IT'S BEEN A WHILE! SO MUCH IS HAPPENING!!

It has been a while since I've had a chance to write and so much is going on around here!  We have juvenile birds everywhere: downy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, about five blue jay, hairy woodpecker, chickadee, grackle, four nuthatch, two rose-breasted grosbeak and Suzanne just texted and said that their bluebirds just fledged!!!

Now that is an interesting story!  Suzanne & Michael have a plexiglass sided bird house and they had been seeing both bluebirds and chickadees going into the bird house.  The two sets of birds were clearly arguing about who was going to get this prime real estate.  They fought over it for quite a while, including throwing out eggs and rebuilding the nest!  Finally the bluebirds won and they pulled out some of the moss the chickadees had used and built their nest on top.  The bluebirds started hatching a couple weeks ago and today, they fledged!  

Our neighborhood is just NOT bluebird territory!  They like more open fields, but I guess they like that Suzanne/Michael, Carol/Joe and we have been feeding them mealworms and they definitely like our bird bath.  Below is a picture Suzanne took on July 15.

Bluebird Hatchlings  --Photo by S. Groet

Meanwhile, the pond is in bad shape - I tried to paddle a couple weeks ago and could hardly move.  The DPW has put up the dam extension in preparation for harvesting (which will happen sometime early August) so there is more water in the pond now; it might be better paddling, but I haven't tried.  Many great volunteers helped do some hand harvesting again this spring and the harvester machine is currently on Carding Mill Pond and is due here soon.

Linda & I were out paddling on Willis Lake last week and found a patch of water chestnuts.  We contacted Debbie Dineen (Sudbury Conservation Coordinator), who contacted Mark Sevier.  Mark and his wife went out and hand harvested most of them on Sunday.  Linda & I did more today and will go back with the rakes tomorrow to try to get the rest that we can reach in the bushes.  Our goal is to keep Willis Lake from looking like the ponds in the Hop Brook system!!

What's happening in your area of Sudbury?  Let us hear from you.

WATER CHESTNUT PULL-A-THON JUNE 22!

Water Chestnuts

They are so pretty,
Invasive water chestnuts,
But they choke our pond.

Photo from http://www.thebeatnews.org/BeatTeam/invasive-species-2/

Water chestnuts really are a pretty plant, but they spread rapidly (one rosette like the one above can create 15 or 20 seeds and each seed can produce 10-15 rosettes a year, so one seed can produce 300 new seeds!!)  

Last year, our pond was harvested by a machine, and we hand pulled many canoe-loads of plants.  The area that was done is MUCH better this spring. This time in 2012, it was pretty difficult to paddle on the pond, but right now, there is only one area that is choked, but it is bad.  

June 6, 2013, center area of Stearns Mill Pond

The plan for this year is to have another Pull-a-Thon on June 22, 2013, from 9:00AM-1:00PM followed by lunch.  We will focus on the area around the shore where the harvester can't reach, then when the harvester comes in a couple weeks later, hopefully it can clean out the rest and in a few years our pond will be cleared of this nuisance! 

We had loads of fun last year getting to know neighbors and helping our pond.  Someone commented the Pull-a-Thon was better than a block party!

If you are able to participate please RSVP to Ann Kirk  (abkdds@gmail.com -- this is the corrected email).  We need boaters to pull and fill canoes, we need people to pull the loaded transport canoes to shore with row boats, and we need people on shore to help receive what is brought in.  If you have a canoe or row boat, let Ann know. The boaters must be 14 years old or older or have a parent in the boat with the child.  (more details below)

Pull-a-thon 2012 -- photo by Barbara Taskovics

Click on the following link to find information (from Cornell University) about the Invasive Waterchestnuts, how they grow, what they look like, etc.   
http://bandnotes.info/PondsWaterways/waterchestnutalert.pdf

And lastly, here is a short video of the harvester last year! (26 seconds)

 
DETAILS FOR SATURDAY, JUNE 22

• Please try to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00AM, sign in and get a name tag.
• At noon, BBQ for all helpers, courtesy of the Kirks
• Where: Kirk's landing - the green space at the end of the pond, on Dutton Road
• Parking: we will be parking next door to the yellow house - look for the sign.
• Bring: water boots, work gloves, sunscreen, water bottle, any recycle bins you might have--the kind with the holes in the bottom, and, your sense of humor and fun!
• Wear: old clothes (you WILL get muddy!) and a hat to shade your head, face and neck is a good idea!  Tall boots, or shoes you don't mind getting wet and muddy.
• LIFE JACKETS are a must for all in canoes - our pond is muddy (2 or 3 feet deep in muck in some places) and often very shallow so that if you tipped over, you would not be able to swim; you'd just sink into the mud, like quick sand!  
• Unless you are paddling to the event, we suggest you drop off your boats Friday night so that we don't have a road jam Saturday morning as everyone is trying to unload boats on narrow Dutton.
• RSVP, if you can, to Ann at abkdds@gmail.com
• Up-to-date info and news, including weather issues, on Twitter, at #StearnsMillPond 

