to see a fairy shrimp this year.
Matt
On Sat, Apr 7, 2012 at 11:21 AM, bcolburn bcolburn <bcolburn@ecoisp.com>wrote:
> **
>
>
> I've been checking some pools in Shirley, Leominster, and Worcester
> over the past few weeks, and have the following observations:
>
> Peepers started early, mid-March and seem still to be going strong.
> Empty peeper eggs and many small tadpoles in the Leominster pools
> (presumably peepers) as of yesterday.
>
> I have not heard noisy congregations of wood frogs yet, although I was
> told of a great one in the Fells a week ago; no rafts of wood frog egg
> masses yet seen. One wood frog male heard and one egg mass observed in
> Leominster on 3/26, but that egg mass is now high and dry.
>
> One newly laid wood frog egg mass observed yesterday in Leominster, as
> well as two very small spotted salamander masses.
>
> The pools are much lower than usual for this time of year and have
> dropped c. 10 cm in
> the past week and a half.
>
> I, too, have observed algae on leaf surfaces more extensive than
> usual, but that is not surprising -- less water in pools means less
> dilution by groundwater and rainfall/snowmelt, so early spring
> nutrients are probably at higher concentrations than in high-water
> years, and hence less likelihood of nutrient limitation for algae. I
> have not tested nutrient concentrations, but this is a likely
> explanation, I think.
>
> Also, low water levels seem to be translating to lower numbers of
> fairy shrimp. Has anyone else observed this? Their eggs reportedly are
> left preferentially in shallow littoral areas before pool drying and
> therefore are not getting flooded this year -- at least not so far.
>
> Caddisflies seem to be doing well. Keep hoping for a bit of rain for
> both pools and the
> rest of the landscape.
>
> Happy ponding, Betsy
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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