LOOK AGAIN AT THE POND

You are seeing Ruppia Maritima leaves which are about 4-11 cm long, Fruits about 2.3 x 1.5 mm, on individual stalks, about 5-35 mm long, their common stalk about 10-25 mm long. Note that the stalks lengthen while the fruit is forming. In flower the carpels, which later become the fruits are not individually stalked and are shared between just 2 flowers, each of which has 2 stamens and no petals or sepals. Other features are that it forms mats in saltmarsh pools which are fed by both fresh and bay water. Leaves thread-like, 1 mm wide, toothed near the tip only.
Perhaps I have given you more information than you really wanted to know, nevertheless, you need to know that environmentalist are very excited about our grass growing in the pond.
Too many people have no access to this information so it is up to all of you enlightened ones to inform the rest of the people that think that something is wrong with our pond. Today, if we tried to remove the green on the top of the pond we would also pull up the grasses growing on the bottom leaving the pond a muddy mess. Please be patient and look beyond the top. Look into the clear water and see the happy little fishes with big smiles on their little faces.
Many thanks from the rest of the fishes, turtles, and birds that live and survive because of these grasses.
Daphne, AKA Fundulus Diaphanous or
Banded Killifish, Your pond queen

The all knowing Great Blue Heron has sent the following message to Daphne....

Daphne, if you would sit still for a few minutes, I can tell you a little about your living room.

The gunk floating on top of the water is filamentous algae that usually lies on the bottom or on top of plants. Because the water level was so much higher earlier in the year there is more algae then then was room and a lot of it just floated to the surface. It provides home to a lot of creatures that hide in there and it blocks the sun so that algae that live in the water does not become excessive.

On land most of the plants that we see have roots and leaves, the roots get nutrients from the ground and the leaves combine the energy from the sun with the nutrients from the roots to make more plant material. In the pond environment, plants have more opportunities to vary their shape. Some plants remain very small and are only one cell. This small size allows them to take up nutrients very quickly, we call these one celled plants phytoplankton. Other cells can band together into long chains and these we call filamentous algae. The filaments can get quite long and can break off and float to the surface. Other plants have roots and leaves and we call these guys submerged aquatic grasses or SAV. Actually they are not really grasses, they are more closely related to lillies, but people call them grasses. All three forms live in some sort of balance in the water that we don't really understand but has to do with the amount and types of nutrients in the water. If there is a lot of readily available nutrients we can get algae blooms where the water will be green. If less nutrients are available, the SAV would be dominant and the water remains very clear.

Where do the nutrients come from? We have a lot of chicken farms in the area and dust from the farms carries a lot of nitrogen that falls as rain or simply as dust. Keep in mind that the pond used to be part of the marsh before it was filled. There is a lot of nutrients in the mud which gets released during the year. The mud is several feet thick so there is a lot available.

Think I'll stop now, you can go, but let me know if you have any more questions.

Biggie Blue

OH, FOR GOODNESS SAKE
She says as she throws up her hand in pure exasperation! There he was sitting on the bench doing a crossword puzzle while enjoying the pond and the sunshine. Vera, who has never met a stranger greeted him with the usual formalities His reply; "isn't this "lake" a mess! I thought they were going to do something about it. What's all that stuff on the top? And, how come the name is Walker's Pond? What did he ever do to get a pond named after him?' Vera was almost nonplused to think that this pond could be this misunderstood after all of this time.
First, Vera explained that the pond was not named for one person, but for all the people that walked the path, even someone that walked there to do a crossword puzzle. WALKERS POND This made the man smile to think a pond was named for him. She then went on to explain that what we were seeing on top was a natural occurrence; this is, after all a pond, not a swimming pool. As for "they" not doing anything, she pointed out the new shoreline and the plants that just recently had been planted. She told him to look deeper into the water and see the little fishes swimming. The poor man even listened to a history of how the pond came to be in the first place.
As Vera and her dog walked off the man said he couldn't wait to tell everyone what he found out today.
Just so you don't forget just how bad the pond was I'm posting before and after pictures for your enlightenment. The pond water was so bad it was actually bubbling. Today, the water is clean for all of us fishes, we have grass in which to hide and life in a pond is good.
Daphne

FALL HOUSE CLEANING
Did you know that Purple Martins are very particular and will not return to their house if it isn't clean? There are six apartments in our houses. The one house had four apartments that had been occupied, but take a good look at the one; that's one nest, so large it pushed the sides out of the other apartments.
Frank and Dotty Guillen do the house keeping every year. The old nests are removed and the houses are scrubbed. It's a good thing there aren't any windows because Dotty would be polishing them too. Those Purple Martins are a sight to behold when they swarm in to eat those flying bugs in the spring.
Thank you Frank and Dotty!