June 1 Pond dwellers have reported large schools of alewife fry along the east and south shores of the pond. The juveniles will grow stronger and larger all this month and next in this healthy nursery habitat.
There remains enough flowing water for the emigration of adults in the stream today but not for long and none have been noted. The gauge reads 3.5" and there is no rain in the forecast this week. Significantly, the sandbags have been removed. This was a surprise. We thought they were placed there as a management system, acting as a temporary weir, with bags shifted for water control, but not entirely removed. They should come into play all summer and through the fall. We will look into this decision by the Town which seems to run counter to their intended purpose. I have heard that the head warden thought they would interfere with biologist Brad Chase's DMF habitat study when just the opposite would seem apparent.
In reviewing our numbers from May, the huge inventory of fish that utilized the Slough Pond passage is extraordinary, and nearly impossible to corroborate. Akin to, but highly different from, the citizen scientist volunteer counters, staggered at three or four countings per day, for ten minutes each, it allows only a rough estimate others can extrapolate figures from. If we consider the total we observed and estimated traversing our passage, 48,000 fish, we might want to look beneath the surface of that number.
Could it be possible that a third of all the herring who came in through the Stony Brook fish ladder made it all the way to Slough Pond (see figures posted here on May 28)? Are they alewives returning to their natal pond now that the passageway is clear? Are there other herring wishing to expand their chances for spawning in new habitats, following the lead of the others? It is hard to believe but the numbers don't lie. Even it only half of that number, say 24,000, is the true figure, that is still an incredible migration. Perhaps not all made it into the pond. It is true that some seemed to spawn in the culvert pool and in passageway, but was that exclusively, and were those Bluebacks not Alewives?
Fish were noted coming in and going out, as they do in the entrance area, however, it is doubtful the same fish came in and went out every day for fourteen days. It is also doubtful the same fish stayed in the passage for fourteen days; it is not their habit to act either way. It is accurate to say there was movement into Slough every time they were observed, as well as some hesitating at the culvert and spawning in the pool there. When all is said and done this is how studies are conducted, observations are made and noted, questions are posed, and conclusions are drawn.
June 8 The water level in the passageway is now too low for any fish passage. The gauge is hovering at 2." Any adults that made it out earlier this week, around the New Moon on the 6th, as they like to emigrate at night, would have cut it close. The passageway will get lower now for the summer, as this channel and others will do, until late August or early September, unless we have a lot of heavy rains.
I did see a few Night Herons, Green Herons, and an Egret fishing along the edge of Walker's Pond by the entrance and there along the path the remains of a Catfish. There was more life in the woods courtesy of a Cottontail Rabbit and our nesting Catbirds. At night, the Fowler's Toads are in full and raucous chorus as the Spring Peepers fade. One early Bullfrog called out the other night with no response and Canada Geese have been visiting at dusk after some weeks of absence. Swallows and Kingfishers flash past daily, Osprey circle and dive, Terns and Gulls call as they fly past. There is little other activity over the pond, except for Dragonflies, Damselflies, and Water Striders that is; a lone Monarch the other day; and fishermen who caught an enormous Pickerel and, unfortunately, threw it back in. The Mallard drakes have lost their brilliant courtship plumage and there is now a gang of rejected and disheveled bachelors, with all manner of mottled attire, on our dock. What few Hens there are may be attending to their young. I have been watching out for schools of alewife fry since my first sighting with no luck. And there have been no goslings or ducklings or eaglets in sight as of yet.
June 13 The passageway is still replete with water, though, as noted earlier, shallow in critical areas. The pond level barely measures 2" on the gauge so, it stands to reason, the only attributable factor for this presence of water is improved maintenance work. Warden Gary Kaser cleared, and dug out, the channel this spring, building on the maintenance accomplished in 2023, twice in the spring and twice in the fall. The addition of the sandbag weir in December has improved water management as well. That level of herring run management has shown its rewards not only in the vast numbers of herring migrating through this season but in the channel holding its water level and clarity into mid-June with little in the way of rainfall.
There are no fish present this week, yet Heron are fishing along its outskirts. All citizen science volunteer herring counts will wrap up on the 15th. Our count is singular in its practice and our figures will be shared with APCC, who follows our work, non-the-less. Alewife fry are seen daily circling the pond though not yet is their immense schools, as they are still too small.
June 19 On the eve of the Summer Solstice, tomorrow is the final day to submit volunteer herring count forms to APCC for this year's tally. Counts ended on June 15th. Although Slough Pond is not a designated counting site, and my methodology is singular in comparison, I submitted my data (in condensed form) in case it might be of value and use. I do think it is critical that the herring of Slough Pond be represented. Here is the pdf.
June 21 The passageway in the woods is lush with summer growth but the stream is nearly entirely dry, only retaining very low water levels in a few small areas. This is typical of our stream and others across the Cape for the summer months, however, the stream is dry a month earlier than last year. This may be due to differences in the timing of rainfall but it is also possible that adjustments in the sandbag weir this year may have had an influence. As of this date, the sandbags have mostly fallen apart and what is left of them have been buried in a berm of sand with rocks- effectively blocking the entrance. This is not the science of using sandbags as a temporary weir! Fortunately there has been no fish movement this month and the fry are not ready to depart. They will be safe in the pond for the next couple of months at least. It should be noted that the pond gauge is reading a mere1." The fry will not, and presently cannot, attempt departure until late summer or early fall (when they are 2-4") depending on rainfall.
Large schools of very well-developed fry were observed in Slough today. They averaged around 1.5" and as noted earlier are now replicas of the adults. Recalling that the first adults entered on April 24th this development is right on schedule.