Salesian Park, 04 June 2008

Kat reflects on an impromptu jaunt to Salesian Park in Goshen...

As a last-minute outing after Musical Munchkins Laurel and I decided to head over to the pond in Salesian Park in Goshen. I had been there alone with the girls on Monday and the place was swarming with many different species of dragonflies and damselflies. The Pumpkinseed Sunfish had been guarding their circular "nests," chasing each other and splashing around enough so that the girls stood quietly watching them for a few minutes. We also saw the Muskrat swimming around in the water. I wanted to show this to Laurel; I thought this would make a great destination for a Nature Strollers outing.

Today it wasn't as hot, and so there wasn't as much happening... but we did see and hear a lot. The dragonflies were there but most of them were resting on the sedges and Phragmites leaves. A few of them bumbled into my net and we were able to get close-up views. While searching for more we saw some egg masses of various colors on the undersides of the leaves. Laurel's detective work later identified them as either Horse Fly or Deer Fly eggmasses, which are cream-colored when first laid and darken over time.

Laurel scooped up a Green Frog that was peering at us under the cover of the pond muck and Penelope laughed hysterically as it tried repeatedly to leap out of her net.

The Green Frogs and Bullfrogs were making tons of noise, and we also heard this strange clicking or popping sound. We stood for minutes on end trying to figure out what was making the noise. I had been hoping Laurel would know what it was, as I had been obssessed with figuring it out since my trip here on Monday. I had theorized it was the sound of the thousands of insects I saw that day, crashing into the pond grasses as they flew. This didn't hold up as there were far fewer bugs flying around but the noise was still there. As we stared at the surface of the water and saw movement we thought perhaps what were were hearing was the sound of air bubbles popping as they pushed through the algae on the surface. Maybe it was the sound of the fish poking through as they tried to catch insects.

Laurel noted a small cluster of Milkweed plants near an abandonded structure and when I went over to look I noticed hundreds of aphids eating a different plant. The presence of the aphids had drawn a Ladybug and several large ants, picking the aphids off and eating their secretions. On our walk back to the car Penelope caught a tiny grasshopper on her shirt. We had figured we'd stay for only about 20 minutes or so to scope out the place, but our impromptu walk to check out the pond at Salesian Park in Goshen lasted over an hour!