Best of... #3
While Chuck is away on vacation, we're bringing back the most popular Chuck's Corners. This one takes us on a hike to a vernal pool.
A recent reference of vernal pools evoked squeals of interest from some remote quadrants of my readership, so I took a stroll north up Ragged this afternoon after confering with Land Use Manager Dave Pilla. My directions were clear: Mud Pond Trail north to Carr Trail ("Dale's Trail" to some,) thence north on Derek's Trail to a stone wall.
(Built 170 years ago to contain sheep, these walls criss-cross our woodlot extensively.)
Cross the wall and stray northwest till you come to a pool. Well, it was easier than it sounds.
At this time of year, you hear a vernal pool way before you see it. The riot of wood frogs quacking like ducks made my discovery easy. I only regretted their sudden silence at my intrusion (something about a man with a camera?). The pool is magnificent. About 100 feet by 40 with maybe 2 feet of icy clear water over a thick layer of maple and oak leaves.
To qualify as a vernal pool, a body of water must be temporary, have no outlet stream (and therefore, no fish) and host one or more vernal pool "indicator species": fairy shrimp, wood frogs, and salamanders (spotted, Jefferson, blue-spotted, and marbled) that come to the pool to breed. If the wood frogs and peepers command sonic attention, it is the 6-inch salamanders...silently descending on the pool
en masse on rainy nights...that reward swampwalkers with flashlights.
