A.Warm Day Journal

A Warm Day Journal

March 21, 2014

Early Afternoon

I am following along in my little notebook as I write this – the little green one that I take down to Cottonwood Pond to jot down observations.  The weather has been warmer, after a long winter.

Here we go …

–        Very sunny and warm, windy.

–        Lots of Spring Beauty leaves on the slope.  Cardinals singing.

–        Lots of Raccoon prints at the creek, pond edge and along the Seep.  The also walked on the new clump of mud under the root ball at the pond's north end.

–        I think that the root ball is leaning.

–        The creek is flowing.

–        I see a number of holes (dens?) in the root ball bottom.  There are five obvious ones, one larger than the rest.

–        The pond water is very murky and yellowish, which is something new.  From yellow clay?

–        A small Water Strider is on the pond! This is the first pond-related insect of the year.

–        The pond water is up to the side of the Young Maple at the edge, but not around the tree.

–        There is plenty of water in the New Inlet.

–        There may be another inlet forming at the other end of the Barkless Log, next to the root ball – more mud is being washed in or away.

–        I hear Nuthatches calling.

–        I need to take photos of the south end of the pond (inlets), as well as the angle of the root ball, and compare to earlier photos (after my new camera arrives).

–        A little spider runs across the water, rests on a leaf petiole that is sticking out, then runs on. This is the same kind of spider that skitters across the woods floor.  I'll need to catch one some day, long enough to look at it under magnification.

–        The Seep is very wet and there is some water at the northwest corner of the pond.  The water had just been higher (though we haven't had rain lately, or any more snow melt).

–        I measured the depth of “little pond” at its deepest with my handy-dandy homemade depth-measuring device (broom/twine/flat rock/twistie) and broke a stick to be equal to the length from rock bottom to the end of wetness on the twine (since I would be using the twistie to measure the larger pond).  I will measure the stick later against a yardstick.

–        “little pond” is still well over its “banks”, to the other side of the Cottonwood trunk (its inlet is on that other side), and very wet up to the two-trunk tree that stands between the two ponds.

–        It is very wet in the whole area, with lots of standing water.

–        I hear Chorus Frogs calling from the pond across the road.

–        I see flies flying around.

–        I think that the angle of the Cottonwood trunk-to-ground is greater than usual (though the top of the Cottonwood tree still looks firmly entrenched in the V of the two-trunk Red Oak uphill). Could it be that the Cottonwood base and root ball have sunk in more deeply?  I have noticed the difference only after a lot of rain and snow melt. 

–        Elderberry leaves are out of their buds a little more – they are green and flexible.  The end buds have also advanced. 

–        On the south side of Cottonwood Pond, Crawdad chimneys are washed out.  I can see water deep down in some of them.

–        There really is evidence of a new inlet forming (New Inlet #2?)

–        There is a lot of water standing where it sometimes rushes down to the pond, and there are still remnants of a temporary “creek” going toward the New Inlet.  How long will this “creek” be “temporary”?

–        Bright sun, blue sky.

–        There is more mud accumulated at the east corner of the pond by the root ball – it could be from dirt-fall as well as rushing water.  Something to watch.

–        A Raccoon has been along the mud trace that heads to the Cottonwood trunk and “little pond”. 

–        There are Water Striders on “little pond”.  Are there mosquito or midge larvae below the surface already?  The Striders float slowly, then occasionally move their legs and jerk into another spot.

–        I measured the deepest part of Cottonwood Pond.  It is just a little more than the deepest part of “little pond”.  Interesting!

–        Grasses are coming to life.

–        I took samples of Cottonwood Pond water, mud and some underwater debris.

Into the house to hold up the yardstick next to the broken stick (for “little pond”) and to hold up the twine next to the yardstick to see where the red twistie ends up.

The deepest parts were:

–        “little pond”:             13 1/4”

–        Cottonwood Pond     15 1/2”

So, Cottonwood Pond was only 2 1/4” deeper than “little pond”! Interesting!

Comparisons to past measurements:

Cottonwood Pond:  3/27/13     21 3/8”

                                7/23/13     11 1/2”

                                8/20/13       5 5/8”

                                (and there was that time it was only a puddle...)

“little pond”            7/23/13      12 1/2”  (only about an inch less than today??)