SPRING CLEANUP - A MUST FOR KEEPING OUR POND FLOURSHING - and POSSIBLE, YOURS AS WELL!

While checking out a recent Feathered Friends post that I had published several days ago, I went to see if anyone had stopped by recently, and there was @melinda010100.
She had stopped by earlier and as is her way, she put a smile on my face.

During this unexpected visit, she brought along some BIG NEWS,

"Try to do a Shadow Contest post this week for the OCD Contest. There will be 5 winners and the prizes are big!"
My reply to the always effervescent young lady was. "Thanks for the info, I've got something in mind already.

For the past several days I've been hobbitizing around the farm pond and had already been snapping away and coming up with some ideas for a post.

As soon as I got the news from my friend, I knew that what I was already putting together would blend seamlessly with the requirements of the contest she had brought to my attention.
Sometimes both @faqrm-mom and I wonder just how lost we would be without her ALWAYS having our back.

I intentionally snapped a few shadow photos during this day's activities. My intention was to do a shadow blog and use the majority of the material centering around the title of this blog.

Here is one of those pictures that I was going to use in a Shadow Hunters post, but now it will serve a dual purpose.

I know, I know, enough with the explaining, but a certain person deserves some props.
I also think that just maybe your patience will be well worth it, so here we go.

There is no sidestepping the reality that PONDS ARE BORN TO DIE, because, over time, all ponds experience natural succession and eutrophication.

succession: unidirectional change in the composition of an ecosystem as the available competing organisms and especially the plants respond to and modify the environment
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/succession
eutrophication: the process by which a body of water becomes enriched in dissolved nutrients (such as phosphates) that stimulate the growth of aquatic plant life usually resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eutrophication

This aging process can vary in time from 25-100 years.
Maintaining a healthy pond for as long as possible is much like taking care of yourself, it takes some time and effort!

Ponds and lakes are going to age. Succession and eutrophication are natural parts of the process, but both can be delayed and controlled by properly managing the quality of the pond water. The following factors will determine just how long your pond remains a healthy body of water.

• nutrient load, simply put, how many nutrients are finding their way into the freshwater, either from fertilizers or decaying vegetation.
• aquatic plant growth, you can see how this factor would be tied directly to nutrient load.
  Too much nutrient content, too many weeds. Not enough nutrition and a #diverse #ecosystem, one capable of supporting all types of life, is impossible.
• wildlife control, keeping the ground around a pond free of animal and bird droppings, is a must. When it rains, any surface runoff will carry the droppings into the water and we all know that doesn't work.

The "trophic" state of a pond or lake generally refers to how much of an overall nutrient load it contains.

"Oligotrophic" means very little nutrient content, resulting in very little life.

"Eutrophic" is just the opposite, too much nutrient content. Eutrophic ponds are typically older,
full of aquatic plants, and shallow.

Striking just the right balance is what it's all about!

At the beginning of spring, shortly after the ice on the pond has melted, spring cleanup jumps right to the top of my hobbitational list.
The age of our pond is around 30 years old.
Caring for the pond as though it's just a rather large swimming pool, has been our way since it was dug.
Remember the term nutrient load, well here is a prime example of just that. Last year's cattails are decaying and will continue to dump their goods into the pond, if not removed.

The amount of dead vegetation at the water's edge is always shocking.

Removing all of the dead vegetation around the entire shoreline is a must. After raking the vegetation away from the edge of the pond, I pulled back the grass that has drooped into the water. This is when the weed wacker came in real handy. It made light work of cleaning up the edge.

The weather couldn't have been any nicer. With the temperature in the mid-60s and the sun warming me to my bones, I actually felt like one with nature. Shadows, as well as reflections, tickled my sense of vision.

Things are starting to look pretty good.

Some of the flying vegetation will get into the pond, and most of it will be removed with a net.

As the water settles, the clippings stay afloat, and the remnants from weed whacking will make their way to the edge of the pond. In this picture, you can see that at the far end of the pond, the mirror-like surface is clearing.
The direction I took the picture from would decide whether the surrounding wooded area would cast a shadow or produce a reflection. Either outcome was a beautiful addition to this stupendous day spent hobbitizing.

Talk about #reflections, this one is pretty cool, and it will be a lot cooler when some rumps are parked in the LOUNGE chairs. Come to think of it, my backside was lounging away in the chair all the way to the right, a few times. What do you think those extra cushions are there for.

