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. 

green frogs on rocks

Usually, the frogs who live here sit on shore hiding among grasses looking for prey insects or invertebrates.

But when a rock is available, Green Frogs Rana clamitans prefer to sit in the sun and wait for a meal to present itself.  

sandpiper

 A hot sultry day in August.  The pond was quiet.  Several rocks appeared offshore in the last few days, exposed by the lack of rain and lower water level.  Good for sandpipers hunting lunch.  This Solitary Sandpiper Tringa solitaria shows off its white eye ring while it waits on a rock to spot a meal in or on the water -- aquatic invertebrates such as larvae, worms, flies, or mollusks.  

Sandpiper

This morning a Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularius was finding a meal -- small invertebrates,  crustaceans, or insects -- among the reeds on the shore.

They nest on the ground near water, so we will be looking for Sandpiper nests as we do citizen science for NestWatch this season.
https://nestwatch.org/