This morning I was happy to notice a couple tiny (1 1/2 - 2") fish swimming in the stream! Then I noticed several caddis fly larvae slowly meandering along the stream bed. That is exciting, because my understanding is that they can be a sign of healthy water. Here are a few pictures of some of the little critters (I apologize for the quality of the photos. It would be helpful to have a fancier digital camera with a polarizing lens. I took these zoomed in as close as I could + I used the digital zoom setting. That doesn't make for high quality) -
.jpg)
.jpg)
I was happy to get two together in one shot here
Here is a link to a great web page about the caddisfly -
I had to take a picture of a good old water skeeter, too. Don't they make the coolest shadow? There are quite a few of them on the surface of the stream during the spring, summer and fall.
And here's a picture looking at the back/southern part of "our" stretch of stream -
It's looking mighty green around here now! I need to do a little weeding along the stream bed on the side that we planted. I think I'll do a little weed research and post what I find on here one of these days....
This is a beautiful post--even though the image quality is not super fine ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhen I put a pond in my yard, I had this multi-year learning experience wherein I got to see the building blocks of a healthy micro-system be put in place by nature. For me, my giant learning and awe-inspiring experience was learning about dragonfly nymphs. I now know that if there are mosquito larvae in water, there are either no dragonflies willing to breed there, of there aren't enough.
Healthy water does indeed equal life. I really like this site, thanks for putting it up!