Pond Life

Having spent three seasons doing amphibian egg mass surveys, I can tell you that there are two kinds of people: those who look at a pond from the outside and just see a pond, and those of us who have been in a pond and have seen little world contained within.

Northwest salamander egg mass

Just getting close to the pond changes your view of it. Driving by, you can easily define the shoreline. Walk up to the shoreline and you aren't so sure anymore when the ground gets softer and wetter.
The most obvious pond life is visible before you get to spongy edges. Ducks and geese are patrolling like an avian navy, while a great blue heron flies overhead. Lily pads dot the surface and the whole northern and eastern sides are cloaked in rushes and reeds. If you are still, you might hear the bullfrogs and Pacific tree frogs.

Pacific tree frog

Mallard duck

Put on your waders and step into another world. Look into the water and you'll see insects and their larvae on and below the surface: mosquitoes, craneflies, dobsonflies, and more. Tadpoles and the occasional small fish dart by. A squeak and a splash reveals a startled river otter. Attached to the plant life, you'll find frog, toad, salamander, and newt eggs. Some are below the surface, covered in algae. Some are on the surface, anchored to the stem of emergent vegetation.

Caddisfly larvae

Scoop up a water sample to look at under a microscope. In addition to the floating dirt and plant material, there are tiny shrimp-like critters a quarter inch long. Even tinier are the microscopic algae, protozoa, and bacteria.

Freshwater shrimp- either an isopod or a copepod

If it's a rainy day you won't see much below the surface, but the raindrops take on a totally different sound when they are falling all around you and only landing on more water.
I hope you enjoyed today's aquahike. Ponds are full of life, even if hidden in plain sight. It's a fragile ecosystem, so be kind to your local ponds.

Caution: beavers working

Live Streaming

After so many stories from the road, this little story about one of my last events in Washington got shoved aside. I spent some time in Percival Creek with the Thurston County Stream Team conducting a stream bug survey, also known as a biological index of benthic invertebrates (BIBI). File this under “Things I wasn’t allowed to do 30 years ago”.

Stream bug monitoring is an important way to gauge the health of a stream. Some thrive in polluted water, some thrive in pristine water. To know how many of which kinds of insects are in the stream is a good indicator of water quality. Just what is a stream bug? The ones we looked for are actually the larvae of insects such as mayflies and caddisflies. The larvae are aquatic, living in freshwater, making a living in a variety of ways such as scrapers and shredders.

The method used by my group was to sample three areas within a riffle of the stream. A riffle is an area of faster moving water. Our leader, Debbie Smith, is the coordinator for Tumwater Stream Team. She supplied us with all the necessary equipment, minus our own boots. To collect samples, we used a funnel-shaped net that had a metal square at the front which marked the boundary of the sampling area. A weed fork is a great tool for the stream to, scaring up bugs on the rocks and in the substrate by rapidly mixing it around inside the metal square. Debbie also brought a stop watch, buckets, insect field guides, and lab equipment including magnifying glasses, headlamps, forceps, and sealed containers. While we began collecting samples, Debbie stayed behind with one other from our group to set up the lab. 

Net similar to the one we used for sampling. The front section defines the sampling area.

Weed fork

After washing our boots in a mild chemical solution, we took turns mixing up both the surface and substrate of the stream bed for a minute, loosening the bugs which then flowed into the net with the current. Large rocks in the square went into a bucket for analysis. Stream width and depth at the sample sites, as well as the length of the sampled riffle, were recorded for each sample. Distilled water (to prevent outside bugs from being counted in the sample) was used to rinse any bugs on the net into the collection bag at the bottom. 

Example of stream bugs clinging to a rock

Processing samples in the lab (Debbie Smith photo).

Our samples were taken to the lab for analysis. Our lab was a simple setup on a bridge that day. Small rocks in the collection bag were removed and inspected. Any bugs were removed with forceps and placed in alcohol for later analysis by entomologists that can ID them by genus and species. The same was true for the large rocks in the bucket. The collection bag was emptied and scoured for bugs. Rocks were not sent to the entomologists, but any organic matter in the net, such as leaves and woody debris, did go along with the insect samples. We did this at three different riffles, for a grand total of nine minutes of churning up creek bed.