This section of the pond took some serious hobbitizing to remove all of the dead plant life, but the effort was well worth it.
Lots of dead grass at this part of the pond, just waiting to make its way into the water.

Shadows come in all forms. On those wonderful partially cloudy days, shadows are cast, and only from the right vantage point can you see those enormous shadows decorate the landscape.

Whatever vegetation can't be netted, makes its way to the spillway.

The spillway serves two purposes, it ensures that water will not crest the banks of the pond, and it acts like a big pool skimmer.
Keeping the spillway in good working order is critical

During heavy rains and the melting of winter's snow, which produces heavy surface runoff, the spillway dumps hundreds of gallons over the edge, every minute,

taking with it any surface debris. 😁
I found this menagerie of shadows in the background and reflections in the foreground to be a little confusing, as my mind tried to make sense of it all.

During this time of year, Canadian Geese can be a problem. They are looking for a secluded area with a body of water nearby to have their hatchlings.

As I was making my way around the pond, while Spring cleaning, I was reminded that my efforts to maintain a healthy pond were in fact working.

Everywhere I looked there were signs of life.

Schools of pinhead bass darted back and forth in synchronicity. Looking closely, much of what you see at the shallow bottom are shadows from life above.

Salamanders were out in force.

The salamander looks like such an easy meal, but the fish seem to ignore them.

With the ice on the pond finally removing its lid, I could see fish all over the place, swimming near the surface in the warmth of the sun.

These two smallmouth bass were enjoying each other's company.

Fish were everywhere, I guess that after spending four months in darkness, sunlight was a welcome sight.

Aquatic insects are also an indicator of good water quality. These insects perform a variety of functions for your pond. Some will feed on other insects, dragonfly nymphs eat mosquito adults and larvae. Insects provide food for your fish, turtles, and frogs. Some insects help break down dead and decaying matter that might otherwise build-up at the bottom of your pond, accelerating its demise.

I know that many folks have low regard for insects, but they play a huge role at the bottom of the food web.

Water Striders, also nicknamed skater bugs, can be found all around the world. They spend their entire lives in the water. Because of their looks, many people mistake them for a mosquito, but they don’t bite and are harmless. As they skim about on the water’s surface, the Water Striders feed on living and dead insects as well as algae. They make a tasty treat for any fish, that is if the fish can catch them.

As large as a shadow that can be cast by a cloud, the shadow of the skater bug's leg is barely visible, or is that a reflection, it's hard to tell.

The black specks you see here are frog embryos suspended in the eggs' gelatinous mass.
Having frogs in a pond is very similar to having a cannery in a coal mine. Since frogs’ skin is permeable, these creatures are extremely sensitive to contaminants and changes in their aquatic habitats.
With my body I purposely cast a shadow over the very delicate batch of eggs, to ensure their wellbeing while out of the water.

In no time at all, hundreds of tadpoles will emerge from this mass. As the frog undergoes changes throughout its life cycle in a process known as metamorphosis,

a custodian of the pond is born and because of their sensitivity, they are considered a “sentinel” species, hence, the term, “canary in the coal mine.”

There's no other creature more important to a pond than this guy.

Dragonflies are also very sensitive to pollution and therefore tend to be found in areas with good water quality,

Our pond was dug overtop of a spring. In addition to the pond being feed by spring water, large volumes of surface runoff keep the pond brimming.

With the dense forest shadowing much of the ground under its dense canopy, the water making its way to the pond is always very cool and refreshing. Even on the hottest summer days the temperature of this precious #natural #resource barely gets into the mid-60s.

The natural watershed above the pond ensures that the surface runoff entering the pond is clean.

As the rainwater makes its way through the watershed, it runs down a channel I created when the pond was first dug. At the bottom of the ditch, I laid three parallel lines of 6" perforated tubing in the channel and then covered the tubing with 2 1/2 inch clear stone. When this channel was initially constructed, the stone was in clear view, from the woods line to the pond. As the water makes its way to the pond, the sediment it carries is filtered through the French Drain system,

delivering even cleaner water to the pond.

Halfway down this channel, you can see the water disappear from view. Over the years this channel has done exactly what it was supposed to do, filter out any sediment carried by the surface runoff and deposit it in the stone channel before ever reaching the pond.

Over the years this filtration system has slowly filled with silt. The water that once disappeared into the channel as soon as it reached the edge of the stone, now runs halfway down the French drain before disappearing below the surface.
Before long the 2 1/2in stone that was once clear, but now filled with silt will have to be dug out and replaced.

I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a little something along the way, about the life and death of a pond.