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| On my perch, above the dance. |
Spring is chugging right along here around Boston. It’s been
terrifically busy, and I’m not getting out to the woods nearly as much as I’d
like. Yesterday, I peeled myself away from the computer at work and took a walk
to my favorite little vernal pool near the office though.
What a treat! The sun was shining, my jacket was too hot,
and I was able to spend fifteen or twenty minutes doing nothing but watching
stuff. Some years back, a sizable red maple growing at the edge of the pool
toppled over in the direction of the pool. The trunk itself is about ten inches
in diameter, and lies, now horizontal, about three feet above the water’s
surface. Enough of the root mass is still buried that the tree seems to be
doing just fine, and several branches have started growing straight up as
though they thought they were growing from the ground. It’s beginning to
flower.
I got myself settled out on the trunk, about ten feet from
shore. I was perched there, about three feet above the surface of the water,
looking into about three feet of water. The first thing to catch my eye were
the fairies, doing their lovely dance, lazing about, in and out of shadow,
looking for love or to be left alone, or whatever fairy shrimp look for. It
brought to mind Henry Thoreau’s observation on April 16, 1855, of the
“remarkably forked tail-fin” of what he thought were dragonfly larvae but what
were almost without doubt fairy shrimp.
Soon, big predaceous diving beetles, backswimmers, and water
striders grabbed my attention. I was fascinated by the behavior of the large
beetles; they were cruising around but keeping to the shadow cast by branches,
staying out of the sun-lit water column. I was really curious to see if any
would crash the party and grab a fairy shrimp, but alas, didn’t see any acts of
predation.
After I’d sat still for several minutes, the forest started
to forget that I was there, and a few wood frogs began their clacking calling.
Silly boys, they’re probably going to have to wait until next year. The great
mass of wood frog eggs have already begun to hatch at the west edge of the
pool.
