Drought 2017 - Toad Pool

After several months of experiencing rain storms two or three times per week, the rain has stopped.  Three weeks of dry, hot weather has left the Toad Pool as nothing but a small patch of mud.  The last bit of open water disappeared on June 12.

The water level remained good until June 2.  That is when temperatures began reaching 90°F and strong, dry winds began to blow.  Under these conditions, you could almost see the pool growing smaller.

On June 5, an approaching storm front gave hope of some much needed rain.  When just a few miles away, the line of rain formed a gap that neatly slid over Blue Jay Barrens.  I could see the rain clouds to the north and south of us, but not a drop fell here. 

By June 8 the water depth was down to about two inches.  Forecast was for dry and windy conditions.  Fortunately, the bulk of the toad tadpoles had morphed into tiny toadlets by the end of May.  The pool had served its intended purpose well.

An interesting pattern was left behind by the tadpoles.  While feeding, each tadpole would work its way down into the mud as it searched out algae and other tiny food items.  The tadpole’s head would remain stationary and the body would rotate around that fixed point.  The result was a depression in the mud.  This pattern of dimples covered the bottom of the pool.

My photos of the depressions turned out to be good examples of the Dimple and Bump Optical Illusion.  Depending on how it is viewed, the pattern may appear to be a series of indentations or a series of raised bumps.  I can manage to switch back-and-forth between seeing dimples and bumps.  My wife sees only bumps, but she has taught High School English for 35 years so …

A mixed bag of mammals and birds have been visiting the pool for water and to take advantage of any food morsels left vulnerable by the shrinking pool.  Rain storms began moving through the area yesterday.  Flash flooding has occurred just a few miles from our location, but we have only managed to get rains just slightly stronger than a drizzle.  I hope this doesn’t continue as a summer long pattern.

Salamander Breeding Season Begins - 2015

Jefferson Salamanders arrived in the pond on the night of January 3 to begin their annual courtship and egg laying activities.  Jeffersons are always the first species to arrive each year.  Depending on weather conditions, they may be as much as six weeks ahead of the Streamside salamanders that follow.  Spotted salamanders, the last of the three species likely to visit the pond, won’t be seen until March or April.

Blue Jay Barrens is still recovering from a minor summer drought, so availability of water may be a possible hindrance to breeding success this year.  This is how things looked on January 2. Weather reports called for heavy rain and temperatures in the 50’s for the next day and night.  I was sure these conditions would get the salamanders moving and was hopeful that we would get enough rainfall to fill the pond.

The temperatures on January 3 did indeed exceed 60 degrees and intermittent rain fell through the day.  The rainfall amount, however, turned out to be much less than anticipated, resulting in a negligible increase in water depth.  This is a record low water level for the beginning of salamander breeding.  If things don’t improve, eggs and adults both may be threatened by a shrinking water supply.  To add to the threat, several days of below freezing temperatures are predicted for the next week and lows are expected to drop to near zero.  A large volume of this shallow pool may freeze before temperatures moderate once again.

We only got 0.8 inches of rainfall and 0.6 inches of that fell during the day.  By sundown, the rain had stopped and the prospects of it starting again were slight.  I was doubtful that any salamanders would emerge.  Sometime during the night, the remaining 0.2 inches of rain fell.  I really didn’t expect to find anything the next morning, but as I approached the pond the dark shapes of salamanders were easy to see against the light colored soil on the pond bottom. 

I counted 16 salamanders moving around in the deepest area of the pond.  At least 12 individuals are visible in this photo.

During the time I watched, several pairs interacted in what appeared to be courtship activities.

I netted a couple of salamanders just to be sure of the identification.  Both were quite robust and appeared to be in good health.

This male seemed almost frantic to get back to the water. 

It climbed from the net and ran for the pond.

No time was wasted rejoining the rest of the group.  I wish them success in their breeding attempts during this atypical year.

0.60

Rain moved in late Monday night and stayed around until mid morning Tuesday, bringing a total of six tenths of an inch.  Not enough to change our drought status, but it did clean the dust off of the plants.  It was also enough to block my satellite signal and deprive me of internet access, so yesterday’s post never made it out.  Rural sometimes means you’re out of touch.  I took a walk in the last of the early morning drizzle to enjoy seeing things while they were wet.

Moles took advantage of the temporarily moistened ground.  Their activities are severely restricted when the ground is super dry.

Wind accompanied the last of the rain and brought down several leaves.  Black Walnuts are quickly losing their leaves and will soon be bare.  I guess I did my trail mowing at just the right time.

