Field notes of Frederick W. Schueler: 2004-2005 Mudpuppy Nights in Oxford Mills, Kemptville Creek, North Grenville Township (Oxford-on-Rideau geographic township), United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, Ontario, Canada
This is the seventh year of regular Mudpuppy night outings... Text output, unedited, from the EoBase database, lat/long WGS84 (=NAD83), please report anomalies to bckcdb@istar.ca.
21 September 2004
1) Canada: Ontario: Grenville County: Oxford-on-Rideau: Oxford Mills Dam, Kemptville Creek. (100m ard dam), 31B/13, 44.96486N 75.67863W TIME: 1920. AIR TEMP: 17 ca, cloudy, calm, sunset. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2004/153/g, visit () (event). natural history, seen, driveby. water very high, lapping at edge of Helisoma ledge.
15 October 2004
2) Canada: Ontario: Grenville County: Oxford Mills Dam, Kemptville Creek. (100m ard dam), 44.96486N 75.67863W TIME: 2002-2026. AIR TEMP: 13, light rain, calm. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water 13 C, clear. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Doug, Matt, & Philip Scott. 2004/165/f, visit () (event). survey, wade, light. Mudpuppy Night outing, NO:Necturus maculosus seen. We checked the bottom from the bridge, not seeing any fish or any Mudpuppies, and then worked the west shore, with a battery-failing searchlight. Water 10 cm below the Vantage Point, lots of swathing green algae in the shallows, and the bottom spangled with pale Maple leaves. Falling rain may have impeded visiblity later in the visit. FWS waded across the creek in the shallows, but we didn't search the east side very intensely.
3) (same location) 2004/165/fa, Orconectes virilis (Northern Crayfish) (Crayfish). 2 adult, seen, dipnetted, specimen. 45 mm M captured on W side, larger one seen on E side. The captive held in captivity (on the kitchen table) until April 2005, when it quietly expired.
Frozen until October 2006.
4) (same location) 2004/165/fb, Rana pipiens (Leopard Frog) (herp). 10+5 ca juvenile, seen. entering creek on W side, sev DOR on bridge. As we left to go home we saw some frogs on Co Road 18 in the village HEADING:E towards the creek.
5) (same location) 2004/165/fc, Rana catesbeiana (Bull Frog) (herp). 5 ca juvenile, seen. entering creek on W side, 1 DOR on bridge.
6) (same location) 2004/165/fd, Rana clamitans (Green Frog) (herp). 1 juvenile, seen. entering creek on W side.
22 October 2004
7) Canada: Ontario: Grenville County: Oxford Mills Dam, Kemptville Creek. (100m below dam), 44.96486N 75.67863W TIME: 2005-2016. AIR TEMP: 6 ca, clear, breezy. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water turbid. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler. 2004/169/f, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 4 adult, active, under cover. abortive Mudpuppy Night outing from bridge only. We were too cold and tired to do more than look at the bottom from the bridge, and had forgotten to bring a thermometer. We saw one very large adult on the west side upstream of the bridge (this was exceptionally large and broad-headed, and very likely a full 30 cm long), two large adults downstream on the west side and in the centre of the creek, and one small adult on the east side below the bridge. The water was murky-brown and the bottom was spangled with pale Maple leaves. We didn't see any large fish or frogs, but we were too far from the bottom to see any smaller animals. In the fall we seem to first see a few large ones each night, and the season has certainly started out that way this year.
29 October 2004
8) Canada: Ontario: Grenville County: Oxford Mills Dam, Kemptville Creek. (100m below dam), 44.96486N 75.67863W TIME: 2014-2043. AIR TEMP: 6.5, overcast, calm. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water turbid, 7.5 C. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler. 2004/170/c, visit () (event). survey, wade, light. Mudpuppy Night outing without other participants. Water ca 10 cm below the Vantage Point, no animals seen from there. Water more turbid than last week A lot of sunken leaves, but no floating ones. The level is low, and the central shallows are a riffle. We searched the whole site - except upstream of the dam - with the medium-bright light and the jumper battery.