Have Fun.    Get Dirty.    Make a Difference.    Meet Your Neighbors.    Enjoy Good BBQ!

THE GOOD, THE BAD and the UGLY

What a spectacular morning for a paddle!  I managed to get out before 6:30 and the sun was shining on the water, well, actually on the pollen on the water!  Many birds flitting in the branches of the trees.  Now that most have leaves, it is harder to find the birds, but there are so many colors and textures!  Look at this picture of maple tree seeds & leaves; what color, and the delicate fringe of the new leaves up above.  Wow.  (Click on the picture to see it full size)

Maple seeds and new leaves

Sometimes I like to just float in my canoe and watch what is under the water - I see fish swim by, painted turtles with noses in the air, darting away when they see me.  I keep looking for the huge snapper that both Suzanne and Ann have seen, but it hasn't showed up yet on my watch.  

Then, however, while looking so closely at the water, one can't help but notice the burgeoning water chestnut plants.  Yes, they are coming up.  I travel with a bucket in the back of my canoe now, and today I pulled a half bucket of water chestnut plants.  

Speaking of invasives, I'm sure you've heard all the hype about the garlic mustard and how quickly it spreads and takes over everything in its path.  Pull it when you see it!  It goes to seed soon and there will be loads of seeds that grow efficiently.  Below is a picture

Garlic Mustard -- PULL when you see it!

And the ugly?  The scum on the pond.  Covers the pond this AM, but upon closer look, a lot of the issue is pollen, and we KNOW that covers EVERYTHING this time of year!  I sat on the porch (my summer office) for a while this morning and it looked like it was snowing.

Still, our pond is a beautiful place and I feel blessed to live on it!

PICKING UP WATER CHESTNUT SEED PODS & OTTER SIGHTINGS

I went out to paddle this AM, intending to go to the upper end of the pond and see who was there, but I never got past about mid-way.  I flushed about 50 Canada geese, saw a gorgeous red-tail, the kingfisher and a muskrat.  On my way west to the upper end, I saw some floating water chestnut nuts/seedpods and picked them up.  I have attached a gallon water jug to my seat thwart on my canoe so that I can pick them up and not have them in the bottom of the canoe for Blake to step on and get stuck in his paw.  Anyway, I started picking them up and about 15 minutes later, I had about 1/3 of the jug filled!  So if I picked up 75 nuts, that is about 750 plants that won't grow next year!  YES!

Last night Suzanne emailed:

Was sitting outside watching just before you and Linda went out in the kayaks. The otters went back and forth almost exactly where your kayaks were. I'm pretty sure the big otter carried a fish back. There was one big otter and one smaller.  The muskrats were busy on the other side of our house.

Interestingly, we went out because Linda thought she had seen a beaver or an otter in our cove (which is where Suzanne saw us sitting).  We were thinking beaver because it was bigger and shaggier, but it could have been an otter.  We watched one return to the same place Suzanne & Michael saw it, but couldn't tell what it was; definitely not a muskrat as it had a bigger head and a bigger nose.  Later, from the boats, we saw muskrats going back and forth and returning to that same area between our houses.  It seemed like they just went across to the vegetation and then came back, without taking time to eat or bring anything.  What are they doing?  "Back in a few, honey.  I'm going to go do a few laps."

WATER CHESTNUT INFORMATION

(This is yesterday's post with more information)

WATER CHESTNUTS (Trapa natans)
I want to pass on some info about water chestnuts today.  These are not native plants, but have been brought here from Euraisa in the late 1800s as ornamental plants, and now considered invasive plants.  They are NOT the same as the Chinese Water Chestnuts we eat in Chinese food. (Although, I guess the nuts of our Trapa natans are also boiled and eaten in India and China.)

