Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[CountryEscape]

Yesterday was the first day of no rain for over 10 days here, so I took advantage of "playing" outside. Been pulling weeds easily ... you know they pull easy when you can pull a dandelion, 6" root and all! I have deep pink cone flowers that I grew from seeds from a friend last spring, and the blooms this year are sure attracting butterflies! Enjoy.
Question Mark butterfly

Coral Hairstreak butterfly on coreopsis. When I was a kid, I called these "blue butterflies".

Great Spangled Fritillary, Red Admiral, and a GSF with a Red Admiral

Male Black Swallowtail butterfly

Two Clouded Sulfur butterflies. I used to call these "cabbage butterflies", but now have learned those are a plain white one, and this one is different ... "special".

Monarch, refused to open it's wings for me yesterday, but stayed on the coneflowers all day long!

These are my all-time favorite day lilies. Red Spider is the variety, and the flowers are the largest I've ever seen on a day lily, about 8" across or more. At first only one flower at a time, now there are 5 or 6 on each of the two plants. Woohoo!!!

 

[DrellDrell]

Yesterday was the first day of no rain for over 10 days here, so I took advantage of "playing" outside. Been pulling weeds easily ... you know they pull easy when you can pull a dandelion, 6" root and all! I have deep pink cone flowers that I grew from seeds from a friend last spring, and the blooms this year are sure attracting butterflies! Enjoy.
Question Mark butterfly
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Coral Hairstreak butterfly on coreopsis. When I was a kid, I called these "blue butterflies".
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Great Spangled Fritillary, Red Admiral, and a GSF with a Red Admiral
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Male Black Swallowtail butterfly
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Two Clouded Sulfur butterflies. I used to call these "cabbage butterflies", but now have learned those are a plain white one, and this one is different ... "special".
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Monarch, refused to open it's wings for me yesterday, but stayed on the coneflowers all day long!
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These are my all-time favorite day lilies. Red Spider is the variety, and the flowers are the largest I've ever seen on a day lily, about 8" across or more. At first only one flower at a time, now there are 5 or 6 on each of the two plants. Woohoo!!!
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Fantastic pictures.

 

[DrellDrell]

I am still not positive it was not a poisonous snake. It was very large, and I totally agree about the shape of the head. That's why I definitely wanted it out of my pond, but was scared to death it would bite me, and I'm here by myself. I had to take advantage of the moment when it went into the skimmer, though. Glad I got it safely hauled to the other pond. Hopefully it won't come back to my backyard ponds. Garter/garden snakes are welcome, I don't mind them, plenty of food to go around. However, saying that, I've not seen hardly any bullfrogs since I have been back from vacation. Only 1 or maybe 2 in the goldfish pond, 1 in the koi pond. Weather has been rainy, and windy until today, so maybe they are fair weather frogs. I hear them at night, so they are there. Maybe there still lurks a predator that I have not spotted yet!

Catching up on the pond forum this morning. I am originally from southern Illinois, but not as far south as Effingham. That looks like a cottonmouth - including the smell you described. They are not exactly rare much father north than your location and have been going back at least 30 years.

 

[CountryEscape]

Yikes, you are the second person to say it was a cottonmouth, Drell!!!! That freaks me out, but I DID think it was a poisonous snake when I saw the shape of the head, and knew I would never feel safe around that pond until it was gone. The fact it was sooo large, too, makes me question my decision to do it myself, with no one else around. Oops ... maybe next time I will wait for backup.
So, today I spotted my first dragonflies that I was able to get pics of. The black and white one is a male Widow Skimmer, and he had a favorite spot to land, but would fly around inspecting me, as I was laying on my lawn chair next to the pond.

This is a Blue Dasher, a male also. I got an amazing video of a female Blue Dasher laying eggs! I'll have to post it to YouTube, I guess, because I can't figure out how to load it directly. It doesn't give me a choice to upload it, so must be the way my camera saves the video.

Blue Dasher dragonfly eggs ... I would NEVER have noticed these had I not been standing right next to the dragonfly as she was laying them.

Andm, this is gross, but spotted this painted turtle heading back to my farm pond. It was about 50 yards from my backyard and I ALMOST grabbed her and put her in the ponds! Glad I didn't, as I noticed she had mud on her shell, so thought she may have been laying eggs, then noticed the leech attached to her shell. See it in the first photo, by her left rear leg? Her shell was damaged in that area, too, but likely not from the leech. Here are the pics:

After I took the pic, looking at the last one on my computer, it appears that there are a bunch of eggs under the leech. I read, and it said that this freshwater leech lays it's eggs in the mud on the bottom of a pond, so maybe these are eggs or something else. Anyhow, when I put it into a container, the container later had about a dozen baby leeches! I got a video of that, too! Will post them both. Wonder how many leeches are in my ponds ...