The bottom is covered with blankets of flocculent algae and moss almost everywhere. There are big pillows of bright green on the spillway ledge all the way across the dam. Our failure to see Rana (True Frog) may have been due to the ease with which they could have buried themselves in the algae, but the lack of fish must be due to their real absence.
A trace of rain began to fall just as we left, but then we drove home to Bishops Mills without any more falling.
9) (same location) 2004/170/ca, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 11 adult, active, under cover. scattered, near cover, slow-moving. From bridge upstream: 1 large ad upstream on E side, 2 large ads from mid-span, 1 little one on west side. Downstream from the bridge, one medium ad and one big one, both moving slowly between stones on west side.
One medium-sized ad in midstream, retiring under a flat rock. These all in deepish water - and close to stones.
None from the Vantage Point, but two medium-sized individuals on the west side flats, one crawling under a ledge, the other swathed in algae.
Two small ones on central flats, completely buried in algae, in only about 8 cm of water. None on east side, and none under the spillway ledge either. So there aren't any out on flat bedrock away from cover except the one on the west side almost buried in the flocculant algae.
10) (same location) 2004/170/cb, Orconectes virilis (Northern Crayfish) (Crayfish). 1 adult, seen. medium-size ad on east-side flats.
11) (same location) 2004/170/cc, Gyrinidae (Whirligig Beetle) (entomological). 100 ca mature, seen. moderate numbers of large adults near shore.
12) (same location) 2004/170/cd, cf Semotilus atromaculatus (Creek Chub) (fish). 7 ca adult, seen. on east-side flats, ca 10 cm striped minnows in a group. Tentative identification from Scott & Crossman (1973), as the only dorso-laterally striped Cyprinid available. No other fish seen, NO:Rana seen.
13) (same location) 2004/170/ce, Cucurbita pepo (Pumpkin) (Plant). 1 in fruit, seen. 1 fruit lodged on some rocks below bridge, ca 35 cm diameter. This was gone the next morning - either carried or floated off.
5 November 2004
14) Canada: Ontario: Grenville County: Oxford Mills Dam, Kemptville Creek. (100m below dam), 44.96486N 75.67863W TIME: 2008-2037. AIR TEMP: 3, clear, breezy. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water turbid, 5 C. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler. 2004/172/e, visit () (event). survey, wade, light. Mudpuppy Night outing, rising turbid water, few Animals. Survey was by FWS, as AKS napped in the car, and there weren't any other participants.
The water was murky-turbid above the dam, where there were wreaths of rotting Myriophyllum (Water Milfoil), but no animals could be seen from the dam. The water downstream was also turbid, and there was floating foam in the main flow and foam blankets below the Vantage Point ledge & in the east-side eddy.
Water ca 3 cm below the Vantage Point, and a blanket of foam kept me from seeing any animals from there. Water very turbid - still more than last week. The level has risen, and the central shallows are about 35 cm deep. This year so far the three spillways have each about the same flow, and the water just goes straight across the site, with no central eddy.
The bottom is still covered with blankets of flocculent algae, though there are few sunken leaves left, and the failure to see Rana (True Frog) and Orconectes (Orconectes) may have been due to the ease with which they could have buried themselves in the algae: but the continuing lack of fish must be due to their real absence.
15) (same location) 2004/172/ea, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 9 adult, seen. 3 seen from bridge, 2 on W side, 4 on E side. One small one above the bridge on the east side, and two large ones below the bridge (centre & E side). None from the Vantage Point, where the view was reduced by a blanket of foam, but two medium-size ones on the west side flats. Then in wading across to the east side, and up to the spillway, a total of four, all among the bottom algae, and one of them so covered that what was visible of the head at first looked like the posterior back of a frog. The east side eddy was also covered by foam, so it couldn't be scanned. None above or below spillway ledges - E or W.
16) (same location) 2004/172/eb, Gyrinidae (Whirligig Beetle) (entomological). few mature, seen. few swimming along shores & on bottom.
