Planet Pond
and
BIG ponds (lakes)
A horde of young explorers, shallow water, nets, big white buckets, frisbees or trays, some field guides, and wet feet: all you need to explore the waters in our backyard or yours. You can carry a digital camera, take pics of what you find, and google it later.
Here are some pics of critters I found in Planet Pond, also Planet Lake Edge. For Planet Stream, River, Marsh and Ocean, click on the links at the bottom of the pages, or follow the menu bar at top.
At the bottom are links to websites with more info on the critters! Identification of the following critters is subject to revision (my cousin is a PhD-bearing entomologist, I am an amateur naturalist and kayaker with a whole shipload of random field guides).
Here are some pics of critters I found in Planet Pond, also Planet Lake Edge. For Planet Stream, River, Marsh and Ocean, click on the links at the bottom of the pages, or follow the menu bar at top.
At the bottom are links to websites with more info on the critters! Identification of the following critters is subject to revision (my cousin is a PhD-bearing entomologist, I am an amateur naturalist and kayaker with a whole shipload of random field guides).
Explorer gear:
a fine mesh net (a $2 butterfly net, tied off so it is flat rather than deep works ok)
white tray (frisbee, plastic food containers)
magnifying glass or magnifying bug box
wading shoes
digital camera (for recording your catch)
field guides (or you can google later from sketches or your digital photos)
big white buckets are good temporary aquariums
jars for separating the predators from the grazers and shredders (hey, where'd that amphipod go?)
butterfly net for terrestrial arthropods (fishing spiders and dragonflies)
waterbottle for you and dress for the weather
a fine mesh net (a $2 butterfly net, tied off so it is flat rather than deep works ok)
white tray (frisbee, plastic food containers)
magnifying glass or magnifying bug box
wading shoes
digital camera (for recording your catch)
field guides (or you can google later from sketches or your digital photos)
big white buckets are good temporary aquariums
jars for separating the predators from the grazers and shredders (hey, where'd that amphipod go?)
butterfly net for terrestrial arthropods (fishing spiders and dragonflies)
waterbottle for you and dress for the weather
somewhere on Lake Marburg...
2021.06.16 I paddled out of the main sailboat launch at Codorus State Park. To the east are two islands, a long one with an osprey nest, and a round one (with the highly imaginative names of Long Island and Round Island). To the west a wooded shoreline with little coves. The lake, like most others in PA is a dammed and drowned shallow farming valley (the town was named Marburg). The lake can plunge to 70 or 80 feet in spots (right off Osprey Island aka Long Island) but along the shore is shallow enough to wade (kids often splash and explore). You can float over the shallow and peer down to rocky bottoms or beds of SAV (submerged aquatic vegetation) that hide small fish, invertebrates, or feed waterfowl. You can often see minnows and bluegills flitting by, and once in awhile, a big bass. You may startle a great blue heron out of hiding, or catch sight of a little green heron stalking back into the black willows that line much of the lakeshore.
In one cove, I spotted a formation on the bottom that had clearly been MADE... holes spaced rather like dimpled in gold balls, only on a large scale. I had seen this before, in the quarry where we scuba dived, in June...
...nesting season for bluegills. They fan out craters in fine gravel or sand, the female lays eggs in the nest. The male is the one who arrives first at the nesting site, and makes the nest, six to twelve inches in diameter, and as many as fifty nests together (with fifty different fish). The female lays the eggs, the male fertilizes them. The female sticks around the area of the nest while the male goes forth and hunts like the little predator he is. Like horseshoe crabs, bluegills depend on the moon: they are most active on the nests five days on either side of the full moon. This paddle was 8 days in front of the full moon of June. Bluegills, like everything that is not a mammal, bird or various other extinct dinosaurs, are cold blooded... that is they are the temperature of their surroundings. Like the turtles loafing on logs and platforms around the lake (using solar power to warm up), bluegills use differences in temperature of shallow sunwarmed water, cooler depths, shady spots, and sunlit shallows to regulate body temperature. They seem to prefer temps in the low 70s for mating rituals. The nests were on a shore that gets sun from the east early in the day, then is partially shaded by 4pm. I have not yet looked to see if there are nests on the eastern shore of the lake.
I also learned that bluegills actually begin spawning in May, and do it all summer long, in different areas, depending on conditions: temperatures, bottom type, etc. By August, the fish have moved to deeper water nests to find the right temps. Early in the year, you find them in shallow coves, later, off points and ledges in depths of 8 to 15 feet. Diving in June, we saw nests on a sunken gravel road in10 to15 feet of water.
This is a good exploration for anyone in a kayak, on a clear water lake. Paddle and float up quietly, sit and watch for awhile. Fish may spook if you thrash about with a paddle or trolling motor, but if you wait, many kinds of fish will actually see the boat as a cool thing they can hide under.
Just be sure you don't run your pontoon boat up on a nesting site!
Pics shot with cheesy cell phone in a waterproof bag... you don't need fantastic equipment to have fun with wildlife photography.
In one cove, I spotted a formation on the bottom that had clearly been MADE... holes spaced rather like dimpled in gold balls, only on a large scale. I had seen this before, in the quarry where we scuba dived, in June...
...nesting season for bluegills. They fan out craters in fine gravel or sand, the female lays eggs in the nest. The male is the one who arrives first at the nesting site, and makes the nest, six to twelve inches in diameter, and as many as fifty nests together (with fifty different fish). The female lays the eggs, the male fertilizes them. The female sticks around the area of the nest while the male goes forth and hunts like the little predator he is. Like horseshoe crabs, bluegills depend on the moon: they are most active on the nests five days on either side of the full moon. This paddle was 8 days in front of the full moon of June. Bluegills, like everything that is not a mammal, bird or various other extinct dinosaurs, are cold blooded... that is they are the temperature of their surroundings. Like the turtles loafing on logs and platforms around the lake (using solar power to warm up), bluegills use differences in temperature of shallow sunwarmed water, cooler depths, shady spots, and sunlit shallows to regulate body temperature. They seem to prefer temps in the low 70s for mating rituals. The nests were on a shore that gets sun from the east early in the day, then is partially shaded by 4pm. I have not yet looked to see if there are nests on the eastern shore of the lake.
I also learned that bluegills actually begin spawning in May, and do it all summer long, in different areas, depending on conditions: temperatures, bottom type, etc. By August, the fish have moved to deeper water nests to find the right temps. Early in the year, you find them in shallow coves, later, off points and ledges in depths of 8 to 15 feet. Diving in June, we saw nests on a sunken gravel road in10 to15 feet of water.
This is a good exploration for anyone in a kayak, on a clear water lake. Paddle and float up quietly, sit and watch for awhile. Fish may spook if you thrash about with a paddle or trolling motor, but if you wait, many kinds of fish will actually see the boat as a cool thing they can hide under.
Just be sure you don't run your pontoon boat up on a nesting site!
Pics shot with cheesy cell phone in a waterproof bag... you don't need fantastic equipment to have fun with wildlife photography.
a gallery of critters
Below, a great blue heron along the edges of Lake Marburg. Bottom row, a green heron along the shores of Pinchot Lake.
Macroinvertebrates (mostly) in the pond at Blue Hound Farm, Lewisberry.
click on the pic for Planet Stream
