The heavy hand of man has tinkered again with Mint Springs Park. The park service drained the upper pond so
that the dock could be shored up and the bridge to the infants' beach could be rebuilt. They replaced the playground equipment with
other playground equipment. They’re
erecting a black chain-link fence around the swimming area (an aesthetic
improvement over the old metal colored chain link fence).
While the pond was drained, we saw mysterious bivalves dotting
the pond bottom. We entertained
ourselves with wild hypotheses about how salt water shells came to be in fresh
water. It turned out that the shells
belonged to fresh water mussels. When
the pumping stopped a few large puddles remained at the pond’s bottom. The water was gone from around the
cattails. The man running the pump
assured us that the pond would refill by itself; there were no plans to pump
water back in. Ox and I worried about
the health of the turtles, fish, and frogs.
The pond is almost entirely full now. The weeping cherries are in flower today, the
pear trees in the woods, and the plum trees at the park. The weeping willows are sap green and the red
of the maple flowers makes the maples fluffy.
As we walked around the pond, near the shelter we heard spring
peepers over the murmurs of two families of geese. We heard one green frog glunk and the hollow hammering
of a pileated woodpecker. As we approached the dam, the geese took off
for a quieter pond with muted squawks.
Down by the cattails the frogs were roiling the water in an noisy orgy – mating. This annual ritual can last weeks. It's loud and compelling while it goes on. As long as the peepers are peeping they're mating. I am comforted; the vigor of these amphibians
speaks for a healthy pond.
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