12 November 2004
17) Canada: Ontario: Grenville County: Oxford Mills Dam, Kemptville Creek. (100m ard dam), 44.96486N 75.67863W TIME: 2009-2053. AIR TEMP: -5, clear, calm. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water 1.5 C, fairly clear. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Eric Snyder, Aleta Karstad Schueler. 2004/177/b, visit () (event). survey, wade, light. Mudpuppy Night outing with searchlight. We didn't check above the dam. The water downstream was much clearer than last week, but there was still a lot of floating foam in the main flow and foam blankets below the Vantage Point ledge & in the east-side eddy. Above the bridge the surface was very ripply and the bottom hard to see, but visibility was exceptionally good below the bridge, and the Necturus seen were further downstream than it's usually possible to see them (no explanation is proffered for this phenomenon). The water level left the Vantage Point awash, and the foam blanket was much samller than last week's; and one small Necturus seen from there.
FWS did the bridge (Helen Westendorp & 2 Brigadoon diners cambe by and chatted when no Necturus were in sight), the Vantage Point, and the west side shallows, and then Eric Snyder took the light to wade the east side, both the whole width of the flats and the grassy area near the bridge - the deep water was too foamy to check.
The bottom is still covered with blankets of flocculent algae, with a few sunken leaves left, and the failure to see Rana (True Frog) may have been due to the ease with which they could have buried themselves in the algae: but the continuing lack of fish must be due to their real absence.
18) (same location) 2004/177/ba, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 12 adult, seen. 3 seen below bridge, 1 at Vantage Pt, 2 at W flats, 6 at E side flats. Two medium-size and 1 large seen below the bridge, quite a ways downstream and each letting go and drifting when the light was shined on it. There was a little one swathed in algae near the Vantage Point ledge, and one in algae and one head sticking out from under a ledge on the west side. Eric saw 6 in a careful search of the entire east side flats.
19) (same location) OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2004/177/ba, Orconectes virilis (Northern Crayfish) (Crayfish). 1 adult, seen. on the west side flats, a large adult.
19 November 2004
moved 0.03 km E.
20) Canada: Ontario: Grenville County: Kemptville Creek, just below Oxford Mills Dam. (50m waypoint), 44.96481N 75.67827W TIME: 2007-2045. AIR TEMP: -1, clear, calm. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water 4.5 C, moderately turbid. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, John Wood, Brian Day. 2004/178/c, visit () (event). survey, wade, light, photo. Mudpuppy Night outing with searchlight. Turbid water and no Animals seen above the dam. The water is about as turbid and foamy as last week, but the algae on the bottom is going to mush, and obviously lacks the vitality it has had in previous weeks.
From the bridge we saw 2 Necturus, and one Rana catesbeiana (Bull Frog) that Brian photographed. On the west shore the Vantage Point ledge was just awash, with an extensive foam blanket, and no animals were seen from it. There were two Necturus and one Esox (Esox sp.) seen on the west side.
FWS waded across on the shllows, and searched the east side without seeing any Animals - a foam blanket over the downstream deep area on the east side.
21) (same location) 2004/178/ca, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 3 adult, seen, captured, photo. 1 small above, 1 large below the bridge, 1 on W side flats. This last one, medium size, netted, and photographed by Brian Day.
22) (same location) 2004/178/cb, Esox lucius (Northern Pike) (fish). 1 adult, seen, light. ca 45 cm TL, in 70 cm water below W side flats. One small Cyprinid here as well.
23) (same location) 2004/178/cc, Rana catesbeiana (Bull Frog) (herp). 1 adult, seen, light, photo. large ad, just below bridge, fairly active. Squeezed itself halfway under a rock during exposure to the searchlight.
24) (same location) 2004/178/cd, Cucurbita pepo (Pumpkin) (Plant). 1 in fruit, seen. ca 18 cm, in stream below dam on E side.
