, but the caterpillar had lost grasp of it during transport. This was the second type of aquatic caterpillar that I had learned about in 2013, or in my whole life. I learned, too, that many other species of Hygraula live in leaf litter. I evidently did not write a blog entry that included this animal. Whenever I find my photos of it, I will post them in a “past-time” blog entry. The Mystery of the Long Pale Pink Wiggly Many-Legged Worm was solved.

By the time Cottonwood Pond had become Cottonwood Puddle in September, I still found Pond Snails and Raccoon prints, and wondered what else might be there, perhaps biding its time under the mud.

By October 11, there was finally ample rain, and Cottonwood Puddle became Cottonwood Pond again. I found more Raccoon prints, more frogs, and a Woolly Worm “walking the plank” on a branch extending over the murky, rain-disturbed water.

In early November, fall colors surrounded Cottonwood Pond and the pond's surface glimmered with a cover of fallen leaves in various colors and shapes. I learned about another critter when I spotted a white speck hopping on the pond surface – the Colembola, or Springtail. Here was another creature sometimes referred to as a Water Flea. Neither “water flea” that I had found in the pond was a true flea.

By mid-November, leaves were choking the creek, covering the pond, and starting to sink to the bottom, where they could provide cover and nourishment for more life.

Always, a variety of birds flew, roosted, called, sang, and probably nested overhead. I did see a couple of birds visit the pond after the winter storm, perching on root ball rootlets. For some reason, I never saw deer prints around the pond, though many deer pass through our woods (I see many prints elsewhere). The Mystery of No Deer Prints.

Early December brought deep snow cover and a frozen pond and creek. I was able to track Mystery Mammal across “little pond”, under the fallen Cottonwood, an here and there in the vicinity. I also came across tracks of Squirrel, mice, birds, Raccoons, and others.

On December 21 came the torrential rains (over frozen ground), the big snow melt, and the flood, which undoubtedly brought new organisms and nutrients to Cottonwood Pond. Temporary creeks flowed, through soils and leaf litter, down the slope above the pond.

Plant life has flourished around the pond, though no aquatic plant life has appeared yet. On and around the root ball grew Stinging Nettle, grasses, Elderberry, Pokeweed and other plants. Near the pond grew Poison Ivy, Honewort, Jumpseed and Clearweed. Nearby, the Jewelweed attracted Hummingbirds, and I also found blooms of Chicory, Monkey Flower, Sweet Cicely, Cleavers, Mayapples, Prairie Trillium and Jack-in-the-Pulpit, as well as various ferns and mushrooms.

The pond has already been through many phases in its first year: formation, rains, drought, revival, leaf-filling, winter storm, hard freeze, thaw, and flood. It has been fascinating to watch its development and to learn more about ponds and their associated life. I have become reacquainted with concepts such as bioturbation, nutrient cycling, Biological Oxygen Demand, eutrophication, trophic levels, periphytic algae, and others.

I look forward to the pond's second year, 2014. What weather events will affect it/ What new critters will I find? Will there be aquatic plants? What else will I learn?

There are things I would like to do in the new year:

• watch from uphill at the edge of the woods at dawn and dusk (especially when there is snow cover) to see what is moving about;
• watch, very silently, near Cottonwood Pond for frogs, burrow animals, and anything else;
• spend more time near Cottonwood Pond at night;
• test for things such as Dissolved Oxygen, visibility, air and water temperature, on a consistent basis;
• make or obtain the items to do these tests;
• keep charts of the results;
• do more frequent sampling for biota;
• spend more time at the microscopes;
• identify all of the birds I see and hear around the pond area;
• solve more mysteries;
• stand on the ice of the pond in my ice skates and get my picture taken.

After the Flood

After the Flood

December 22, 2013

Even from above, at the edge of the woods, it was easy to see the effects of the flood from the previous day.  Though the rushing water had subsided, I could see where the excess water had spread across the creek's flood plain, as it was still dark and very soggy.  I could see that the pond was still filled to capacity and that it was still joining with “little pond”.  I could see a seep that was so saturated that it was obvious it was still draining from the northwest corner of Cottonwood Pond to the creek.

