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The Conservation Commission's outing
to the Vernal Pool!
May 2nd, on an early spring Saturday morning, the Conservation
Commission members were joined by Washington Elementary School
children and their parents and visited a local vernal pool.
The pool is a large one located off Faxon Hill Road. With
permission of the property owners, we went looking for the
creatures who inhabit the pool each spring.
Carol Andrews and Arin Mills lead the curious crowd in finding
quite a variety of bugs, larvae, tadpoles, salamanders, eggs
and more!
Carol gave us a few instructions to start.
Arin jumped right in with her hip waders on.
Here is a list of some of the creatures we found in the vernal
pool:
Chironomid midge
Mosquito larvae
Redback salamander
Water mite
Water boatman (beetle)
Wood Frog eggs
Wood frog polywogs
Spotted salamander eggs
Red-spotted newt/Red eft
Water strider
Fishfly
Caddisfly (mostly the log-cabin type)
Scud
Fairy shrimp (imported from, and returned to, another pool)
We were hoping to see a Spotted Salamander but we were only
able to observe their eggs, unfortunately the salamanders
had already moved on.
Armed with nets, buckets, tubs, spoons and magnifying glasses
everyone had a wonderful time discovering all the critters.
Please scroll down to see more pictures from our time at the
vernal pool.
As you can see, the adults and all the kids, both had a great
time. All the creatures made it back to the pool safely to
develop and grow and hopefully they will return next year
to lay the next generation of eggs.
If you missed the trip this year we hope you can join us next
time for a journey of discovery at the vernal pool.
Thanks to Richard Fairweather, Johanna Young and Jed Schwartz
for the great pictures!
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