Pondside vol 1 iss 1

Pond Side Newsletter of the Friends of Killens Pond November, 99

5k Run A Success

Stream Watch

On October 9th the Friends Group hosted our first 5k walk/run. Forty boys, girls, men and woman participated and by all accounts the event was a success.

The winning time of 17:02 was posted by Leslie Wright. That’s a very respectable time for 5 kilometers and Mr. Wright deserves an extra measure of respect because he ran another 5k race in Rehoboth hours before winning ours.

By Rob Crimmins

Angela Brown was the fastest woman. She finished in 21:30.

The Delaware Striders running club handled the timing and recording of place winners. As usual, park personnel were very helpful. The men and women on Killens Pond’s staff are worth their weight in ostrich feathers. Thanks again for everything you do. Friends members manned the route, handed out racing numbers, poured drinks, hauled ice and cheered the runners, many of whom expressed their approval of how everything was handled. It was fun for them and us and we made a few hundred dollars from the registration fees and sponsorships. The companies that helped were Penninsula Oil (they own Uncle Willie’s), Van Sants Orchards, Food Lion, Comcast Cable and Pond Productions.

In our regular meeting the following week the group agreed that we would do it again next year. Thanks to all the members that helped.

A stream’s health can be determined through chemical analysis but testing for individual chemicals can be expensive.

Volunteers in the Delaware Stream Watch Program observe wildlife, primarily insect larvae and other macroinvertabrates, to gauge the health of a stream. On October 9th Chris Brown with the Delaware Nature Society was at the Abbott’s Mill Nature Center, and in the stream behind it, to describe how.

The workshop was well attended.

Most of the participants were educators in a Wilmington College teacher certification program and the others were landowners who wanted to know more about the waterways on or near their property. Two members of the Friends of Killens Pond were among them.

Chris is from the Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin, which is on the Red Clay Creek. The ground there is different from the land around Abbott’s Pond and Johnson Branch so the first aspect of stream survey that he explained was the effect of geography. Hockessin is in the piedmont of the Appalachians. Bedrock is at the surface in places and elevation can vary quite a bit along a stream’s length.

The Red Clay flows more swiftly than almost any stream in Sussex or Kent Counties where the bedrock is under thousands of feet of sand and the slopes are gentle. A rapidly flowing stream will not support the same wildlife in the same way as one that flows as slowly as the Johnson Branch. The other major geographic influence is whether or not the stream is in a tidal area. Salinity and the water’s daily rise and fall are the issues in streams that are affected by tides.

These factors are among those that establish what can live in any given stream but they don’t change the basic method of determining whether or not a stream is healthy. That’s done mostly by identifying and counting the critters that live there. If a stream is well populated by a wide variety of plants, animals and insects than it is a

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healthy stream. If there are very few insect larvae or few species are represented the stream is probably sick. The Stream Watch Program enlists the help of volunteers to monitor streams to identify the ones that need help and protect the ones that don’t.

If you adopt a stream, what they ask you to do is to survey a stream or “tax ditch” either once a month or quarterly. To complete the survey you make qualitative and quantitative observations of a 100-yard length of stream and record what you found on a data sheet, which you send to DNREC. Over fifty categories of information are recorded and they include the name of the surveyor and the name of the stream, it’s watershed and location, velocity, width, depth and bottom type, the water color and odor, the surface coating if any and the streambed coating. The data sheet also asks about algae, vegetation, fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, amphibians, trees, shrubs and small plants. When pressed Chris admitted that the survey appears far more scientific than it is. The main purpose is as a starting point for investigation by professionals if a stream shows signs of damage and as a means of educating the volunteers so that they will appreciate and assist in protecting their neighborhood streams.

The back page of the data sheet asks for information that requires some detective work. The “macroinvertebrate survey” is the fun part for those who are fascinated by

a living world that is normally unseen and according to Chris it’s the most important aspect of the survey. If you were (or are) a kid who kept (or keeps) bugs in jars you might want to consider adopting a stream.

