DAWN PADDLE

Chilly, misty morning on the pond - 39º according to two of the weather apps (I forget to look at our thermometers...).  I also forgot to take my binoculars, so couldn't see what the ducks were, but I know the wood ducks are starting to gather.  Morning sightings include a great blue heron, a muskrat, a kingfisher and an unknown hawk.  Perhaps a red-shouldered?  It was a buteo, not an accipiter, but looked too small, with too short a tale for a red-tail, but I'm not really good at identifying the red-shouldered.  In any case, it was gorgeous flying through the blue sky!

There is a bird's nest, larger than a robin, but not huge like a hawk, built on some branches of a tree leaning over the water.  

Location of nest on branch over water

closeup

I'm thinking maybe one of the grackles that I frequently saw down by the water, or I suppose a red-winged blackbird or even a blue jay?  I don't know enough about nests. Cool to look at, though!

OWLS & OTHER SOUNDS BEFORE DAWN

We've been getting up really early, about an hour before dawn, and sitting on the porch with a cup of tea or coffee. The morning sounds are wonderful. Crickets abound.  Some days it's been too cold for Katydids, but others, we'll heard one, very slowly "KT".  They are temperature sensitive and the calls get slower and slower as it gets colder.  The Katydids die at the frost.  

Apparently, you can tell the temperature by counting the calls per minute (I'm not sure if that means syllables or the whole call & I can't find it anywhere -- ex: if it is cold, you will hear, "Kay....... Ty"  or sometimes just the "Kay" part!)  Anyway, here is the formula presented by the Hilton Pond Center, York, S.Carolina, http://www.hiltonpond.org/thisweek010901.html
(I like the closing comment <grin>)

• T=(C+161)/3, with T being the Temperature and C the number of calls per minute. This won't work in winter, of course, since all the stridulating katydids will be dead, so unless you're a classroom teacher helping students with math skills, maybe it would just be easier to buy a new thermometer.   
  

I think we have the Common True Katydids here.  They like oak trees (which makes our neighborhood a good habitat!)

Several days ago we heard two great horned owls calling to each other. The next day we heard two screech owls alternating calls. The day after that, we heard a barred owl across the pond, and a bit later also heard a screech owl from the other side of the pond.

The owls seem to be out and calling just a bit after five which is about an hour before sunrise. Later, the great blue heron squawks. Yesterday, we heard the Heron three times from the dam end of the pond, and once from upstream further. 

Morning is not quiet around here!

HARVESTING PROGRESS

Chris Wilson is the operator who has been maneuvering the harvester up and down the pond daily since he and a team of others put it in last week Monday.  As I said in my last post, I was concerned about whether or not the work we had done with the hand pulling the water chestnuts in June would have lasted - it did. 

Pull-a-thon in June

  
I was also concerned about whether or not the nuts would be falling off as the harvester hit the weeds, it being rather late in the summer.  When I checked the nuts last week, they were still tightly attached.  All has been going well!

I went out yesterday to see what the area up stream from us looked like; before the harvester it was totally matted -- below is a picture of what it looked like in early June and by early August, there was no thought of trying to paddle through it!

 









NOW, post harvester, it looks like this!!

Nice, eh?  

Katrina Scheiner and 5 students have been working in canoes to pull the weeds from the edges where the harvester can't reach (the device needs at least two feet of water).  The town DPW has also worked on the this project, helping with the launching of the harvester, moving the harvested weeds, building up the dam, etc. (Thank you Bill Place and crew!)  The dam has a strip of metal across the top of it and sand bags where the breaks are in the lower part of the dam, consequently, the water is a bit over a foot higher than it usually is.  What great paddling last night!!  With the extra water and no weeds, Linda and I (& Blake) were able to paddle all the way to the mouth of the brook, right down the center, without getting stuck in mud!  If you love to paddle our pond, right now is a terrific time to do it.  

So here is the bad news.  The harvester broke down again (it has broken several times this summer).  Chris is quite adept at repairs, but this time it has to go in to the shop again.  Too bad, cuz I think with the last three scheduled days this week, he could have gotten to some of the edges that are still weed choked.