26 November 2004
25) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2001-2029. AIR TEMP: -8.5, clear, calm. HABITAT: turbid brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water 1 C. OBSERVER: Frederick W., Aleta Karstad, & Jennifer H. Schueler, Brian Day. 2004/179/d, visit () (event). survey, wade, light. Mudpuppy Night excursion with full Moon, NO:Necturus seen. The water was high from the recent rain, and had the grey-turbid colour characteristic of this time of year - as if made turbid by very fine dark particles. There was 15 cm of water surging over the Vantage Point ledge, and there were only a few square metres of water on each side of the stream where Necturus might have been able to be active. Needless to say, none were. The water was surging 10 cm or so along the shores, and left a drift of 1 cm ice knobs at the high surge level. No remnants of the fall's bottom coating of flocculent algae are visible.
No bottom visible from the bridge, and no animals except a few fish seen in wading both shores (including a foray to a 1 m deep central eddy on the west shore, and into the grassy area on the east side) - there was a strong eddy running upstream on both shores; all three spillways still low. Brian took some photos of the dam. No animals seen in the turbid water above the dam, where there was a skim of ice along the shores, though the open water was ice-free.
26) (same location) OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2004/179/da, Ambloplites rupestris (Rock Bass) (fish). 1 juvenile, seen. ca 7 m TL, near shore on E side, 2 smaller Cyprinids here & 1 on W side.
3 December 2004
27) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2016-2033. AIR TEMP: -8, overcast, calm. HABITAT: high-brownwater creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water 0 C. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Brian Day, Lisette Day. 2004/186/a, visit () (event). survey, light. Mudpuppy Night outing, NO:Necturus seen due to high water. The water was even higher than last week, with much the same (if perhaps less) of the grey-turbid colour characteristic of this time of year. There was about 20 cm of water surging over the Vantage Point ledge (I didn't wade out to measure it), and the only place where Necturus might have been able to be active was on the flooded ledge above the Vantage point, where we usually stand - about 15-20 cm of moderately surging water and little floating flakes of slush and ice. Waves were breaking on all the shores, with little flocks of 5-10 cm ice lumps concentrated in some eddies.
There was a strong eddy running upstream on both shores, and a smooth cascade flowing over all three spillways. No bottom visible from the bridge, and no animals of any kind seen. There were flocks of 1-2 m slush-pans coming down the stream above the dam and being dissolved as they were swept over - at least any ice that remained in the main flow wasn't distinguishable from a moderate flecking of small patches of foam.
Before last winter I used to 'guarantee' that we'd see at least one Mudpuppy at every outing - but that was before last winter taight me how high and fast the water could be in the winter. I think these pupless nights just go to show how dry the first 5 years of Mudpuppy Night were. I'm certainly glad we haven't yet begun to put up posters, hand out fliers, and advertise to newpapers and broadcasters in an effort to bring in new participants - I think that will have to wait until there are solid shelves of land-fast ice.
10 December 2004
28) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2005-2017. AIR TEMP: 0, graupel, snowing, breezy. HABITAT: highwater brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, floating ice. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2004/188/a, visit () (event). survey, drive. Mudpuppy Night outing with spotlight, NO:Necturus seen. The water was higher than last week, with much the same of the grey-turbid colour. There was about 30 cm of white water surging over the Vantage Point ledge (I didn't wade out to measure it), and the only place where Necturus might have been able to be active was on the flooded ledge above the Vantage point, where we usually stand - about 15-20 cm of moderately surging water and floating flakes of slush and ice. Waves were breaking on all the shores, under solid ledge-shelves of ice 20 cm above the current water level. There were flocks of 10-20 cm ice/slush pans in all the eddies, so water temperature was evidently 0 C, though I didn't enter the water to measure the temperature.
There was a strong eddy running upstream on both shores, a smooth cascade flowing over all three spillways, there was a moderate flecking of small patches of foam, but no accumulations of foam. No bottom visible from the bridge, and no animals of any kind seen (one strand of Myriophyllum (Water Milfoil) surging back and forth in some grass stems on the west shore was the only aquatic production seen). The stream above the dam was bridged by thin ice about 200 m upstream of the dam.
