surviving below freezing - turtles

Since we had several cold days and nights already, Painted Turtles Chrysemys picta who live in the pond are getting ready for winter.  Lacking summer heat, this one was wandering very very slowly for a food item or a place to settle. Turtles will spend the next several months in frigid pond water below the frozen ice, with their metabolism and their heart rate slowed way down. They can absorb oxygen from the water through vascularized areas in their mouth, throat, and anus (cloacal respiration).  But using oxygen produces lactic acid in their body, which the turtle counteracts with minerals released from its shell and bones.  Painted Turtles do not eat during this time, but they do remain alert, especially to light from above.  In Spring, when the hours of daylight increase, they will respond.

water sports

Sunny and warmer, closer to normal weather today, after an early snow in October.  Several Mallards are getting ready for their travel south by feeding on the dwindling supply of plant material in the pond.  But the resident muskrats do not like to share their food supply.  We watched several encounters today between the animals.  

junco on snowy suet

Juncos arrived last week from nesting grounds north of here.  Several made their way to our feeders.  Usually, they stay in this area all winter, so it is important to locate some food sources before the snow flies.  They will live on seeds from the native plants . . .  and of course, suet.

slush trail

Snow!  Several inches.  Before we were ready for it.  Before the Mallards were ready for it. As they paddled around on the pond to find breakfast, they made a trail in the accumulating slush on the water.

seed heads

 

I have been wandering the riparian buffer and clipping some of the wildflower seed heads to distribute them around the pond. Some native wildflowers exist here already, and we want to spread desirable plants throughout the buffer. 

The clipping process is "a few for spreading to make new plants, most left for the birds." 

Even after the seeds are gone, the structure of the plant is interesting!

boneset in autumn

Boneset Eupatorium perfoliatum has a stout hairy stem, and the plant's leaves occur along it opposite to one another.  In autumn, the flowers go to seed, and leaves turn a rich red-brown color.

The leaves are described as 'perfoliate' because each joins the opposite leaf around the stem so it appears the stem grows through one large leaf.  All parts of this plant are toxic and bitter. Birds rarely eat the seeds, but are attracted to the flowers for the many insects there.

Mallards have been feeding and sunning themselves all day on the pond, even though we had a few snow squalls.  They must be getting ready to head south for the winter.  At dusk, the muskrat came out to gather a meal.  Seeing the ducks, he swam towards them again and again, trying to chase them away.  Defending his territory, or maybe since it is autumn he does not want to share the dwindling green plant material left to eat in the pond?

diving ducks

 

Mergansers stopped on the pond for a rest.  They floated in the early sunlight for a while, then dived under water to search for a meal.  Maybe they found aquatic insects, worms, frogs, or snails.  

Below, the duck on the right is just gathering her body upward to curve down and dive.  Because feathers make ducks buoyant, it takes muscles to dive.  The one on the left is just emerging from a dive, as the water rolls off her head.

reflection in October

 

floating pondweed

The floating leaves of Pondweed are fading at the end of summer.  And the leaves of the nearby trees fall in the water, drift with the breeze, and catch on the Pondweed.  They look golden in the sunlight, brighten the pond, and complement the wildflowers surrounding the water. 

Floating Pondweed Potemogeton natans  has two kinds of leaves; floating and submerged. The shiny leathery floating leaves are opaque, and support the whole plant which is rooted in the mud below. The submerged leaves are thin, transparent, and move with the water.  In summer these plants provide habitats for many tiny aquatic invertebrates. These in turn are used as food by frogs, snakes, turtles, and ducks who feed here. After these plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food in turn for the aquatic invertebrates.  The Pondweed survives winter with rhizomes buried in the mud at the bottom. 

yellow loosestrife

Autumn chores for me include wandering the riparian buffer around the pond and assisting dissemination of wildflower seeds.  Some native plants exist here in clumps.  Our goal is to spread desirable wildflowers throughout the buffer, while suppressing the 'weeds'.  The many tiny seeds on Yellow Loosestrife Lysimachia ciliata form in small round capsules after the flower matures.

 

The capsule is formed from the five sepals, 

those green triangular-shaped structures behind or below the petals of the flowers.  As they dry out, the capsules harden.  When the seeds are ripe the spheres burst, the five parts open, and the seeds are released.  This is a perennial plant in the Primrose family, and important to native bees in Minnesota.  Next season they will bloom again, bright yellow.