Macroinvertibrates on the Tidal Survey Data Sheet include crabs, shrimp,

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shellfish, worms and some insects but on the Non-tidal Data Sheet they are mostly insect larvae. To survey the bugs you take a net, swish it though a place where you think there might be something, dump the contents into a large, white dishpan and pick out the critters. If you find larval stoneflies and mayflies chances are the stream is in good shape. As indicators of stream condition stoneflies are “four star” bugs. They need clean water with high levels of dissolved oxygen and neutral PH. Mayflies are “three star” bugs so they need pretty good water too but they’ll survive in conditions that would kill a stonefly.

Caddisflies have a two star rating while true flies like midge flies, black flies and horse flies are one star bugs so they can live in water that’s considered poor quality.

Sloshing around in Johnson Branch we found all of these plus shrimp, crayfish, damselflies, dragonflies, beetles and quite a few large, fresh-water mussels. Otters had broken many of the mussels. We also used test kits to check the water’s dissolved oxygen content and PH, which were at healthy levels. The final assessment was that on October 9th Johnson Branch was in excellent condition. To be most effective the program guidelines should be followed and they include reference to USGS maps and research into pollutant discharge permits. The result should be an in depth knowledge of your physical surroundings and some of the factors that affect it. To adopt a stream or to get more information contact: Chris Brown, Stream Watch Coordinator at the Delaware Nature Society, Ashland Nature Center, P.O. Box 700, Hockessin, DE 19707 (302-239-2334, ext. 36) or Pearl Burbage, Citizens Monitoring Coordinator, Watershed Assessment Section, Division of Water Resources, DNREC, 820 Silver Lake Blvd., Suite 220, Dover, DE 19904.

Hot dogs, hamburgers and delicious dishes by our members followed by a hay ride.

Upcoming Events

Come on a hike to discover how life in the pond adjusts to winter. Afterwards participants will make snow cream (even if there is no snow outside) and make paper snowflakes. Open to ages 5 and up. Pre-register at the park office or by calling 284-4526. Cost is $2

Friends Group Call Rob Crimmins, 284-0200, for info.

Nov. 8, Tue., 7:30, Park Office Friends Group Monthly Meeting The Friends of Killens Pond meets on the 2nd Tuesday of every month (except June, July & August). Membership is free and open to everyone.

Nov. 13, Sat., 3:00, Campground Pavilion Cook out & hay ride

Park Programs Call Angela Woods, 284-4526, for info.

Nov. 13, Sat., 1 – 3 pm, Boat Launch Fall Foliage Canoe Trip $10 per canoe Nov. 20, Dec. 11, Jan. 8, Jan 29, Feb. 19, Saturdays, 8 a.m., Nature Center Killens Pond Birders Learn how to identify bird species and witness their behaviors. Bring binoculars and a field guide.

Nov. 20, Sat., 1 pm, Nature Center Caring for Birds in Winter Find out what to feed wild birds.

Participants will make several different types of bird feeders. This program is recommended for teenagers and adults. Pre-register at the park office or by calling 284-4526. Cost is $5 Dec. 4, Sat., 10 am, Nature Center Natural Ornaments and Crafts Make holiday decorations from natural treasures. Pre-register at the park office or by calling 284-4526. Cost is $2

at Killens and how to identify their songs. Binoculars and field guides are recommended.

Recommended Reading Delaware Trees: A Guide for the Identification of the Native Tree Species

By William S. Taber, State Forester Delaware Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Dover 1995 Original copyright 1939 This outstanding guide is available from the Department of Agriculture.

William Taber, the book’s author and illustrator, became Delaware’s first State Forester in 1927. This fact alone makes him a figure of historic significance but his work in his field and his book further establish Mr. Taber as a man to be remembered. During his tenure the Redden/Ellendale and Blackbird State Forests were established and he personally planted thousands of seedlings on barren land that now form large portions of Redden State Forest near Georgetown. He

Jan. 15, Feb. 12, 6 pm, Campground Pavilion Owl Prowl Accompany the park naturalist on a dark winter’s night in search of owls.

She’ll call and they’ll answer.