There is a really good short flier from Cornell, Cayuga County Cooperative Education Department.  They say to pass it on, so I have posted it at 
http://bandnotes.info/PondsWaterways/waterchestnutalert.pdf

One interesting piece of information (which explains why they take over the pond so quickly!):

Water Chestnut is an annual plant with a high reproductive capacity. The seeds germinate in early spring. An individual seed can give rise to 10 to 15 rosettes, each of which can produce 15 to 20 seeds. Thus, one seed can produce 300 new seeds in a single year. Water Chestnuts begin to flower in mid to late July and nuts will ripen approximately one month later. Flowering and seed production continue into the fall when frost kills the floating rosettes. The mature nuts sink to the bottom when dropped and can remain viable for up to 8 to 12 years. The plant spreads either by the rosettes detaching from their stems and floating to another area, or more often by the nuts being swept by currents or waves to other parts of the lake or stream. The plant over winters entirely by seed.

Wow...  So it is crucial that we get all of the plants, BEFORE they go to seed.  And whenever you see a nut floating on the surface, pick it up and put it in the trash!  Don't leave it on the shore as the barbs are VERY sharp and some animal could step on it and get it lodged in a paw/hoof.  

It is important to pull up carefully to get the seed pod on the bottom so that more plants don't grow up from it.  The plant can also reproduce from plant parts left in the water.

========
This video is of the Mystic River and the narrator pulls up a whole plant and talks about being careful to get all of it.  (1:50 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ-Orod1Lf4&feature
 
=======
Here are some great pictures from the MassNature.com website:
http://www.massnature.com/Plants/Herbs/waterchestnut.htm
(photos courtesy of massnature.com (c) 2003)

Water Chestnut Leaves

Water Chestnut Seed Pod

========
This video is a little longer (5:39), but talks about why this invasive plant is a problem in our waterways (we know it is hard to paddle, impossible to swim.  She also talks about choking out the fish, frogs & turtles, and the mats hold in the heat so the temperature rises.  One acre can become 100 acres the next year.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FSj2C-IX-A


========
More info from the US Department of Agriculture: 
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/aquatics/waterchestnut.shtml#.UHrV6hjaizQ

RESEARCH - MUSKRATS

I really don't know much about the muskrats, so I decided to spend some time researching the info I can find.  Here's some of the random interesting information I located.  (I've created a list of muskrat, otter, etc. websites below, right.)

INFO THAT I HAVE GLEANED FROM WATCHING OUR CRITTERS & FROM EARLIER READING:

• Muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) are marsh animals, rodents, herbivores (although they will eat some clams/mussels and fish). 
• They have rodent type teeth (think rabbit or mouse or guinea pig)
• The Native Americans called them, musquash.
• They live in dens on the shore of the pond or lake and often will make a small lodge out of vegetation, smaller than a beaver lodge.  Sometimes they will take over old beaver lodges.  
• Muskrats are often hunted for their pelts.  
• They eat "clean" food and make a good dinner. Their meat is often sold as "marsh rabbit".  
• They swim really fast and leave a wake!  They propel themselves with their huge back feet and their tails.  Sometimes the tail comes up out of the water, but often you can't see it.  The water in front of the muskrat's muzzle is often churned up and looks silvery and as if the animal is carrying something.  
• They can carry large chunks of vegetation, like the water chestnuts I have seen, and long grasses.

========
From a Cleveland  Museum of Natural History flier called, "Muskrat's Lodge" www.cmnh.org/site/Files/SRCenter/Muskrat.pdf, comes the following info:

Muskrat: Muskrats (Ondatra zibethica) are excellent swimmers, spending their entire life near water. They are closely related to the small mouse-like voles, but are much larger. They average a length of l8-26 inches, including their 10-inch long, slightly flattened, rat-like tail. Typically, they weigh two to four pounds when fully grown. Natural enemies of the Muskrat include the mink, birds of prey, wolf, coyote and fox.

(According to the Wikipedia article,  young muskrats are also prey for otters and snapping turtles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat)

  Muskrat’s Habitat & Range: The muskrat creates its lodge or burrow in the shallow water of ponds or lakes and also in hollows in the banks of streams and rivers.  Cattail stalk chips and leaves are mixed with mud to help bind the walls and the dome of its lodge together.  The home is secured against enemies by having the entrance below the water surface, with the dome projecting two to three feet above the water level. Hawks, owls, eagles, wolves and coyotes are, therefore, unlikely to capture the Muskrat its young while inside its lodge.

Muskrats flourish throughout the USA and Canada; only the very southernmost areas of this country are without this animal.

Muskrat’s Diet & Nesting: The roots and stalks of cattails are the Muskrat’s principal food source. They also eat fish, clams and other swamp plants.
A pair of Muskrats produce several litters of young each season. Each brood varies in number from two to nine.

