F R E S H W A T E R P O N D
A tight, interdependent little community sharing
a small body of water that doesn't quickly go away.
Each animal is both predator and prey, an unknowing
participant in a self-sustaining cycle of nutrients,
a cycle of life, first by devouring another and then
by becoming a meal for someone else.
This is not survival of the fittest.
This is simply fate for the living.
B L U E D A S H E R w i t h W A T E R M I T E S
This brightly colored male dragonfly should be at
his prime, getting fat eating all the tasty insects
arriving at the pond... as though they were
checking in to a resort for a five star makeover.
Sure, coming right up.
You're gone so quick
you don't know you're gone.
That's dragonfly normal. Just like the training manual
described. But your belly is festooned with a couple
hundred parasitic larvae. You're exhausted. Out of sorts.
And just sluggish enough to be snatched and devoured
by a patrolling perch. Your nutrients are passed along
to another. Crisp on the outside, thick and gooey
on the inside. It has a delightful larval topping.
Like caviar.
Y E L L O W P E R C H
Excellent flavor. We farm them by the tens of thousands.
They aren't going anywhere. They are a fish fry staple.
Gills and scales commercially farmed like chickens.
They aren't exposed to what lurks in the dark, still waters
of a grassland pond. Here the story gets even more
precarious.
Ponds are isolated patches of water that change
with the seasons. They are found where the ground
is too hard for the water to be absorbed or it dips
into the surrounding water table.
Water evaporates and ponds periodically run dry.
It could be months, even years, before rain restores
the ponds and life returns.
Who returns? How could frogs and fish
possibly survive this drought? No water.
No food. No oxygen.
It's amazing what a line of animals can adapt to
given a million years of trying.
B U L L F R O G
Up to eight inches long and over a pound in weight.
That's as big as any native frog gets in North America.
These guys are famous for their deep, resonate croak.
They work together with crickets to create that
good old country, nighttime melody.
This is a male frog. Look at that eardrum behind his ear.
It's huge. The female eardrums are about half this size.
They both sit like buddhas on a lily pad... motionless,
waiting. A dead bluegill floats belly-up nearby.
It's smell of decay is a delicious scent to a passing
fly. It pauses and hovers to investigate. Snap!
The frog's elastic tongue-like appendage snares the fly
in 0.07 of one second. Impossibly fast.
Faster than a speeding bullet.
The bullfrog spends his summer days
at the pool, sunning his pleasant self,
leisurely sweeping up insects as though
they were hors d'oeuvres, featured with
cocktails, in the lobby at four.
N O R T H E R N W A T E R S N A K E
No eggs. They give birth to their young live. A litter of
twenty or more squirming babies is not unusual.
They become hefty with size - big boned thick
as adults. They favor frogs, salamanders and
fish of every description for food.
They aren't poisonous and, unless cornered,
they prefer running over fighting.
You live longer.
It makes sense for a water snake to not lay eggs.
Where's the land? Eggs can't breath in water.
Eggs are food for herons and raccoons.
They wouldn't stand a chance left alone.
No, the strategy for this snake's young
are like that of the jackrabbit. From day one
its basically scatter and hide.
M A R S H W R E N
They kill the young ones of birds that dare to nest
near them. The male is always building new nests,
anywhere from six to over twenty, during the
course of the breeding season. The female choses
one, lining it with something soft and comfortable.
The remaining nests become bachelor pads
and places to strut about.
R A C C O O N
Trash panda. They love your leftovers.
And for greater convenience they can nest
in the attic. Masked bandit. You are a pest
to them. Always getting in their way.
The good news is they prowl around at night
eating mice and insects. They prefer living alone.
Raccoons have been introduced to other habitats
globally. Invasive species generally disrupt
the area as uninvited guests to the table.
They wipe out native species that better
fit the balance of nature.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
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