Jan. 22, Feb. 5, 1 pm Nature Center Nature Under Ice

Feb. 26, Sat., 1 pm Nature Center Winter Chorus Winter’s silence ends as resident birds celebrate the coming of spring with song. Learn about the birds that winter

is our very own Johnny Appleseed.

Its 6”x9” size make it very handy as a field guide. Taber’s black and white line drawings and the accompanying grayscale photographs are excellent. The color photographs in many modern field guides lack detail but the fine lines and careful crosshatching in Taber’s illustrations allow for ready identification of scores of

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different species. A typical page will show a tree's leaves, seeds, bark, and flowers.

The variations between some species, for example a Black Birch and a River Birch can be subtle, and Taber’s accurate drawings show those differences.

The written descriptions for each tree are very informative and the “notes” section for each provide fascinating tid bits and some are quite literary. For the Beech Taber wrote: “There are few people who do not know the beech tree and identify it by its smooth gray bark which, even in deep woods, will often show the disfiguring callus of pocket-knife carved initials or other inscribed characters. The triangular nuts are noted for their delicious flavor and are much prized as food for woods rodents, bears, wild turkey and other forest creatures. As an ornamental tree for lawn use, few hardwood trees are more beautiful than the beech but it is difficult to transport and usually grows slowly for several years afterwards if not carefully handled when replanted. The tree appears to be immune to lightning and according to Indian legend, one may seek its shelter during a thunderstorm without fear of being struck.”

There is a magnificent Beech just below the south side portion of the Pond Side Trail a couple hundred yards northwest of the picnic pavilion.

piece of leg bone. He lived half a million years ago. The Tuang Baby, the first Australopithecus africanus was named after the region in South Africa where it was pulled out of a limestone quarry and Neanderthal Man (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis), who lived between fifty thousand and two-hundred thousand years ago, was named after the Neander Valley in Germany where he was first found.

Stone tools have been discovered on a five-acre plot of land that rises out of the Black Swamp in Felton. According to Dan Griffith, Delaware’s State Archivist, PaleoIndians dropped them there at least 9,800 years ago and they might have been left there much earlier. The Ice Age inhabitants of our fair town were Homo Sapiens Sapiens like us but they lived among species that pre-date ours. They may have hunted giant ground sloths and some of our pre-historic neighbors might have been eaten by saber-toothed tigers.

The condition of the site is rare and it’s possible that Felton could become

Web Sites

Paleo-Indian Site Found in Felton

While writing this newsletter a number of interesting web sites were visited.

Could Date to the Ice Age

http://www.birder.com/ http://www.birder.com/birding/hotspots/ind ex.html This sub-directory on birder.com rated the top places in the country for birdwatching.

Bombay Hook ranked 25th, one place behind the Tijuana Slough in San Diego and ahead of the Florida Keys.

By Rob Crimmins Fossil remains of early man, his ancestors and primitive cousins are very rare, so rare that many are known by the names given to them by those who discovered them. Donald Johanson found the oldest hominid (erect walking primate) fossil yet discovered in 1974. Some 60 pieces of a single individual were found on the surface of a dry riverbed in Ethiopia.

Johanson named her Lucy because on the night of her discovery, Johanson and his fellow paleoanthropologists had a party and the song that was playing when the question of a name arose was “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. Lucy, the first example of the species that became known as Australopithecus afarensis, lived 3.5 million years ago. Java Man, the first known Homo erectus, was one skull and a

European caves in the nineteenth century the people who recovered the remains did so carelessly and in the process destroyed the sites. So although the bones of Neanderthals were found, their tools, trash and other evidence of their lifestyles were lost. Most of the sites in North America where people lived as long ago as the last Ice Age have been plowed, built on or otherwise lost but a “living surface” has been found in Felton. The tools in the knob in Black Swamp were a few feet below the ground but when they were dropped hundreds of generations ago that ground was on the surface. The layer that they occupy now has not been disturbed in all that time. Clues of how they lived might remain.

