Great blue heron and mosquito fern

There's a shallow pond in the meadow near my office  -- we've called it unofficially the 'leaky' pond, since it's never held water very well, even though we've tried to seal it a couple of times with bentonite treatments.

In spite of the shallow water (and probably because of it), it's been a good pond for frogs, dragonflies, and birds.

heron and azolla in the Meadow pond

Leaving work the other day, I spotted this Great Blue Heron (perhaps a young individual), 'knee deep' in the azolla or mosquito fern (that's colonized the edges of the pond, and is turning red with cold weather).  Presumably, it's Azolla caroliniana, a native mosquito fern, rather than one of the invasive ones.

It's interesting to consider how it's colonized the pond.

I'm thinking that it may have come in with some of the semi-aquatic plants that were transplanted on the edges of the pond at the end of a research project.  But, that's just a guess.

Click on the photo for a closer look.

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Herons & gardens

Great Blue Heron, taken by Gene Oleney, Fermilab,
used with permission in The Nature of Clemson.

It's always a treat to watch Great Blue Herons flying over the backyard on their way to our nearby lakes. They stop at the ponds at the Garden, too. This morning, a group of us were lucky enough to see one catch and eat a small fish.

I wish we had a small pond as part of our wildlife habitat here at home. We've talked about it for quite awhile; considerations include muddy gardening assistants (ie Mocha), the expense and effort of excavating and lining a pond versus all of the wildlife benefits and pleasant aspects of having a continuous source of water in the garden.

My gardening companion (after hearing the cost estimates) always thinks that he'll dig it, but he's pretty darn busy to dig an entire pond in his 'free' time. I could dig a small pond, too, but it would be more like a largish-deep puddle in our heavy soil.

Hmm, seeing that heron today was inspiring. I probably could dig a pond big enough for frogs!

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