Vernal Ponds

Vernal ponds appear to be everywhere around here. Tonight I went to a training on monitoring a vernal pool at the Hartley Nature Center which is a ten minute drive from my house. I was one of 20 people in attendance. Vernal pools are bodies of water less than an acre in size that are wet in the spring and dry in the fall. Vernal pools are full of baby insects that live here because they are safe from being eaten by fish. Some are eaten by birds. Fairy shrimp, bright orange pool creatures, live only in vernal pools. They lay their eggs that sink to the bottom of the pond. The eggs need a dry season in order to hatch the following spring. Some fairy shrimp eggs are eaten by migratory birds like warblers. Later the eggs pass through the digestive system of the migratory bird. If the eggs is dropped in a place that becomes a vernal pool in the spring, they can hatch in the new pool. Wow, such resilience!

I volunteered to monitor two pools at Hartley and to check for fairy shrimp, mosquito larvae, and other creatures. We have to note if there is any sphagnum moss in the area. Hartley has no sphagnum moss.

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We had to walk ten minutes uphill to get to this vernal pool that is loaded with wood frogs and fairy shrimp. The fairy shrimp are just now hatching. The wood frogs haven't started calling yet. This was quite the hike for me dressed in my bog boots and frog toggs rain gear. The younger people in the group were just wearing normal shoes and clothes. Whatever, it was raining and I stayed dry.