 

[CountryEscape]

Here's the dragonfly laying eggs video. I feel very blessed to have captured this on video! Enjoy!!!

 

[CountryEscape]

And, the leech video. Funny how much more you find when you download pics and videos! If I had known the leech had eggs or babies attached to it (if that's what they are, that is) I never would have touched it. Yuck! The sound you hear is my camera, not sure why it makes this sound, but oh well.

 

[MariaTeresa]

CE, your snake was a brown water snake. You got fantastic pictures of its head which show a round pupil and lack of heat-sensing pit below and between the eye and the nostril. A cottonmouth would show a vertical elliptical pupil (like a cat) and have the pit. Brown water snakes are one of the exceptions to the head shape rule; they have the triangle shape of a viper, but are not poisonous.

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh, thanks for clearing that up, Maria. I remember someone saying since the pupil was round, it was not poisonous, but when people post they think it was a cottonmouth, it got me worried all over again. Whew! I like snakes, pretty much not afraid of them, as I figure everything around here is not poisonous. If I had thought it was poisonous, the adrenaline would have likely kept me from catching it and moving it without tons of stress. I was excited, but not stressed out.

 

[addy1]

I have followed snakes around our yard, snapping pictures, very seldom see them though. Mainly black, rat and garter snakes.

 

[rodsboys]

CE, your snake was a brown water snake. You got fantastic pictures of its head which show a round pupil and lack of heat-sensing pit below and between the eye and the nostril. A cottonmouth would show a vertical elliptical pupil (like a cat) and have the pit. Brown water snakes are one of the exceptions to the head shape rule; they have the triangle shape of a viper, but are not poisonous.

I just read up on the eye thing.... Good to know that for the future!

 

[CountryEscape]

OK, two years ago the farmer that has all the fields that surround my 6 acres, had the corn sprayed by airplane. Within a day, I had about 10 dead goldfish, and within 21 days, I had lost at least 30, most of which were large, 6-8" long. We talked, and it was agreed he would let me know when/if the fields would be sprayed, so I could cover my ponds. Strangely, no koi died, so the chemical was deadly only to the goldfish and not all of them! I did do big water changes 2 days after the spraying (I was on vacation when it was sprayed, came home to the initial 10 or so dead fish.).
So, tonight when I saw the sprayer plane over the fields around my house, I panicked. Then I looked down! They were spreading fertilizer pellets, like the stuff you spread on your grass to green it up. I called my farmer buddy, and he confirmed it's urea, nitrogen. So, my question is will that harm my fish? I know for a fact it covered my ponds, as it was on the lily pads, on my deck (I took pics!), driveway, etc. They just didn't shut off the stuff going over my house ... again. I think the only harm will be a possible algae bloom, but I'm not worried about that. I know I can put fertilizer in lily pots, and if it leeches out, it may cause extra algae, but not thinking it will harm the fish. Your thoughts? This time, I think I will come out ahead, with fertilizer on all of my landscaping and grass. LOL And, it was spread really well, very evenly.

 

[addy1]

Green up CE , maybe a few water changes as the pellets dissolve.

 

[CountryEscape]

I mowed tonight after work, because going to WI to visit family, leaving from work tomorrow afternoon, and not back until Sun evening. Got done just as the sky opened up! Got .7" rain in 20 minutes. Though it was done, but raining again off and on. Figured the grass was going to really take off with the fertilizer, so wanted to get it done before it had been a week again (on Sunday) and really tall. Now I'll be able to manage it easily next Monday after work, weather permitting.
I figured just some algae bloom, but that's ok. Hoping it doesn't burn the lily leaves, since I didn't think to spray them off last night. Heavy dew this morning should have melted it all, and it did. Hoping my new grass will benefit from it, too. Any time free fertilizer falls from the sky, you should be thankful. LOL

 

[CometKeith]

Wow CE, and I thought I had bad neighbors. I hope everything is okay with your pond and fish!

 

[CountryEscape]

Everything is fine, thanks for your concern, Keith! Here's my koi pond, it has never been clearer since first built, in 2011! It's hard to get a clear pic of the fish when they are down at the bottom, but wanted to show how clear the water is. They are at the 4' depth, just off the bottom. You can even see their shadows on the bottom. I think the clarity is a combination of all the rain (Mother Nature water changes) and cooler temps. Got hot on Sunday, and continuing through today, but tomorrow only supposed to be mid 80's, so that will be nicer. Goldfish pond is always crystal clear like this.