Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Pictures - Pond in a Bog

Ryan Freeze suggested I post some pictures and was kind enough to tell me how.

The first few are just different views of my pond and a couple of heron pictures. In the last few I was trying to show a 25' diameter island (but tree over hangs makes it look bigger) that has a twenty to thirty foot in places channel around it. It is directly opposite of the damn and is the end of the south (dam) to the north end of the pond (back side of the island). On the back of the west side of the island and going out from it towards the dam is a slew that has two or three feet of water in it when the pond is full. It is about 150' wide at the widest where it connects to the island channel which is from 6' to 10' deep, in fact the deepest part of the channel that goes around the island is what connects with the slew and of course there is a sharp drop off there. The slew goes back about 50 to 75' and is a thicket of willows, button bush, and the like. My pond is about 3' down now the slew is just now for the most part drying up. When the slew has water in it it has a very large concentration of FH's. At the very end of the slew is a 15 foot diameter sunny spot that is covered with duckweed. The draw that creates the slew is the main source of water and sometimes duckweed is washed out into the channels around the island, rarely do I see duckweed around the edges of the main pond. And it doesn't last long even around the channels of the island. Fish love it.

The pictures of the little fish are what I have been saying I have way to many of. They are stunned, probably because of the water draw down for the last few years of one of the worse droughts this area has had, I been told since the dust bowl and lack of preditors. Are they stunned GSF, BG, bream (what is the difference between bream and BG?)or a mix of the lot?

Last is a picture of swamp sunflower. It has real waxy leaves and I don't think there is a cultivated flower that is prettier. The are everywhere around sunny parts around the pond. I weren't lazy and mowed everything like a lot of people do I wouldn't have them since they are a fall flower and just look like a weed most of the year.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc60/webbill/Pond2007137.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc60/webbill/Pond2007101.jpg
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http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc60/webbill/Pond2007057.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc60/webbill/Pond2007050.jpg
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc60/webbill/KidsSummer2007103.jpg
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That's just a really good picture of a GBH.

The little bream (whether spelled b-r-e-a-m and pronounced "brim" or spelled b-r-i-m and pronounced "bream" - I've never been able to get that straight on-line, and the guy I work with from Florida who uses the term spent so much time overseas that he can't remember himself) look like mostly/completely BG to me. Being from "up South" in Ahia, I can't testify how genuine Southern gentlemen use the term "bream", but I have come to use it for multiple (identified or unidentified) species of Lepomis, i.e. sunfish. In that context, I like it much better than the term commonly used up here to talk about sunfish you haven't identified - "bluegill."

I wonder how closely swamp sunflower is related to black-eyed susan.

Hi Theo:

My commonly listed acronyms’ do not list GBH. I assume that is something like a green sunfish blue gill hybrid???
As a loosely speaking “southern gentleman” I concur with your Ahia observations. Bream, brim, or whatever, even perch, is used for anything that is not a LMB or some kind of catfish. I thought maybe it was me confused, but you have confirmed my deepest thoughts.

Speaking of “southern gentlemen” I will burden you with an annotate I like to use when “gentlemen” happens to come up.
Sam Houston was born in Virginia, and not being a good boy and did not like farm work unlike his brothers had a habit of running off to live with the Cherokees often and for several months at a time. He, I think, was adopted by the tribe and was given the Indian name of “The Raven”. When grown and not much use for anything else, through family influence he was given a commission in the Army. He went off with Jackson in some Indian wars, was wounded became a hero, and later began a career in politics. He had to resign as governor of Tennessee in disgrace and ran off to Indian Territory. He ran a general trading post, begun to drink heavily and got a new Indian name “Big Drunk”. During his period of being “Big Drunk” he got mad at his clerk and challenged him to a dual. His friends discouraged him telling him that his clerk was not a “gentleman” and gentlemen only challenged gentlemen to duals. Houston’s response was, “I have always treated him as a gentleman, and By God, and I am not going to stop now”! It did have a happy ending though, the seconds loaded the pistols with powder but not shot. They both took their shots, and “missed”. Houston’s honor was restored and everyone went away happy and alive. So much for being a “southern gentleman”.

Since you lived your past life in Latium, you can judge better than I, but here goes.

Black-eyed/brown-eyed Susan: Rudbeckia hirta (I have the brown eyed strain, but this book has the same Latin name for both.

Swamp Sunflower: Helianthus angustifolius

So it doesn’t look like they’re kin to me, but you’re probably smarter. My brown eyed Susan’s would drown where the swamp sunflower takes over. One well drained sandy slopes the latter wet boggy areas at least part of the year. Swamp sunflower being a fall bloomer grows taller as all fall bloomers have to do to stay higher than what went before. Swamp sunflower IMHO are much prettier flowers. The blooms have a waxy shiny glow.

Thanks for the help on the little fish.

Have nice Sunday,
Bill

Oops, I thought you making a joke about the fish pictures, not the heron. Sorry and thanks for compliment on the heron. My wife took most of the pictures I posted. The GBH just visits now and then. I have a pair of GH that have taken up residence and land within twenty feet of me sometimes. The GBH is used to us too. The pair of GH when I am working on my nesting beds set up in trees near by and cluck and fuss at me working putting out nesting gravel at their favorite wading site. The actually cock and stick out their heads when I whistle or talk to them. But that worries me a little except they are fairly small compared
to GBH and the water will be 2 1/2 to three feet deeper when nesting time arrives. That will be okay for the lmb nests but the BG nests are out of the water now and will only be about 1 or so feet deep next spring.

I am going to edit the picture post and add a pic of a GH.

I kept looking but those must be the new invisible crosshair scopes that I have read about with a camera mounted to the side.

:

I would like some swamp sunflower seeds to plant around my pond and I wouldn't mow around that pretty area for anything Bill! I want to have a path all around my but I want flowers all around it next year and those would be a real pretty addition. I do have a lot of wildflowers around it but next spring I'm going to plant seed randonly all over the place and see what happens. I just have to be careful that I don't plant any flowers that my hummingbirds particularly like. I know what would happen if my bass were in jumping distance to them...

How are your new fish recovering from the trip?

Cam

Just keep a strip that you dont mow until after the first good freeze and then not real close to the ground because a lot of wildflowers are pernnials that have winter rosetts you dont want to kill by mowing them down to close. In a few years you will be surprised by all of what you have.