We did our survey in because stream levels are low. If the water is too high, the bottom is unreachable and the current can be dangerous. There were always at least four of us in the water: one holding the net, one using the weed fork, one running the stopwatch, and one holding the bucket of rocks. If anything happened to one of us, there was always someone available to help. Always think safety in the lab and in the field. 

Stream Team following a successful morning of splashing around
Percival Creek. I am 4th from the left in the green shirt.
(Debbie Smith photo)

Keep Bugging Me

Plants are important to life on Earth. They put oxygen in the atmosphere as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Everyone has to eat, and plants for the base of the food chain. Just as important, and either overlooked or swatted aside, are insects. I consider insects to be the second lowest man on the food chain totem pole as they are super abundant and are the prey of choice for many of the first order predators. In addition, many of them support plant life by serving as pollinators. Others are beneficial because they eat other insects that are crop pests. 

Hoverfly working hard to pollinate

Fritillary butterfly pollinating

I never saw this little pollinator before today

Insect larvae, such as fly maggots or aquatic larva such as mayfly and caddisfly larva, play an important role in the nutrient cycle, breaking down dead plant and animal matter and cycling it into the soil for plants or cycle it even higher in the food chain by being eaten by something bigger than a plant.

Aquatic insect larvae are important indicators of ecosystem health. The absence or presence of certain bugs in the water can tell researchers a lot about water quality. Data collected from stream bug surveys can be used in habitat restoration and conservation projects. 

Caddisfly larvae, an important salmon food

Water strider- fish food

Insects are a great teaching tool. When my daughter was little, insects were her introduction to nature. They are lightweight, portable, easy to catch, and almost everywhere so there was always an opportunity to teach her something new. 

A ladybug, one of my daughter's favorites when she was little

Many of the birds we enjoy seeing or hearing eat insects. Salmon are commercially important fish species that depend on insects and/or insect larva in their early stages of life. The flowers in your garden, not to mention many crops, are there because of insects. Next time you eat an apple, smell a rose, or hear your favorite bird hug a bug! 

Unknown tiny insect that landed on my shirt one day

Bee on its 10 minute break

Praying mantis or preying mantis?

Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug

I was driving home from work last week and noticed what appeared to be a moth, judging by the face, stuck on my windshield wiper. The wings were flapping wildly in the breeze. When I got to a red light, they didn’t look like moth wings and I could see the legs were moving. This bug was still alive and trying to escape. I pulled over at the next chance I could so I could free this mystery critter. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at (or how it was still alive; half its body was smashed) until I happed upon it in a book I was flipping through. It was a caddisfly.

What is a caddisfly? They are an order of insect (Trichoptera) that is similar to moths and butterflies (order Lepidoptera) with hairy heads and larval cocoons. However, the caddisfly larva lives underwater and makes its case from material in the stream, such as small pebbles, held together by silk that it secretes from glands. And unlike moths, the wings of a caddisfly are not covered in fine scales (the “powder” that gets on your fingers if touch a moth or butterfly’s wings).₁

Caddisfly larva, with and without case
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks

Adult caddisfly
Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission

Caddisfly larvae are a favorite meal for aquatic critters like salmon. An entire cohort of caddisflies emerges from their cases at once and moves toward the surface to begin a brief (two weeks) adulthood. It becomes a veritable smorgasbord for fish. Caddisflies are also an important indicator species. An indicator species is one that’s absence or presence is an indicator of the general health of an ecosystem. Caddisflies are sensitive to water pollution, so an abundant population of caddisflies is a sign of a healthy stream.2

Caddisfly larvae, Mashel River

1 From Insects_, Their Natural History and Diversity by Stephen A Marshall

2 From The Northwest Coastal Explorer by Robert Steelquist