Spring Has Sprung!
March 2016
March 10
March 17
March 21
March 25
Sometimes, Spring seems to arrive suddenly. There's a certain
feeling in the air, new things start happening, the atmosphere even sounds
different.
At dusk and night time, I could hear the loud “Creeeek!
Creeeek!", in unison, of an unknown number of little Chorus frogs, the song
emanating from Cottonwood Pond and traveling all the way to my bedroom window.
During the day, especially at dawn, the air changed with a
burst of new bird song. Cardinals and others were breaking into new, melodious
songs. Phoebes were calling almost constantly. I heard Easter Towhees calling "Drink Your Teeeea!" Woodpeckers had increased their
hammering – searching for insects, staking territory, attracting possible
mates, maybe even starting on the preparation of nest holes.
And the area started to green up, just a little …
March 17
March 25
March 21 - Plants growing on the Root Ball Top
March 21 - Jewelweed and grass growing on Mud Pile #1
When I went down to Cottonwood Pond on March 10, it was
raining very steadily, and had been for some time. This caused the water to get
murky, but by March 21 the silty mud had settled and the water was clear again.
We did get more rains after that, though.
March 10
March 21
The rain also got the Creek running at a good pace, dancing
around bends, over and under logs.
March 10
March 21
So much water ran into the pond through the Inlet that the
overflow had to escape through the Seep and into the Creek. It ran so hard that
it gouged out holes along the way.
March 10 - the Seep running out of the pond corner on the left
March 25 - Seep (left) leaving the corner of the main pond
March 10 - from the pond corner to the Creek
March 10 - holes in the Seep created by fast running water
March 10 - The Bark Ledge where the Seep runs into the Creek
March 25 - End of Seep where it meets the Creek
March 21 - from the Bark Ledge at the Creek, looking toward the pond
The Temporary Creek, to the east of Cottonwood Pond, was on
its way to transforming from an occasional trickle to an actual creek, flowing
down toward the Swampy Spot …
March 21 - looking East from the Swampy Spot, up Temporary Creek #1
March 25 - Where Temporary Creek #1 meets the Swampy Spot
… toward the fallen Trunk.
March 25 - water moving from the Swampy Spot towards the Trunk area
March 21
It went under the Trunk and into “little pond” (on the top
side of the Root Ball) and the mucky area around there.
March 21
March 25
March 25
Some of the excess water seeped over to the northwest, under
a pile of bark, and eventually to a tiny rivulet that flowed into the main
Creek. I call that seep and rivulet Temporary Creek #2.
March 25
Excess water from the main pond not only flowed out via the
corner Seep to the Creek, it also flowed through the Isthmus (between the
Two-Trunk White Ash and the Root Ball) into “little pond” (thus adding to the “little
pond” overflow that seeps to Temporary Creek #2.)
March 10 - the Isthmus (right) and "little pond" (left)
March 25
Isthmus
But, the water of Temporary Creek #1 (slowed down a bit by
the Swampy Spot) also flowed toward the Inlet, gathering before the Barkless
Log and flowing under it into the main pond. It must have been flowing hard,
because it had been deepening and widening the Inlet space, so that the main
pond was growing in width to the southeast, extending beyond the log.
March 25
March 21
March 25
March 21
From water pushing through the Inlet, the flow increased
through the Cove in the bottom of the Root Ball, moving between the main pond
and “little pond” on the other side.
March 21
March 25
March 25 - the other side of the Cove, at the base of the Trunk
Besides the songs of birds and frogs, there were other signs
of animal life, such as Raccoon prints in the mud. One thing the Raccoons would
be searching for were Crawdads.
March 21 - Crawdad Chimney
There were some deep prints in the squishy part of the area …
… but they were so obscured from rain and muck that I could
not tell what made them. It could just as well have been Kojak, the neighbor’s
Doberman.
Spiders skittered across the woods floor and mucky areas …
March 25
… and worms left trails in the pond mud.
March
Pond snails were attached to a submerged Sycamore leaf in “little
pond.”
March 25
I decided to explore the pond water and mud to see what kind
of life might be stirring with the onset of Springtime.
March 21 - collecting materials (with Mireille)
I scooped up some mud from the bottom and found some type of
isopod, an aquatic relative of the terrestrial “pill bug.” It seemed to have lost one antenna.
I noticed that some twigs under the water had odd masses
attached to them. Would this be the egg masses of Chorus Frogs? Their songs had
been gradually decreasing, which made me wonder if a number of them had
accomplished mating and egg-laying by now.
March 21
I scooped up a twig in my hand and found the jelly-like mass
to be more clear than I had expected – and it was full of tiny things …
March 21
… which I found, indeed, to be tadpoles!
March 25
The very tiny tadpoles all still had yolk sacs attached that
were a good part of the length of their bodies. They were not moving around. I
wondered if this was due to the low water temperature or simply because they
were still really in the eggs.
On another twig, from below water, I found a different type of mass.
March 25
I thought, at first, of snail eggs, but when I looked up
information and photos, none looked like these. I then wondered – could this be
a freshwater sponge? I looked up information on them, but was not sure about
that, either.
For one thing, freshwater sponges tend to show up in very
clean water. I am uncertain of Cottonwood Pond’s cleanliness, even though the
water is clear after mud and debris settle. I am not sure what kinds of
pollutants might be flowing into the pond, if any. But, since the water seems
to mostly come from direct rainfall, snow melt in the immediate area, and
Temporary Creek #1, which begins with an accumulation of water flowing down
slopes in my woods, it’s possible the water is clean enough for freshwater
sponges. This could be another type of colony, or an egg mass from some other
kind of animal besides snails. There is so much to learn!
I also took up water and mud samples to examine in my study roomwith microscopes. I used both the stereoscope and the regular, slide
microscope, and used various lens strengths with the latter.
Besides strands of green and blue-green algae, plant debris and sediment, I found this creature:
Please ignore the note about moving about with many cilia.
That was just a guess. This is, actually, a type of diatom that moves by
forcing liquid through its body.
Then there were these:
I didn't not know what they were. Again – there’s so much to
learn!
I do know more about plants than tiny aquatic animal species,
and here are some that I found around Cottonwood Pond:
March 21 – Emerging Monkeyflower plants in the Swampy
Spot
March 25 – Leaves growing on the older Elderberry
branches, plus a new Elderberry plant emerging from the pond water next to Mud Pile
#2.
March 10 – Appendaged Waterleaf emerging on the nearby
slopes (along with the dreaded, invasive Star-of-Bethlehem), which grew very
quickly throughout March.
March 10 - Spring Beauty in bloom, in the rain
March 10 – Cut-Leaved Toothwort in bud (bloomed later in the month)
March 21– Prairie Trillium emerging
March 21 – Cleavers lengthening and crawling over the
woods floor
March 21 – the first leaves (cotyledons) of Jewelweed
emerging all over the wet bottom area of the woods
March 21 – Moss sprouting sporophytes, ready to
release spores to the wind and water
Life goes on, faster and faster during Spring. It will be
exciting to see what unfolds in April, as the low ground becomes covered in
Jewelweed growing taller and denser, tadpoles start looking more like frogs,
and more Raccoon tracks appear in the mud as babies follow mothers on hunting
trips.
In the meanwhile, here is a video tour of Cottonwood Pond,
done during the rain of March 10, 2016. Enjoy!
I enjoy reading this more timely post about Cottonwood Pond. How exciting to find the frogs/tadpoles. I so enjoy the dawn chorus. I get so excited hearing it. Starts my day in a beautiful way.
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