There was about 4 mm of excess diameter on the twigs, from the afternoon icestorm. Heavy snow-graupel was falling, and there was about 3 cm on the ground. It turned completely to snow before I left.
31 December 2004
29) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2003-2016. AIR TEMP: 6.5, overcast, windy. HABITAT: high brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water high & turbid, 0 C. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Jennifer Helene Schueler. 2004/192/a, visit () (event). survey, light. brief Mudpuppy Night outing, NO:Necturus seen. The water was brown-turbid in colour. No bottom was visible from the bridge. There was a large slab over the Vantage Point ledge, and the ledge of ice 2-4 m out from the west shore was so slippery that we didn't deem it safe to approach the water below the Vantage Point. The water temperature 0 C: though ice was melting on the shores this must have been from the warm air rather than the water. There was ice all across all the spillways.
Some of the notes taken were quite illegible.
7 January 2005
30) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2001-2025. AIR TEMP: -4, overcast, calm. HABITAT: high brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Brian Day. 2005/001/g, Sciurus carolinensis (Grey Squirrel) (Mammal). 1? adult, tracks. trackway across bridge. Mudpuppy Night outing truncated when FWS slipped & fell, badly bruising his right side between ribs & hip. The water was water clear but grey, appears to be melting back - narrow cornices over open water west spillway open - otherwrs with water flowing over (?) contunuous ice. NO:Necturus seen.
AKS: "20:00 -3 C, OVC, CLM. Mudpuppy Night, with Brian Day. Upstream from the bridge, along the west side, a pristine coverlet of snow with an elegant curving, neatly scalcoped lace collar, with the water rattling beneath the edge. Water clearer than expected, but still too deep & turbulent to see the bottom well. Fred slipped on thick uneven ice under fluffy snow just as we started down to the riverbank, and fell on his battery chahger. So we went no farther. There were tracks of one squirrel along the base of the railing of the bridge. "
13 January 2005
31) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2204-2222. AIR TEMP: 12, light rain, windy. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/002/a, visit () (event). survey, seen, heard, light. checking Mudpuppy Night conditions, NO:Necturus seen. My movements around the site were somewhat restricted, because of residual muscle strain from last week's fall, the fact that I was alone, and the incredible slipperyness of many patches of ice. Even in lawns where the grass was almost completely exposed there were slopes where one couldn't walk, because of the greased-lightning patches, where the ice had frozen down hard to the soil, and had only melted away on the surface. The parkinglot on the east side was a perfectly smooth, solid, gently undulating flooded, shuffle-over-it sheet of ice.
From the bridge no bottom was visible. The water was dark grey-turbid where it hadn't mixed with inflows from ruts and culverts, and tannish clay-turbid where it had. The level was about 20 cm over the Vantage Point ledge, though I didn't dare descend to measure the depth or the water temperature.
There were sheets of ice a few metres out from the shores - up above water level on the west side, and submerged on the east. The impoundment was completely covered with more-or-less submerged thick grey ice, melted in veins and for a few metres around the spillways. I didn't notice if there was any ice left in the spillways.
14 January 2005
32) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2018-2041. AIR TEMP: -9, cloudy, breezy. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Brian Day, Penny Tanner, Guy & Lori----. 2005/003/a, visit () (event). survey, seen, heard, light. Mudpuppy Night outing with lights, NO:Necturus seen. The water was still as high - or higher - than last night, with about 25 cm of surging water over the Vantage Point ledge, and a big standing wave just beside it. There was one pile of frozen yellow foam, about 70 cm x 70 xm x 70 cm, below the west spillway; the water was dark grey-turbid. The central spillway was completely bridged with ice, and the East and west spillways open.
From the bridge no bottom was visible. There were sheets of ice a few metres out from the west shores - 15 cm up above water level on the west side at the Vantage Point, with slabs in the water below it. I didn't walk out on the ledge to see how far it would bear my weight! On the east the submerged ice seems to have gone, and Brian Day examined the eddy there with the light without seeing any animals, or much of the bottom.
