Here’s my photo showing five clusters of eggs attached to a piece of dead vegetation. New evidence would come on April 1 when Dana saw eggs, not in the reflecting pool, but in the mini pool. It might have an abundance of scum but it lacks the soft, mucky bottom that I associate with salamander breeding pools.
Though we were hoping for more signs, the reflecting pool didn’t feel like a salamander nursery. Spotted Salamander in Reflecting Pool, March 18, 2022 People seldom observe these marvelous animals except during March and April when they emerge from woodland burrows for the trek to their vernal pool breeding ground. This individual was, apparently, out and about for mating season. Adults average about six inches and have much heftier bodies. Spotted salamanders are far larger than the common red-backed salamanders that inhabit Massachusetts’ woodlands. On March 18 of this year, my coworker Dana photographed a spotted salamander in the reflecting pool. That is quite a parade of frogs! But there’s more to the story. He/she visited a while but was soon superseded by an American bullfrog. I expected to see the green frog back in place this year but, instead, discovered an American toad in early April. This feature distinguishes it from a bullfrog. Note that ridge running from its eye, along its back, and towards the hind leg. Here it is concealed against its mossy background. By July, 2021 and throughout most of last summer, a green frog took up residence. This took a moment, for the gray treefrog is a very well-camouflaged critter that closely resembles gray lichen. I followed the sound and found the frog sitting on the pool’s retaining wall. They were recently singing in the garden and will continue to do so whenever the weather is sultry. It first attracted my attention when I heard a gray treefrog singing in that direction. Yet, this seemingly insignificant body of water, just 8 x 3 feet, conceals some surprises. and, what purpose on earth do those wires serve? Was the pool aerated? Did it have a fountain? Nearby is a neglected little concrete pool that is all but invisible, being wedged between the sloping lawn and a small boxwood hedge.įilled with decaying leaves and wind-blown trash, this water feature isn’t much to look at.
#Dragonfly larvae in pool free#
Numerous small flies - they don't surviveĭragonflies fly low over the pool very often, but most of them don't touch the surface and don't drown.Most visitors to the Ames Free Library know and love Queset Garden’s reflecting pool which is a lovely spot to visit in all seasons.Īs we’ve previously noted, the reflecting pool supports a robust population of American toad tadpoles throughout the spring. Moth caterpillars, which fall in from the London Plane trees Small yellowish, dappled scarab-type beetles which fall from the London Plane trees Here is a casual list of animals that I have found in that pool over the last 10 years:īlue-winged Wasp - three times this summer I try to rescue all the wildlife that I find in the pool. I brought the wasp home in a drink container so I could take some (not very good) photos of it before releasing it. Today there was a large, mostly black wasp in the pool with iridescent blue-black wings (kindly ID'ed a few hours later by as the Blue-winged Wasp). Until today, my only iNaturalist record from the pool water was a male horntail, which I carried home in my pool shoe, so I could photograph it.
But I discovered accidentally that some of the larger-bodied insects can recover and "come back to life" if they are fished out of the pool and left in the sun to dry out for 10 or 15 minutes. We are not allowed to take electronics onto the pool deck, otherwise I would record more insect observations from there.Ī lot of insects fall into the pool or are knocked into the pool, and most of them drown. The pool is almost-olympic-sized, close to the East River, and surrounded by trees. Each summer for a little more than two months, I go every day to run laps for an hour in the city pool at the end of my street in Manhattan.
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