An unusual organization based in New Mexico, the Archeological Conservancy, is negotiating with the owners of the site to purchase the land so that it can be preserved and studied by archeologists. If they do buy the land, which seems likely, there may be some very interesting discoveries. Maybe someday we’ll see Samuel Felton’s name latinized in a textbook, the result of a crazed and excited bunch of archeologists and their historic celebration at the Owl’s Nest.

http://www.destateparks.com/

extremely well known in some anthropological circles. Lucy was found where she died millions of years ago. Very few other hominid remains have been discovered on the ground where they first fell and fewer still were carefully recovered. Usually, they were scattered about by the predators that killed them or dispersed by flowing water or geology. In the case of many of the discoveries in

http://www.k12.de.us/lfhs/ Lake Forest High School http://www.state.de.us/facts/outdoor/outintr o.htm http://www.dnrec.state.de.us/ http://libws66.lib.niu.edu/thoreau/ Lots of good information on Henry David Thoreau. http://nbyurts.com/

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http://kozmo.yakima.net/~ken/yurts/yurtvy1 .htm http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/yurt/ Yerts! Mongolians don't like the term.

Tribesman call a yert a ger http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/acc ounts/vulpes/v._vulpes http://www.wncnaturecenter.org/af/redfox.h tml http://www.primenet.com/~brendel/fox.html Educational material on the Red Fox. http://www.forestry.uga.edu/efr/olddocs/do cs/233.html Oxygen depletion in ponds and lakes. http://washingtonpost.com/wpsrv/travel/escapes/080598.htm Washington Post article on Killens Pond State Park. http://members.aol.com/sayersweb/discgolf /html/killnmap.htm A map of the disc golf course.

The Red Fox Two fox dens at the park have been revealed by recent changes. One is just off the fitness trail between the rings and the sit-up station in the tree farm. The other is between the new bike path and the main road at the road crossover. The inhabitant of this den can be seen late in the afternoon in the field next to the bike path.

According to the following article the same fox probably occupies both dens.

The World Wide Web provided some interesting data. The address for the site on Vulpes vulpes is http://www.wncnaturecenter .org/af/redfox.html, which is maintained by the Western North Carolina Nature Center.

Coloration of red foxes ranges from pale yellowish red to deep reddish brown on the upper parts and white, ashy or slaty on the underside. The lower part of the legs is usually black and the tail usually has a white or black tip. Two color variants commonly occur. The cross fox has reddish brown fur and has a black stripe down its back and another across its shoulders. The

silver fox ranges from strong silver to nearly black and is the most prized by furriers. These variants are about 25% and 10% of the species, respectively. Red foxes, like many other canids, have tail glands. In Vulpes vulpes this gland is located 75 mm above the root of the tail on its upper surface and lies within the dermis and subcutaneous tissue.

The eyes of mature animals are yellow. The nose is dark brown or black. The dental formula is 3/3 1/1 4/4 2/3. The tooth row is more than half the length of the skull. The premolars are simple and pointed, with the exception of the carnasiallized upper fourth premolar. The molar structure emphasizes crushing. The manus has 5 claws and the pes 4 claws. The first digit, or dew claw, is rudimentary but clawed and does not contact the ground.

The red fox is essentially an omnivore. It mostly eats rodents, lagomorphs, insects and fruit. They will also eat carrion. Red foxes have a characteristic manner of hunting mice. The fox stands motionless, listening and watching intently for a mouse it has detected. It then leaps high and brings the forelimbs straight down forcibly to pin the mouse to the ground. Daily food consumption is between 0.5 and 1 kg a day.

The annual estrous period of female red foxes last from 1 to 6 days. Ovulation is spontaneous and does not require copulation to occur. The exact of estrous and breeding varies across the broad geographic range of the species: DecemberJanuary in the south, January-February in the central regions, and February-April in the north. Males will fight during the breeding season. Males have a cycle of fecundity, with full spermatogenesis only occurring from November to March.

Females may mate with a number of males but will establish a partnership with only one male.

Copulation usually lasts 15 or 20 minutes and is often accompanied by a vocal clamor.

