Pond life is small-scale and even a dragon fly can cross mine in a matter of seconds. Change is happening as winter begins to rear its frosty head. The frogs have disappeared to the boggy bottom. The enormous goldfish swim far below the surface. Only the young reckless minnows cruise near the top, much like teenagers showing off their wheels.
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| sky reflected in the pond |
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| netting over the pond |
One of the joys of pond management is keeping the leaves and pine needles out. I corral the leaves, in October and November, with a canopy of netting. Many of the pine needles fall through, but the leaves are mostly apprehended. Already the water is amber from the escapees.
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| elephant ear beside the pond |
One particularly heavy pine needle dropping season, I forgot to install the netting and poisoned the water and killed all of the fish. Goldfish are pretty hard to kill (and why they make good first pets for the youngest generation). Left alone, they can live for many years in a pond that has reasonably clean water and plants. There is no filter in my pond; the pump circulates water but the rain does the replenishing.
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| minnow in net |
Today I used the skimmer to get some of the floating pine needles out. In the process, I dipped out a few of those crazy teen minnows that were cruising the top of the pond, daring any invader to catch them. Some of them lay perfectly still in the net and were very hard to see except when the sunlight hit their shiny little bodies. I think I got them all; at least I know I got the ones that wriggled. A warning to fish out of water - wriggle if you want to be noticed!
Good advice for people
If you need attention or if you feel like you don't fit in, wriggle a little bit so your friends recognize you - you don't want to get thrown out with the pond refuse!
Bullfrog tadpoles are waiting out the winter in the leafy bottom. This good news means that some of the bullfrogs in the pond are in fact girls. I recognize the boys because they make all the noise; bullfrogs are otherwise difficult to tell apart (the size of the ear circles and the color of their throats are the usual ways). These are the frogs that I liberated from the meat department at the international supermarket (see blog story). The tadpoles are indeed proof that they have adjusted to real life. I'm thrilled that I will have baby bullfrogs next spring or summer.
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| rain lily |
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| bullfrog in summer |
Leaves have been raked away from the pond and the netting will stay up until the trees are bare and all of the pine needles have fallen. The plants are slowly dying back with the lower overnight temperatures. No frost yet, but that is coming. Tonight I will bring in the rain lily that stays partially submerged in the pond all summer and blooms while the frogs hop in and out of the pot.
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| Dudley with his vole |
Dudley continues his sentry duty around the perimeter, keeping the chipmunks and voles away. He caught a vole and spent hours playing with it, nudging it to make it squeak and patiently watching it waddle away before pushing it with his nose again. Across my pond, life is getting quieter and the creatures are settling in for their cold winter wait. I'd love to know what the frogs are thinking while nestled five feet below the surface in the soft warmth of the decayed leaves. I wonder if they are aware of their plump little progeny, and have any sense of the neighborhood congestion that will occur once they are fully grown next summer and swimming circles around their parents.