 

I worked my way down the slope for a closer look.  I could see a straight line gouged out of the leaf litter, next to a bend in the creek.  This looked similar to something that happens with meandering rivers, such as the Wabash and the White, except in miniature.  A rush of excess water tore straight across, rather than all of the water following the normal creek channel.  If this were a constantly flowing river with a frequently heavy influx of water, the stream might “choose” to take that straight path until the new path would be the “normal” one.  In that case, the curve in the original creek channel would get cut off.  In a large river system, if that curved, cut-off section held water, it would become an oxbow lake.

If my creek received almost constant rain and plenty of snow melt, would it create an oxbow puddle?

Another thing I noticed was a peculiarity with the root ball.  There was a light-colored, oval area in the middle where the silty clay was dry, but the perimeter was still dark and wet.  I could understand that the part just above the water might still be wet, but what of the middle/  I assumed that the middle would be the last to dry.

But, probably the heavy rains pummeled the outside and soaked in from the edges, and the heavy soil did not allow it to soak quickly toward the center.  The rain must not have come from the west/southwest/northwest, or it would have pummeled straight into the whole face of the root ball.

 

When I came closer to the creek (in my high rubber boots, of course), I could still see the distinct difference in color between the flooded leaf litter, which was pounded to small leaf size and covered in a thin layer of grayish-brown silt, and the non-flooded litter, which was all brown and fluffy, leaf size mostly intact.

 

Here is a closer view of the creek where the straight-line alternate path can be clearly seen as well as the piles of debris pushed up by fast water.  In the creek there is muddy looking line where water was pushing silt along the normal current, and clear pools to the side around the small dam of debris.

 

This is the fallen log which stretches across the creek and alongside the south edge of Cottonwood Pond.  A smaller log caused some obstruction below it.  To the upper left, a new pool can be seen, formed by the rushing water and flooding.

 

Here is a long view of the creek, looking to the southeast.  In this view, it is easier to see how the water came rushing toward the large log, pushed over the obstruction below it, created the pool to the left, then surged forward, cutting the temporary, alternative route.

 

The flood brought more to our woods.

The creek passes through a culvert under our road before it enters our woods.  So, unfortunately, it sometimes brings us unwanted items from elsewhere.

Here is a view of the creek from the other side of the large fallen log, looking northwest.  Part of Cottonwood Pond can be seen on the right.

During dry periods, the creek and the pond appear to be separate entities, but they are part of each other in many ways.  This becomes most evident during a flood.  

 

The power of water was also evident around the bases of saplings.

The seep was still a little active.  It is the most obvious connection between pond and creek.

 The northwest end of the pond had gone over its banks and stretched a narrow finger to the seep.

Reflections on Cottonwood Pond, with the large fallen log and the young, bent Blue Beech seem frame a picture of the land near the pond.

 

The “siltation spot”, and Raccoon prints.  I wondered if the heavy rains had pushed this mud further into the pond.

A view of the pond from the south end.  The “siltation spot” can be seen just above the standing tree at the edge.

The deepest part of the pond.  I wished that I had brought my depth-measuring device with me, in this moment of opportunity just after a flood and between freezes.

The water had no visibility after all the rain and run-off.  Clay particles were well suspended throughout.

Mud has been piling up beneath the root ball, and there were green plants growing there in the midst of winter.  Would Cottonwood Pond begin to support some aquatic or semi-aquatic plant life in the coming year?

 

There were more green plants at the south edge of the pond, but this spot has normally been above water.

On the other side of the log, on the south end, there was a very soggy Crawdad chimney.  There were suitable conditions for this animal.

Here a lovely view of Cottonwood Pond is framed, from the south side, by the large fallen log and the bent Blue Beech.  It is evident where a temporary creek had cut across the edge of the floodplain and surged toward the pond.  A larger open space was created under the log and filled with water as this new creek increased the pond's volume.

As I looked behind me, I saw where this new creek was still tumbling along the lower part of the slope.  I could not recall seeing a stream here before.

 I heard a splash, as if something had jumped into the pond.  It was reminiscent of the times last summer when I would hear frogs jumping.  But, it was another good-sized clod of dirt from the mass of rootlets on t he root ball.  The pounding rain had probably increased the rate of mud-ball-drop, adding more mass to the floor of the pond.  In fact, I noticed a big pile to the left of the root ball, where mud had been sloughing and slumping off of the edge.