I found this handsome Eastern Box Turtle near the creek.  Rain brings out many of the turtle’s favorite food items, so turtles go on the hunt when things are wet.  I don’t think the amount or timing of this rain did much to improve the chances of the turtle finding a meal.  The rain wasn’t enough to soak through the dried leaves on the forest floor and wasn’t enough to bring out the slugs and earthworms.

A few temporary pools formed in the creek.  These pools are used by a wide variety of animal species.  The absence of birds along the creek is especially noticeable when these pools disappear. 

By the time I had worked my way around to the top of the hill, the last of the rain clouds moved past and blue sky appeared.  The long range forecast doesn’t give much promise of rain in the near future, so I guess I’ll continue to watch the drought progress for a while longer.

The rain was enough to fill all of my tubs.  I’m currently using four tubs to catch runoff water from the roof.  This has been enough for me to water plants and still leave plenty of water for permanent aquatic residents of the tubs.

Gray Treefrog tadpoles of all sizes can be found in the tubs.  Most of these will not transform into froglets before cold weather begins.  The adult frogs commonly lay eggs up until early September, so it’s normal to lose those last few batches of tadpoles.  An extended warm season through fall would give many of those tadpoles a chance to mature and leave the water before winter.  Most species will take every opportunity to increase their population size and loss of a few offspring is an expected occurrence. 

1.5

Storms moving ahead of the cold front brought 1.5 inches of rain to Blue Jay Barrens early yesterday morning.  Except for the 0.1 inch of rain that accumulated over a drizzly Labor Day weekend, things have been completely dry since the first week of August.  The plants were quick to take advantage of the moisture and droopy leaves became fully extended within a few hours.

The restored vigor of the plants along with the cool breeze and fluffy clouds made it feel like early September.  This may be the first time this year that the weather and plant conditions actually matched the calendar.  Maybe the remainder of the year will follow a little closer to normal.

The Indian Grass looks good, but it’s still a couple of feet shorter than normal.  Instead of standing a couple of feet above my head, the grass almost matches my height.  I can easily walk through the stand without having my view blocked by thick grass stalks.

Besides being short, the grass stand is not as dense as normal.  That means it will be easy to see small cedars in the field after the plants die for the season.  Unless we’re covered by snow all winter, I’ll get out and cut those invading cedars.

The rain came at the perfect time to help the Indian Grass.  The grass is just now flowering and needs that moisture in order to produce a good seed crop.  With so many plants aborting their seed production because of drought, the Indian Grass seeds are desperately needed to sustain the flocks of sparrows that winter in the tall grass stands.

The shorter grasses in the driest areas also perked up after the rain.  These areas are in perfect shape for winter cedar maintenance.  The plants grew so little because of the drought that they didn’t even hide the small cedars.  I think my little loppers are going to be very active this winter.

Puddles formed in the creek bed, but 1.5 inches was not nearly enough rain to restore stream flow.  I’m anxiously awaiting the return of stream flow, because that will mean our well level is on the rise and we can ease back on the water rationing.

Rains Still Can't Drive Away the Drought

We continue to have periodic rain storms, but they have done nothing to alleviate the drought.  A drought is not considered to be over until the rain water percolates through the soil and regains contact with the ground water aquifer.  The quantity of water delivered with each storm has been far less than that needed to saturate the entire soil profile.  What has developed is a shallow layer of moist soil overlaying dry.  Each storm on the horizon brings the promise of a long, soaking rain.

There has been enough rain to revive many of the plants.  Although this makes things look more pleasant, the plants may suffer from this action.  Blue Jay Barrens offers a dry environment for plant growth.  The soil typically dries out in early August and stays that way until November.  Perennial plants push new roots deep into the soil to take advantage of moisture found there.  In situations where there is no detectable deep level moisture, some plants will confine new root development to the moist zone near the surface.  Since plant roots are continually dieing and being replaced by new growth, much of this year’s deep root mass will not be available later on.  If harsh conditions return next year, these plants may suffer greatly when the surface area turns dry and there are not enough deep roots left to support growth.

I keep thinking that the next storm will be the one to put us back into a more normal pattern.  I’ve been constantly proven wrong.  We get the rain, but it’s usually in the amount of about half an inch.  We also get lightning, hail and wind.  Each storm takes down a few trees and drops debris everywhere.  We were lucky not to lose our electricity with this storm.  When I went out to assess damage, I could hear generators running on the ridge west of us, so I assumed their electric lines were down.  That night I could see no security lights and the early morning air carried the sound of chain saws working on the ridge.  I guess they got the brunt of it this time.

