Light Snow Mid January

Has been dry for January.  Light snowfall today. Some change expected. Pond ice for last two weeks.

December starts dry and cold. Pond freezes over.

 Pond ice early December

 Cold and Clear

New Greenhouse

Greenhouse added in August

September Pictures

September was warm and dry; October has started out wet.   Here are some picture from September.

 September Sunrise

Sunrise over pond

Fall color at pond's edge

Downey woodpecker on Mullein

Blue Darner Dragonfly

August Warm. Some Pictures

Warm weather last two weeks; in the 80s. Fewer dragonflies, frogs and butterflies this year even with the warm weather.

Summer Weather and Lots of Color

July has been cooler than normal but we have had some warm days...never more than three in a row.  Fish returned to view after about two months hiding.  Colors not as full as last uear but still very nice. 

Water Lily

Fewer Dragonflies this year, probably due to cold start to spring.

Medowhawk

Eight Spot Skimmer

Common Whitetail

Iris blooming

Iris are blooming nicely this year, although later than last year.  June has been cool and cloudy but not much rain.

Monkey Flower - Oregon Native

Camas Flowers - Oregon Native

Belted Kingfisher causes turmoil in the pond.

Last month a belted kingfisher visited the pond several times a day for at least two weeks.  It managed to take out the goldfish at will.  Since we have a very large population of fish, I wasn't alarmed as I watched it skillfully pick fish from the water.  Eventually the fish totally disappeared with no sightings of the larger or even the very small fish.  They seemed to sense the attacks and have been hiding deep in the pond for some time.  The kingfisher lost interest in its fishing expedition several weeks ago, but the fish have yet to surface in numbers.  In just the past couple days they can be seen deep in the water from time-to-time, but there is no way to get a count or idea of how many survived.  I suppose the breeding season is under way so there should be plenty of replacements.  Nature works that way.  The pond was designed with anticipation of predation.  There is a deep section and areas of heavy vegetation with underwater rock crevices and other hiding areas for fish, frogs, tadpoles, etc to escape predation.