There is also a long term goal to be able to have the pond dredged, which would help get rid of not only the mud, but also the extra phosphorus and other excessive nutrients deposited in the water from the Marlborough Easterly Waste Water Treatment Plant.  You know all the slime on top of the pond?  It is an algae called, "Hydrodictyon" or "water net" and feeds on phosphorus.  If the phosphorus levels are where they should be, (.1mg/liter) the water net (slime) dies.  More that that and it thrives, as it is now.  Of course, the other problem with too much phosphorus and too many weeds is that the extra plant life uses up the oxygyn in the water, so that the fish die.  If the fish are gone, the herons, king fishers and other fish eating birds go away and essentially, the pond dies.

The other green stuff floating on the pond is duckweed (the plant with little, tiny leaves). As you look at the pond from the dam area off Dutton, it still looks pretty bad; that is duckweed and water net, not the water chestnuts; they have mostly been being harvested.

Duckweed and water net algae

We also have other invasive weeds, particularly evident upstream, near the mouth of the brook.  These too, would be eradicated by dredging.  So, there is hope for the health of our little pond and for the whole Hop Brook system and the Sudbury River (Hop Brook empties into the Sudbury River).

A big thanks to all who have helped and particularly, the Hop Brook Protection Association for its work to cleanup and preserve our pond and the whole Brook. HBPA has done a great deal of fundraising and grant writing to get enough money to take care of the problems, a small example being, HBPA paid the $1850 to move the harvester from Carding Mill Pond over to Stearns Mill Pond. (If you aren't a member, consider going to the website and joining/making a donation.  It matters.)

POND HARVESTER

The harvester is here and working near the dam end of the pond to clear away the water chestnuts.  The water level in the pond is quite low (normal for August), so I hope that they are able to build the addition on the top of the dam to raise the water level a bit.  

There is also a group of several college students, interns, who are working in canoes and pulling weeds from the sides where the harvester can't maneuver.  I was concerned that the pulling we did in the spring would be negated by the spreading chestnuts, but the  sides of the pond are still mostly clear where we worked in June, so that is good!  We can look forward to an improved pond soon!

There was a flock of Cedar Waxwings eating the bugs off of the water chestnut mats last evening.  Quite a few of them were there - more than usual, I think.

OF KATYDIDS AND BULLFROGS

Two critters I feel I'll never be able to photograph!  They are too elusive.  How many of you have actually seen either the bullfrog or the katydid??  Heard them, sure, but seen them?  For your edification, I've found two pictures:

from Encyclopedia Britannica online

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/bullfrog.htm

Hmm... they kinda look alike!

Anyway, what brought me to this is that the katydids are singing at night now, joining the bullfrog chorus. The acorns have started to fall, and I even see some red leaves on the dogwood tree.  I guess fall is coming. Where did the summer go? 

We've been gone, so although we've paddled, I haven't been on our pond much.   Here in the center, the pond is kind of scummy.  I assume that upstream, the water chestnuts are still matted across the width of the  pond.  Hopefully the harvester will start work soon!

Has anyone seen the otters?

WALKING THE DOG

(If you are looking for info about the Stearns Mill Pond weed pull this weekend, go to the June 9th entry.  Thanks for taking an interest!  Hope to see you there.)

Having to go out and walk the dog several times a day, is truly a blessing. Probably only those of us walking dogs along this road have seen this beautiful lady slipper.

Why do I say that?  As any dog owner knows, we spend a lot of time staring at the side of the road while the dog sniffs. We also look at the side of the road to make sure there's no poison ivy where the dog is going.  Want to know where the poison ivy is?  Ask a dog walker.

What other daily pursuit has you out walking in every kind of weather, good and bad. Hmmm, yes, even during the hurricane.  That one wasn't so much fun.  "Okay Blake, we're gonna run to the end of the driveway, then turn around and walk back.  So, do you thing--FAST!". 

Yesterday morning I saw a deer in the fingers of dawn.  Last night I heard a bird that I didn't recognize and had never heard before. It almost sounded like a screech owl but not quite. I wonder if it is an immature, fledgling screech owl trying out its voice?  A couple days ago Linda & I saw a little bit of down, or fluff of some sort, on the hole where the screech was seen earlier this spring. Perhaps they did have a nest there and the chicks have fledged.

Last week in one of the rainstorms, I put on my rain jacket, rain pants and my hat and took Blake for a walk. It actually was quite lovely to be out in the rain. A runner was coming down the hill toward me and I said to her, "People who don't get wet, don't know what they are missing."  She replied, "You got that right!"

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!