Whey!!! It’s been a hot one! Summer that is! Although we didn’t break any records in July, we had 13 days of over 90 degree heat! And as they say in New England, “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” that gets you! When we were kids it was always hot in July! But as kids, you didn’t seem to mind it as much. You ran through the sprinkler or if you were like me you sat under a tree or on the screen porch and read a book. But along with the heat this year, we also have a drought. The Pond is down about 18-20 inches from where it should be for this time of year, and it is especially noticeable in the Lagoon. There is still water along the Causeway, but if you walk around the Lagoon you can see just how low the water is. The ‘channel’ (the path of Fowle Brook, the pond’s main feeder stream), is quite obvious as it winds its way from the Red Bridge to the Causeway. Several clumps of Water Lilies are high and dry. Several aquatic plants (like the aquatic form of Swamp Smartweed) that grow in the shallows around the edges are now land plants. We have little short-legged wading birds galore running around in the mud. For you birders out there I think I have identified at least four different species – the Least Sandpiper, the Semipalmated Sandpiper, the Killdeer and the Lesser Yellow Legs, and a birder I ran into said she saw a Semipalmated Plover. And we also have a Green Heron, a Night-crowned Heron and someone said they saw 2 juvenile Night-crowned Herons. And of course the magnificent Great Blue Heron, of which there are at least 3. A Great Egret was spotted for only a day before he disappeared again. Years ago, when the Pond got low on a regular basis before the dam was replaced, we had a small flock of the Snowy Egrets stop here for several years in a row. Would love to see them again!
As nice as it is to see all these visiting birds, and as fascinating as it is to see what’s “under the water” of the Lagoon, this drought is taking its toll on the wildlife and the plant life of Horn Pond. Some of the flowers that don’t usually bloom till the end of August have already come and gone. One of these, Tansy, bloomed a month earlier than usual. Plants are wilting and turning brown without blooming and setting seed. My husband has a vegetable garden and the small animals like rabbits and chipmunks are eating everything they can get at, even with deterrents. Even birds are eating strange things like beet greens! He thought at first they were getting water off of the leaves, but they are actually eating them! In all his years of growing a garden he has never seen such behavior.
The flowers closer to the water are blooming more normally. We have a small pink ‘smartweed’ that is usually aquatic. There is plenty of it growing in the mud of the Lagoon. It is called Swamp Smartweed and can be aquatic or terrestrial. It started out aquatic earlier in the season, but now is definitely terrestrial! I always loved the smartweeds. When they are just a spike of buds they remind me of a candy I used to get when I was a child. The shrub called Sweet Pepper Bush has been blooming for several weeks now. It is a fairly tall, loose shrub with spikes of white flowers that tends to grow close to the water. It gets its name from the sweet but peppery smell of the blossoms. Not many wildflowers are blooming. So many of them have just dried up and died. About all you see are a few early Goldenrods and some Queen Anne’s Lace. And even the Queen Anne’s Lace is not nearly as abundant as usual.
There is still enough water in the Pond proper for one of the public’s favorite pastimes at Horn Pond, boating! On a Sunday afternoon you can usually spot several boats out on the water. Canoes, kayaks, sail boats, row boats and small boats with electric motors (gasoline motors are not allowed) often can be seen with fishermen or just people out enjoying a day on the water.
Spectacular sunsets, usually abundant at Horn Pond, seem to also be in short supply this summer. I went down to the Causeway on the 19th of July hoping to see a nice sunset. It looked like it was going to be OK as there were some pretty clouds near the horizon. As the light was getting golden the Mute Swan family swam over to the Causeway. Shortly after a small flock of Canada Geese landed nearby and the male swan went into defensive mode and gave chase! Made for great photos! The sunset turned out to be lackluster that night, but the full Buck Moon rising up over the trees behind me was spectacular!
August’s Full Sturgeon Moon is tonight, the 18th. And even though the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower was the 11th-12th of August, you can still see some of them up until August 24th!
As nice as it is to see all these visiting birds, and as fascinating as it is to see what’s “under the water” of the Lagoon, this drought is taking its toll on the wildlife and the plant life of Horn Pond. Some of the flowers that don’t usually bloom till the end of August have already come and gone. One of these, Tansy, bloomed a month earlier than usual. Plants are wilting and turning brown without blooming and setting seed. My husband has a vegetable garden and the small animals like rabbits and chipmunks are eating everything they can get at, even with deterrents. Even birds are eating strange things like beet greens! He thought at first they were getting water off of the leaves, but they are actually eating them! In all his years of growing a garden he has never seen such behavior.
The flowers closer to the water are blooming more normally. We have a small pink ‘smartweed’ that is usually aquatic. There is plenty of it growing in the mud of the Lagoon. It is called Swamp Smartweed and can be aquatic or terrestrial. It started out aquatic earlier in the season, but now is definitely terrestrial! I always loved the smartweeds. When they are just a spike of buds they remind me of a candy I used to get when I was a child. The shrub called Sweet Pepper Bush has been blooming for several weeks now. It is a fairly tall, loose shrub with spikes of white flowers that tends to grow close to the water. It gets its name from the sweet but peppery smell of the blossoms. Not many wildflowers are blooming. So many of them have just dried up and died. About all you see are a few early Goldenrods and some Queen Anne’s Lace. And even the Queen Anne’s Lace is not nearly as abundant as usual.
There is still enough water in the Pond proper for one of the public’s favorite pastimes at Horn Pond, boating! On a Sunday afternoon you can usually spot several boats out on the water. Canoes, kayaks, sail boats, row boats and small boats with electric motors (gasoline motors are not allowed) often can be seen with fishermen or just people out enjoying a day on the water.
Spectacular sunsets, usually abundant at Horn Pond, seem to also be in short supply this summer. I went down to the Causeway on the 19th of July hoping to see a nice sunset. It looked like it was going to be OK as there were some pretty clouds near the horizon. As the light was getting golden the Mute Swan family swam over to the Causeway. Shortly after a small flock of Canada Geese landed nearby and the male swan went into defensive mode and gave chase! Made for great photos! The sunset turned out to be lackluster that night, but the full Buck Moon rising up over the trees behind me was spectacular!
August’s Full Sturgeon Moon is tonight, the 18th. And even though the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower was the 11th-12th of August, you can still see some of them up until August 24th!