Arthur Goldsmith had written: "The Macnamara Club has scheduled Friday, January 14 th for joining you in Mudpuppy Night. . . Hopefully Oxford Mills has extra security guards on hand to control the extra thousands of mudpuppy enthusiasts that could appear. " My account of conditions last night caused all of the club that were in e-mail communication with Art to stay home, since I had suggested that they'd need to be "heroically indifferent to broken bones, bruised organs, drowning, and not seeing what they came to see. " In fact, there was 1-2 cm or so of new snow, which was frozen onto last night's wet ice, and resulted in excellent traction, though the hazards of approach to the water and lack of Mudpuppies were as predicted.
18 January 2005
33) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 0911. AIR TEMP: -25 ca, sunny, breeze. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Corey Wood. 2004/004/b, visit () (event). survey, driveby. wide expanses of open water steaming profusely. And the whole width of the stream still open at 15h38.
21 January 2005
34) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1015. AIR TEMP: -25 ca, sunny, calm. HABITAT: high brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Corey Wood. 2004/005/a, visit () (event). survey, drive. stream still open & steaming, but broad flakes of ice on E & W. . . . sides of the stream below the dam - as if beginning to form a solid ice cover out from the narrow shelves that have been there in recent weeks.
35) (same location) TIME: 1947-2025,2110. AIR TEMP: -29, clear, Beaufort light air. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Jennifer Helene Schueler, Brian Day. 2004/005/b, visit () (event). survey, seen, light, photo. stream open & steaming, pans & flakes of ice in stream & eddies. The open water was steaming everywhere - spillway with spectaular massive icicle deposits, though only the central spillway is bridged by ice (Brian Day photos). About 10 cm flowing over the Vantage Point; about 4 cm of new snow.
There were flocks of flakes and little pans of ice on the E & W eddies - but the eddies weren't circular enough to entrain pans for long enough for them to grow more than 30 cm or so in diameter, and some were continously being swept downstream out of the eddies. There was no solid ice cover above the bridge. The water was dark and maybe fairly grey-turbid, but hard to judge because of all the steam, ice crystals, pans, and ripples on the surface.
The narrow ledges along the W shore may be 1 m thick in places now, and the ice on the east side is equally well defined, especially on a raised lobe of hard white ice over the little grassy island below the retaining wall.
Below the bridge there was ice cover on the west side; only a few sq m of bottom was viewable from the bridge, just above the bridge on the east side.
AIR_TEMP at 21h10 was -31 C by the thermometer exposed to the sky, -25.5 C in the air-intake of Brian's car as we drove home. Jenn's Shadow's temperature gauge was reading high, and the radiator was making gurgling noises, so we left her car here (nothing wrong with it, fortunately, except a defective temperature gauge), and Brian detoured to Bishops Mills to take us home).
Brian writes: "The thermometer on my car is quite accurate but it has a tremendous
hysteresis. The -25.5 C indication was influenced by the heat from the engine while parked. I noticed when I drove back home that the temperature was actually -27 C). "
36) (same location) 2004/005/ba, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 8 adult, seen, light, photo. 2 above bridge on E side, 5 along Wside shallows, 1 on E side flats. All these seen from the ice-ledge banks without wading (none from the vicinity of the Vantage Point). The steam, turbulence, and slush-ice at the surface made it hard to see them, but they were walking actively about, and the mid-winter activity season is obviously in full swing. Both large and small ones were present. The one Brian photographed walked 5 m from offshore to the edge of the ice-ledge in the time it took for him to get his camera organized to photograph it, and then disappeared below the ledge.
37) (same location) 2004/005/bb, Lontra canadensis (River Otter) (Mammal). 4? adult, track. 4 trackways on W side, over W end of dam, & down into water. Another trackway emerged from the water on the W side and ran along the snow-covered ice ledge before going back into the water just above the bridge.
