All last year I watched my pond slowly shrink. Every morning I would

look out my front window and see the bank on the far side of the pond

recede. The tree that used to be surrounded by water now stood a good

five feet from the water's edge. The pump for my "water feature" had

to be moved farther and farther out just to remain in the water.

Eventually it couldn't go any farther, and I had to shut down the

little stream I had built. The pond was headed to turn into a puddle.

Plants were dying both from the cold weather in December and the lack

of water. There must be some relation between pond level and

depression, at least for me anyway. But in January it started to rain

again, and now it seems like we've gotten more rain now than we did

all of last year! The pond isn't full yet, but it looks much

healthier. The level has gone up a good two feet. Alas, the duckweed

also did fine, and I still have a bumper crop of it.



One day a blue heron came to visit. I kind of snickered to myself at

the futility of it all as I watched it wade knee-deep into the

duckweed, and then stand motionless. It stood there entirely still

for over two hours, and I lost interest. Then, in a flurry of

activity, it dipped its head under the duckweed and caught and

swallowed about a five inch fish. Now first of all I had no idea that

there were any fish in the pond, certainly not of that size, and

second, I don't see how the bird could see through all that duckweed,

it's a virtual carpet from bank to bank. I haven't any idea what kind

of fish it was or anything, I was as surprised as the fish. At least

now I know what attracts the otters (yes, they've been back).



On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 08:26:22 EST, Phyllis and Jim

wrote:



Hi Galen,



I heard about freezes down there in FL. How has your natural pond

fared?