Near twilight I decided to walk the Tree Loop, starting along the east leg to see how the larger Woods have done over the past six weeks. The Tree Loop is now more overgrown in a healthy way. Fine roots growing into soil, seeds from annuals produced. Wildlife with a rest from heavier human traffic. As I began I found one of the heavy blister beetles, Meloe, with swollen abdomen. Curious why they are often found on cool autumn or winter days, out exploring when the rest of the natural world of invertebrates is shutting down. Some dragonflies are out now, libellulids, probably males, hovering over trails as if they have found a small stream. They seem like a mistake of biology to be out now with colder days coming. Maybe a form of 'bet-hedging' ready to mate and reproduce if warm days should by any chance continue.
The northwest pond has been reborn and is now a small pool perhaps 30' in diameter. I am sure it dried down to nothing in the past dry weeks of October. Wonder what happened to the life in the pond when it dried. Might there be some species that can survive in a form of suspended life, torpor, etc? Small Gambusia? immature dragonfly nymphs? frog tadpoles? snails? This would be interesting to track because the NW pond often will go for a few years without any complete dry down.
No comments:
Post a Comment