It has to have been a rough year for tree nesters.  So far this year I’ve found 11 downed bird nests with broken eggs and a half dozen fallen squirrel nests.  With the way the trees have been whipped around, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some nests were flung into the next county.

The violence is short lived and daytime storms end with a farewell rainbow.  I’ve seen more rainbows this year than I’ve seen over the past 10 years and there’s plenty of time left for more storms.  The wild weather makes it difficult to assign a cause to some of the atypical growth patterns showing up at Blue Jay Barrens this year.  It could be flood or drought or heat or any combination of weather events.  I guess I’ll just have to watch things unfold and learn what I can along the way.

After the Rain

Late last week we experienced four separate storms that produced a total of 1.5 inches of rain over a two day period.  The first storm arrived in the early evening, so there was plenty of light for me to sit on the porch and enjoy the action.  The rain quickly filled the Water Garden to overflowing.

The storm lasted a total of 20 minutes and five minutes of that was a straight downpour that gave us 0.5 inches.  That’s a rate of six inches per hour.  I think we could have soaked up a full hours worth. 

Following the heavy stuff was a gentle rain and a lot of lightning.  This bolt struck in the woods across the road.

Even though the rain did nothing to recharge our ground water supply, it did rehydrate all of the plants.  The most noticeable change was the Rose Pink once again producing fragrance. 

There was no overland flow associated with these storms, but the water that fell in the creek bed made its way to the low points and filled most of the pools.  This will ease the stress on animals that need an open source of water.

Without additional rain, this water won’t last more than about three weeks.  It’s nice and clear now, but that will change with increased animal usage.  As pools are lost, those that remain become cloudy with sediment stirred up by animal visitors.

The newly filled pools are without fish.  Only those aquatic animals capable of surviving periods without water were around to take advantage of the restored aquatic environment.

Drifts of cedar leaves and berries at the downstream edge show that the pools were just at the point of breaking out and temporarily restoring stream flow.  It seems that each storm we have is violent enough to remove fruit and nuts from the trees.  Those cedar berries are supposed to be attached to the trees to act as food for the overwintering Bluebird population.  The amount of fruit lost to the effects of storms and drought make me think this is going to be a tough winter for many species.

The gravel beds that hold water in the pools are not water tight and allow a trickle of water to move through.  This nearly imperceptible flow can only be seen in those areas of the creek where solid bedrock is exposed.  Under normal conditions, this water would be replaced by water moving into the creek from the groundwater reservoir.  Because of the extended drought, that water is not available.

Where the creek bottom is composed of loose gravel, the moving water is hidden from sight.  The rain necessary to end this drought is still somewhere in the future.  There’s still time for this year of weather extremes to amaze us with more unexpected developments.

Half Inch Rain + Drought = Not Much

Scattered thunderstorms are becoming more common in the area and we’ve managed to catch a couple.  They’ve been typical summer storms, arriving with strong winds and a few minutes of heavy rain.  This quick downpour dropped one half inch of rain.

How does a half inch rain affect droughty soils?  Not much at all.  About an hour after the rain had ended, I took a shovel out and exposed some soil to see how far the rain water had penetrated.  In this area currently devoid of any green vegetation, the moisture managed to move just slightly more then an inch into the soil.

Below that level, everything is extremely dry.  Even with a freshly sharpened shovel, it’s difficult to dig in this hard ground.

A half inch of rain didn’t do anything to change the appearance of the dry pond bottom.  This is the most likely place to rehydrate following a rain.  If I hadn’t actually watched the rain falling, it would be difficult to believe that any water had actually soaked in here.

I took advantage of the dry conditions to mow the pond bottom in anticipation of next year’s salamander breeding season.  People sometimes ask how I control weeds in my pond.  Most get mad when I reply that I just cut them down with the mower.

In a normal year, the bases of the dried grass stalks would have decomposed by now and allowed the stalks to fall.  The dry conditions through May and June kept that from happening.  Unusually dry soil has also caused the plants to grow at a slower pace.  The result is a condition that looks totally out of place for July.

The plants did perk up a bit after the rain.  It doesn’t take plants long to take up water from a storm.  Most people have seen how rapidly a wilted cut flower recovers after being placed in a glass of water.  Imagine how quickly moisture starved plants will take up water when they have a widespread root system working for them.  A drought is not considered at an end until plants are rehydrated, moisture is restored to the entire soil profile and water movement through the soil reconnects with the ground water table.  In order to get things back to a more normal condition at Blue Jay Barrens, we need a series of storms that drop five or six inches of rain over a several day period.