Cottage Garden: Lilliputian Life in the Pond

At 8 o'clock this morning, Theresa was trolling our temporary pond for tadpoles, but with no luck. She did manage to snag quite a few whirlygig beetles and water striders though. Here is one attractive specimen now:

Later on, the girls collaborated to create a miniature pond for Patrick in a shallow green sled. Here is what four year old Patrick had to say about it:

"While we were gonna go to art class, my sisters gave me a little pond. It was a little sled, and I loved it 'cause it was tiny and I had some whirlygig beetles and water striders in it, but they were trying to get out. And some of the whirlygig beetles escaped, and the water striders tried to escape but I put them back into my little pond. We wanted tadpoles in my pond, but there wasn't any tadpoles in there."
"My sister Catherine thought the water striders were spiders, but they are not really."

Eight-year-old Margaret noticed something else about the whirlygigs:

"The whirlygig beetles would paddle down to the the bottom of the little green sled filled with water that Patrick calls his 'little pond.' They would pick up leaves in their mouthparts and, using the air bubble, float them up to the surface. Then, they would start to ride across the pond on the raft-like leaves!"

Margaret and Marie watched some bees enjoying the pond as well:

"The other day, Marie and I took our ragdolls outside to have a picnic. It was a nice, bright, sunny morning, so we decided to walk around the pool. We found some bees drinking from the pool covering, but what was funny about them is that they were taking water in their pollen baskets, which are small bags on their legs used to collect pollen from flowers. Once collected, they would bring the water to the pussy willow bush that we only discovered the existence of the day before. Marie said that they must have a little house in there.
We kept watching, and, as we did, Marie mentioned the delicacies that had been saved from the Easter Egg Hunt the day before. With that, Marie and I ran with Raggedy and Martha to the deck, where Marie had about five Easter eggs and a very small pail full of jelly beans. We ate a couple of the candies, making sure not to forget the ragdolls, and watched the bees. They were so busy that they did not even notice us. Usually, when stinging insects have nothing to do, they start attacking helpless picnickers. We had a feeling the bees knew we were going to drain the pool covering soon, and they probably wanted to get as much water as possible beforehand!"

A Sunny Morning Scene
by Margaret

The bees with pollen baskets full
are trying hard to push
Through the twists and little tangles of
the pussy willow bush.

And the dragonflies are whizzing,
And the morning sun is hot,
And the small ragdolls are watching,
Eating candies from a pot.

My brother pauses by the pool
to watch the whirlies tack,
As the water striders skid,
And disappear into the black.