 

The slumpy pile of mud was creating more of a dam between Cottonwood Pond and “little pond”, but the immense power and volume of flood water had moved around the hill, connecting the two ponds.

 

A soggy Crawdad chimney, built in the space of a tree base, had been caught in the flood and was almost filled with water.

And here was “little pond”, at the top side of the root ball.  It had swollen so far beyond its usual size that the area looked more like a small swamp.  If it could remain this size, a very different ecosystem could develop.

“Little pond” appeared to be extending to the other side of the fallen Cottonwood trunk.

“Mystery Mammal” would have a much more difficult time going through this space in these conditions (see “Tracking”).

The mud was covered with familiar tracks.  Maybe “Mystery Mammal” had been a Raccoon, after all, but I was not convinced that these prints came from the same animal.

The mud was covered with familiar prints.  Maybe Mystery Mammal had been a Raccoon, after all.  But, I was not convinced these prints came from the same animal.

Worms had evidently been busy in the mud, also.  Many holes covered the surface.

“Little pond” had extended well beyond the fallen Cottonwood trunk. 

I was back to the southwest side, where the new creek had rushed down to the pond.

Mushrooms were showing up in the wetness...

...and some herbaceous plants were beginning to show themselves.

Some see this as a “sign of spring”, but I am not quick to make that prediction.  It is only December.  Life is lurking below the surface everywhere, all winter, and one day of wet, warmer conditions can encourage something to move a little further along in growth.  

But, already we have had a winter storm with ice and deep snow, torrential rains and flooding, unseasonably warm temperatures, and severely cold weather.  I prefer to let things be without imposing attitude, desire, prediction and other perceptions on the situation.

I will just wonder how all of these “weather events” are affecting Cottonwood Pond, and what these differences may bring in the coming year.

Flood

Flood

December 21, 2013

And then it rained … and rained … and rained …

The abundant rain, combined with a great deal of snow and ice melt (after a long, substantial winter storm), created deep water throughout our area.  Since the ground was still frozen below the surface, most of the water could not percolate down, and so the it could only flow across the surface, creating flash floods.

Cottonwood Pond took on a completely different look, as is evident in the above photo.

I did not walk down to the pond.  Had I ventured there, it would have required tall rubber boots, and it would have looked the same at close range – lots of water and lots of muck.

The creek had overflowed its banks more than I had ever seen it do before.  It looked like a great amount of “Cambric tea” (a cup with plenty of milk and a little black tea) had been spilled, and the spilled edges were seeping outward across the table.

Cottonwood Pond had seeped over its edges, too.  Water running downhill was still filling it on that day, at both sides of the pond.  The “seep” (on the left side in the photo) was more of a connecting pool between the pond and creek.  It was as if a great cup of Cambric tea had tipped a bit to the side and spilled out, the excess flowing away and catching into a long fold in the tablecloth.

Even “little pond”, just behind the root ball on the left, was much broader, and indistinguishable from the other muddy, milky pools.

Water flowing from the upper right, meandering along the slope, was rushing into the pond.  In fact, a few days later I went walking there, and found a small creek where I do not normally see a creek.  It was adding a great deal more volume to the pond as it entered from below the fallen tree that extends over the creek.

All of this influx of muddy water, as it flowed downhill toward the pond, through rotting leaves and branches, and through the crumbly soil beneath them, would be bringing fresh nutrients to the pond.  It may also have been bringing very small organisms that live in the litter and loose soil, as well as fungi and bacteria.  Of course, some was also flowing out of the pond on the other side, but I think that most of the influx would stay in the pond.  I wondered how this would affect life in Cottonwood Pond in the coming seasons.

I thought of how Cottonwood Pond had become Cottonwood Puddle during the summer after a long dry spell in the weather.  No precipitation had been coming in.  Here, on this day, it was just the opposite.  The pond was not only receiving plenty of precipitation directly, but was receiving input from it surroundings.  It was being freshened, nourished and refilled.

What will this mean for the future of the pond?  I look forward to what will happen at Cottonwood Pond in the year 2014.