Implantation of the fertilized egg occurs between 10 and 14 days after a successful mating. Just before and for a time after giving birth the female remains in or around the den. The male partner will provision his mate with food but does not

go into the maternity den. Gestation is typically between 51 and 53 days but can be as short as 49 days or as long as 56 days.

Litters vary in size from 1 to 13 pups with an average of 5. Birth weight is between 50 and 150 g. The pups are born blind but open their eyes 9 to 14 days after birth.

Pups leave the den 4 or 5 weeks after birth and are fully weaned by 8 to 10 weeks.

Mother and pups remain together until the autumn after the birth.

Sexual maturity is reached by 10 months. Red foxes are solitary animals and do not form packs like wolves. Individual adults have home ranges that vary in size depending on the quality of the habitat. In good areas ranges may be between 5 and 12 square kilometers; in poorer habitats ranges are larger, between 20 and 50 square kilometers.

During some parts of the year adjacent ranges may overlap somewhat, but parts may be regularly defended. In other words, Vulpes vulpes is at least partly territorial. Ranges are occupied by an adult male and one or two adult females with their associated young. Individuals and family groups have main earthen dens and often other emergency burrows in the home range. Dens of other animals, such as rabbits or marmots, are often taken over by foxes. Larger dens may be dug and used during the winter and during birth and rearing of the young. The same den is often used over a number of generations.

Pathways throughout the home range connect the main den with other resting sites, favored hunting grounds and food storage areas. Red foxes are terrestrial and either nocturnal or crepuscular. Top speed is about 48 km/h and obstacles as high as 2 m can be lept. In the autumn following birth, the pups of the litter will disperse to their own territories. Dispersal can be to areas as nearby as 10 km and as far away as almost 400 km.

Animals remain in the same home range for life. Red foxes utilize a wide range of habitats including forest, tundra, prairie and farmland. Preferred habitats have a diversity of vegetation.

What’s Up With The Fungus?

Adapted from Discover Magazine Hiking through the woods around the pond in the fall one can’t help but

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notice the fungus that flourishes under the trees, particularly among the pines along the roads. It isn’t accidental that the pines and fungus are in close proximity to each other. There is a symbiotic relationship between the trees and the fungus that scientists have been aware of for quite awhile but recent experiments have shed new light on the relationship and revealed the details of a natural system that is more complex than previously thought.

The tree’s roots systems are covered in a web of fungus that serves a very important function. Trees grow by converting sunlight, water, nutrients and air into tissue. The nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, used in the process are drawn from the soil by the tree’s roots but on their own the roots can’t extract enough of these elements and compounds to keep the tree alive. Fungi produce digestive enzymes that free these compounds. Fungi can’t draw carbon from the air so they take it from the tree roots. The organisms collaborate, the fungus taking carbon from the roots and pumping in soil nutrients in return.

An experiment conducted by Suzanne Simard, a forest ecologist at the British Columbia Ministry of Forests in Kamloops showed how the alliance is not only between the fungus and the trees but also between trees of different species.

Simard planted Douglas fir and paper birch seedlings and let them become infected by local fungi. She returned a year later and put tents over some of the trees. A shaded fir photosynthesized less than a paper birch in the sunlight. The lucky birch continued to draw its usual amount of carbon from the air while the sunlight-starved fir would draw less.

Six weeks later Simard began to track what was happening to the carbon the trees were capturing. She put sealed plastic bags over the trees and injected carbon dioxide loaded with different carbon isotopes into the bags. (Isotopes are atoms of a given element that have varying numbers of neutrons.) After nine more days Simard uprooted the trees, ground them into a paste, extracted the isotopes, and measured how much of each the tree had.

She found that the isotopes absorbed by one tree often ended up in another, and that shaded trees took far more carbon from their sun-drenched neighbors than they gave. This happened even if it meant that carbon absorbed by a paper birch traveled not to another birch but to a Douglas fir.

Simard concluded that the fungus was managing the trees, extracting carbon from healthy ones and pumping it to shaded ones, regardless of species. The fungus gave shaded trees 6 percent or more of their carbon, an amount that can ultimately make the difference between being able to produce seeds and being barren.