========
A really interesting page about muskrats comes from Bob Arnebeck 
http://bobarnebeck.com/muskrats.htm
Some of the things that struck me as interesting [stuff in brackets are my comments]: 

• When you see clam shells neatly opened on the shore, it was probably a muskrat that ate it.  Beavers and otters are less patient and break the shells.  [We have clam shells like that on our pond landing!]
• [Hmmm... I'm also learning that beavers are more active at night.  Perhaps that is what we are hearing when sitting on the porch in the dark pre-dawn.]
• Speaking of sounds, "Muskrats make an eerie whistling sound when they are stalking each other."  And, like a beaver, it can use its tail to make a splashing noise when it dives.  [I haven't seen that. When diving, I've only seen a smooth entry.]
• "Where I live along the St. Lawrence River, wildlife biologists have been talking about how essential muskrats are in controlling the spread of cattails. Like much scientific argument in our day this one involves the complex interplay of water levels, fish spawning and muskrat proliferation. In my experience, cattails are not the favorite food of muskrats, nor have I observed them limiting their spread. That said, though they might not be essential in righting bad things humans have done to the environment, like the oversilting of river banks from run off than can favor cattail proliferation, the muskrat does its part in keeping ponds and river banks from getting choked with plants"   [I should email him and ask if he has ever seen them eating water chestnuts!]

Mr. Arnebeck also has pictures comparing muskrats, beaver, otter and mink on his otter page:
http://bobarnebeck.com/otters/index.html

======= "...Muskrats can 'eat out' a marsh area... They are reported to eat up to one-third of their weight per day and destroy much more vegetation than they eat."  Hmmm... how does this relate to our family who are eating water chestnuts!
http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/techrpt/84-09.pdf

=======
I'm talking a lot about water chestnuts in these blogs.  Some of you may not really know which plant they are; I didn't know until about 2 years ago.  You can find a great picture of the plant, flower and seed at: 
http://www.massnature.com/Plants/Herbs/waterchestnut.htm

=======
What else do you know or have you seen?  Any other websites to add to the list?
Let me know. Tomorrow's blog will have more about water chestnuts.

MUSKRAT WITH WATER CHESTNUT, HARVESTER VIDEO

Monday, October 1, 2012 

     Three times, now, I’ve seen a muskrat bringing home a water chestnut plant!

I’ve zoomed in on my picture, so it is a bit fuzzy, but if you look carefully, you will see there is brown under that plant!  Now if we can just convince them that the spring plants are tender and delicious…

They were busy this morning – back and forth, back and forth, but I only saw the one bringing home anything.  Wonder if they chew it up and carry it in their mouths?  Looking at them swim, it looks like they have something, but it turns out to be just the water roiling up in front of them.  Mostly they go one at a time.  Today, one went out and was over there a LONG time messing in what is left of the water chestnuts.  A second one went over and very shortly both came back.  Hmmm.  ("Junior, you get home right this very minute!!")  This picture shows both of them.

Lots of hawk calling today; there were more than one of them around.  I was looking for the hawk on the north side of the pond when one called from right behind me!  But up close, this does not look like a red-tail!  Any thoughts?  Immature? 

As you know, and as you can see in the opening picture of the video below, we have had a very green pond; the water chestnuts have been a REAL problem this year.  By May, it wasn't much fun paddling, and in June, I couldn't get through them without a great deal of work! Thankfully, by this time of year (autumn), the paddling is good again because the plants are starting to die off and drop to the bottom of the pond (and of course, the muskrats have been busy!).  However, any seeds that were on the plants have fallen off and been nicely planted to grow next year.

Ann Kirk organized a community pull to start working on the problem.  (Follow the link for the Town Crier article and pictures of the event.)  We had over three dozen people helping out and many boats out on the water.  But, alas, all our work barely made a dent.

The harvester that was contracted for Carding Mill Pond wasn't needed there, so was brought in to Stearns Mill Pond. It accomplished a lot at the dam end of the pond, but couldn’t get very far down here in the center and at the up stream end – too shallow.  The plan for next year is to try to raise the dam for a while so the harvester can get further in and then do the community pull after the harvester finishes so that we can clear out the invasive weeds that the machine can't get.  Here is a short video of the harvester at work.  Pretty cool!  (Thanks, Ann!)

July 12, 2012

 

 So, what have you seen and experienced on our pond?  Leave a comment about your experiences.