4PM. I haven't been awake very long and this is my first time outside since I got in from work this morning. It is hot with a mild breeze. Although I have other things to do, I can see Bill working on the pond and it is like a magnet to me. He has just finished mowing the flat top of the berm and I have trimmed about 1/4 of the inner edge and outer bank using clippers and a weed-eater. My recent plantings have a few new leaves - I would guess a sign of life - but none of the seeds or bulb plants have surfaced. This is the best time, and the worst. Most of May and June will be manicure, trim and remove debris. The visual rewards are still a few months away, but then they last almost until Winter.
Last week a friend of Bill's brought a big mound of frog eggs which they placed in some reeds near the waterfall spill-way. Those were a bird feast within a few hours. This week he brought tadpoles, so, maybe. Bill has tried to introduce frogs into the pond for the past two years, but nothing yet. The year before last he placed two adult frogs (leopard?) in some reeds on the West bank, and we never saw them again. Occasionally as we are walking around the pond we will hear a splash as something hits the water in the reeds, and Bill thinks it is one of those frogs, but I once saw a snake drop into the water from the bank and it made the same sound.
About the local snakes - I don't actually even like the subject, but they are an element of this ecological situation.
There is a large variety of local snakes, mostly harmless to humans, but the one of concern to everyone is the rattlesnake. They are common here and I have seen them often throughout my life. And, although there are times when I am more cautious than others, (dense weeds, piles of rocks/boards/junk, old structures), they have never been a limiting factor. I have hiked and camped throughout the entire region without a lot of concern. The community where I live is a small collection of structures (less than 300) set in a large prairie. Snakes and all other wildlife pretty much pass through constantly. Every summer someone or several people will find a rattlesnake in the yard, in the garage or carport, or on one of the roads in town. We live on the Southeast edge of the community and there is an open pasture for miles beyond our yards. Snakes are just here and we are always watching for them, even if we aren't always aware that we are.
In the two years before he put the pond in, Bill lost two of his dogs to rattlesnakes. He also saw several others on his land. During that time I once found a Western whip snake in my kitchen, it apparently came in through the dog door, and a few days later found a rattlesnake outside my back door looking like it might be attempting to enter the dog door. I just removed the harmless snake, but killed the rattlesnake before I could even think about it.
It would seem that introducing a pond into an area where every animal is always searching for water would be asking for trouble with snakes. So far this isn't true. For the past three years a Grey Owl, what could be a pair of Kestrels, a Cooper's Hawk, and two ragged looking Roadrunners have lived in the trees beside the pond and hunt almost daily. Their predation is supplemented by a steady stream of other hunters passing through and munching on each other, all of which combines to makes us more "snake free" than we ever have been. The same general thing seems to have happened to the mosquitoes. Before the pond was here there seemed to be plenty around. Now there are so many birds hunting that they don't stand a chance.
Before total darkness I watered the new plants and checked the aeration system (we have to supplement the aeration process because the water-fall is a fill line, it doesn't recirculate).