May 4-7, 2010 Visit – More seedlings planted
On the weekend before this visit, Sharp’s Fork overflowed and flooded much of the pasture. The water had receded by Monday, but there was a thin deposit of silt where the flooding occurred. There was no real damage. It may be that this flooding may have cleared out some of the debris in Sharp’s Fork. The water was quite muddy on Wednesday, but, by Thursday, the water was clear again. Much of the pasture bottom has standing water.
The temperature on Wednesday was 96 degrees, Thursday was 85 degrees, Friday was 76 degrees. Not typical May weather.
On this trip, I planted the 700 Red Maple seedlings that I heeled in on the last visit. I decided to plant these where the previous year’s Sycamore and Swamp White Oak planting totally failed. The Red Maple seedlings from last year look much better. Planting was difficult; the wet soil stuck to the planting bar.
At This point, I still have 700 Sycamore and 700 Swamp White Oak seedlings heeled in.
The Canada geese have one gosling. Once, while I was walking around the pond, I disturbed the parents so that they swam out from the cattails. After they had gone about fifty feet, they realized junior wasn’t there. They turned around and both honked loudly, junior swam out from the cattails as fast as he could. A small happy moment to remember.
The other surprise was finding a 13″ snapping turtle sunning on the dam. We have had, for many years, two or three snapping turtles in Sharp’s Fork which is a small river about 1500 feet east and 200 downhill from the pond. Sharp’s Fork overflows several times each year and I surmise that the turtle got washed into the pasture and wandered into the pond. Now there is only one lonely turtle in Sharp’s Fork.
Green Frogs have found the pond. At night, spring peepers and tree frogs are very loud.
A Great Blue Heron and a Little Blue Heron seem to be regular visitors. Many Red Wing Blackbirds are nesting in the pasture.
