A beautiful early summer day with low humidity, temperatures in the high seventies, plenty of sun and a light breeze; actually paradisical. Camera Girl is watching over the pond I built for her and has filled it with various water plants, gold fish, minnows, frogs and snakes from the surrounding environs and the various “pond supply stores” that traffic in such things. For a while she was very uneasy because she had not seen any of the fish for a whole week and assumed that the local raccoons had fished them out overnight. But the real reason she couldn’t see them was because they were hiding in the murky depths of the pond. And they were doing that because they’re stupid fish. But once she started feeding them at a regular hour, they would arrive en masse to gorge on the putrid pellets that the pet store assured us was nectar and ambrosia for these same piscine recluses.
But interestingly the frogs really are AWOL. I attribute this to the warmer weather we’ve had for the last week or two. My pond must be several degrees warmer than the water in the swamp and they probably enjoy that temperature at this time of year. But I’m sure they’ll come and go once they start finding insects and other invertebrates taking up residence in the new watering hole.
As for the snakes, I found an immature northern water snake and an immature Eastern garter snake around the yard and chucked them in the water last week. The water snake stuck around for a couple of days but the garter left after an hour or so. They’ll also come and go as prey species appear. I’m hoping the water snake population discovers this pond and makes it a permanent part of their range because they can prey on the gold fish and keep the numbers stable. Plus, they’re fun to see around a pond. They’re nasty creatures to handle. They love to bite anyone careless enough to leave flesh within range of their jaws and they also defecate on anyone holding them. And since fish is the main part of their diet this fluid is extremely offensive smelling. So, they’re much better as wild inhabitants of the pond than as pets.
The turkeys wandered through the yard again last week and stopped by the pond for a drink. Although I couldn’t imagine drinking that water. Then again, I couldn’t imagine drinking the water in the swamp but all of the wildlife in this area; bears, coyotes, foxes, otters, weasels, beavers, raccoons, opossums and birds of all kinds drink nothing else and seem to survive unscathed. But despite this I still feel they’d easily learn to prefer cold seltzer as I do. But I guess it takes all kinds.
Currently the only critter I haven’t managed to find and fling in the puddle is the Eastern red-spotted newt. I usually see this around the yard but none have come my way since I built the pond so it’ll have to wait until chance accommodates my plan. Of course, the goldfish may not play nice with the newts when the former start achieving size. I could see the little fellows getting inhaled by these fancy carp. But as Camera Girl always says, “Everybody’s gotta eat.” But what about Hannibal Lecter?