Simard’s results call into question some conventional notions in biology. Can the standard view of evolution - an everyorganism-for-itself scramble for resources be correct if trees surrender precious carbon to trees from another species?

Simard points out that this arrangement aids the fungus: “There’s definitely something in it for the fungus if the trees are doing well.” It’s possible the trees themselves can evolve only in a partnership. “The survival of a group of plants may depend on an individual and its neighbors as well. From a strictly evolutionary perspective it may not make sense, but from an ecological one it does.”

Foresters should take note.

If Douglas fir is the preferred species in a managed forest, paper birch - a fast growing tree that can shade the slower-growing firs for decades – will be considered to be a weed.

Simard’s experiment indicates the birches may be nurturing the firs. “These species that we think of as weeds are serving as critical links, and once we sever these links, we affect the stability of those ecosystems. Our practices are still based on the notion that forests act like gardens, and we should weed out what we don’t want. But forests are far more complex than that, and we need to maintain this diversity.”

Nature Writing At Its Best

Good nature writers articulate why we treasure our time outdoors. We nature lovers don’t need to speak of our pleasure or even clearly understand it. Being pleased is enough. But when another captures in prose or poetry the essence of our satisfaction our pleasure is relived.

Their expressions are another gift.

For twenty-six months in the 1840’s Henry David Thoreau lived in a small cabin of his own construction on the edge of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.

Walden is larger and much deeper than our beloved Killens Pond, but as a place to grow through reflection it is the same.

Thoreau’s reflections in his book, Walden, are amazingly rich. He deals with minutia at times but the persistent reader is rewarded on nearly every page. Here are a few excerpts: You must everywhere build on piles of your own driving.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for every one striking at the root.

This was an airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a traveling god, and where a goddess might trail her garments.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

No man ever followed his genius until it misled him.

God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages.

My instinct tells me that my head is an organ for burrowing as some creatures use their snout and forepaws, and with it I would mine and burrow my way through these hills. I think the richest vein is somewhere hereabouts; so by the divining rod and thin vapors I judge; and here I will begin to mine.

The nighthawk circled overhead in the sunny afternoons–for I sometimes made a day of it–like a mote in the eye, or in heavens eye, falling from time to time with a swoop and a sound as if the heavens were rent, torn at last to very rags and tatters, and yet a seamless cope remained; small imps that fill the air and lay their eggs on the ground on bare sand or rocks on the tops of hills, where few have found them; graceful and slender like ripples caught up

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from the pond, as leaves are raised by the wind to float in the heavens; such kindredship is in Nature. The hawk is aerial brother of the wave which he sails over and surveys, those his perfect airinflated wings answering to the elemental unfledged pinions of the sea. Or sometimes I watched a pair of hen-hawks circling high in the sky, alternately soaring and descending, approaching and leaving one another, as if they were the embodiment of my own thoughts. Or I was attracted by the passage of wild pigeons from this wood to that, with a slight quivering winnowing sound and carrier haste; or from under a rotten stump my hoe turned up a sluggish portentous and outlandish spotted salamander, a trace of Egypt and the Nile, yet our contemporary. When I paused to lean on my hoe, these sounds and sights I heard and saw any where in the row, a part of the inexhaustible entertainment which the country offers.

The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little stardust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.

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From our bylaws: The mission of the Friends of Killens Pond is to enjoy and protect the land and communities within and around Killens Pond State Park and to actively participate in the Park’s preservation and improvement.

Membership shall be open to anyone who has a sincere interest in Killens Pond State Park and the surrounding communities and shall only be contingent upon a stated desire to become or remain a member.

To join, complete this form and mail it to Rob Crimmins, President, Friends of Killens Pond, 5012 Killens Pond Road, Felton, DE 19943 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Name________________________________________________________________ Address ______________________________________________________________ City___________________________ State _____________________ Zip__________________ Phone ___________________ e-mail _____________________

Friends of Killens Pond 5012 Killens Pond Rd. Felton, DE 19943

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

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