22 January 2005
38) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1250-1258. AIR TEMP: -21 ca, overcast, windy. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Jennifer Helene Schueler. 2004/006/b, visit () (event). survey, seen, light, photo. stream still open, pans & flakes of ice in stream & eddies. The water is now steaming only as it comes over the spillways, and still only the central spillway is bridged by ice. Flakes of slushy ice form right in the main current below the spillways, but they don't accumulate anywhere except on the west side below the bridge, where there's a thin ice cover, mostly yellowish froth ice, but with rippling dark annulations (bands, striae?) in some places. There is a 3 m triangle of thin ice over the west side flats just below the Vantage Point ledge, which wasn't there last night, but all the rest of the area above the bridge is free of attached ice between the shore ledges. Ice cover downstream below the rapids is, of course, solid all across the stream.
Jenn's Shadow hadn't lost any radiator coolant, and she drove away to Ottawa.
28 January 2005
39) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2005-2115. AIR TEMP: -18 ca, clear, calm. HABITAT: extensively frozen brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Greg Hutton, Art Goldsmith, Jon Crowe, & Mcnamaras. 2005/007/a, visit () (event). survey, light, axe, wade, dipnetted. Mudpuppy Night outing with Macnamara Club. Ice cover is continuous across the stream both above and below the bridge. The ice is alternately flakey-looking and very smooth, and slightly yellow - probably thicker and stronger than it appeared. The water quite grey-turbid with tiny particles, and not steaming except a little at the spillways, which are now all bridged by ice. Flecks of foam accumulated in a white 40 cm mound where the main current flows under the ice. The Vantage Point was buried in ice, but couldn't have been much above the water level, and there was about 4 cm of new snow, with running Vulpes or Felis catus (Domestic Cat) -like tracks snowed in on the east and west shores, but NO:Lontra tracks.
The narrow ledges along the E & W shore are fringed by a few m of new 20-30 cm-thick ice, so only the 'upstream flats' were free of ice. Axe work on this very tough yellowish ice freed about 15 sq m of bottom, and more Necturus moved into the cleared areas than were uncovered by it.
Visitors were mostly not equipt with wading boots, and they stayed on the old high ice ledges (above the very slippery steep snow-covered slopes of the ledges) seeing the Necturus that wondered close to shore, but missing the clusters and clumps in mid-stream. Greg Hutton supervised the shores, and Jonathon Crowe waded across the stream with me from the west to the east.
Confirmed Mcnamara Field Naturalists included: Arthur Goldsmith, Stephen Beaton, Carla Serwotka, Dave and Vicki Thomson, Murray and Judy Borer, though there were other participants as well. FWS had left the thermometer on the roof of the volvo, and it was lost (before it could be read) when AKS drove off to Kemptville to get transmission fluid.
40) (same location) OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Greg Hutton, Art Goldsmith, Jon Crowe, & Mcnamaras. 2005/007/aa, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 35 ca adult, active, light, wade, dipnetted. both large & small, active thruout open & uncovered bottom. Counts are approximate because of the press of visitor activity, and the unfamilar character of the ice: about 7 on the west side flats, about 10 in midstream, and about 10 on the east side flats, and 6 caulked in under the east-side ledge below the spillway. The Vantage Point was buried in ice, and 1-2 of the west-side ones could have been seen from there.
The size distribution seemed to be bimodal with many 'big' adults (mean=ca 28 cm?) and also many 'little' ones (mean=ca 20 cm?). They were all through the area, and moving around actively, but in little eddies and even apparent non-eddy patches in the main current there were clusters of 4-5 lying side-by-side, and also ranks heading parallel upstream on the bottom; these seemed to mostly be big adults.
Visitors were mostly not equipt with wading boots, and they stayed on the old high ice ledges seeing the Necturus that wondered close to shore, and one big adult I dip-netted on the west side.
4 February 2005
41) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1726-1745. AIR TEMP: 1 ca, clear, calm. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/008/d, visit () (event). natural history, walk. too dark to place Mudpuppy Night bait on the bottom. . . . since I couldn't see into the water, so I left the bait, a block of old road-killed Rana (True Frog), frozen onto a string, floating in the west-side eddy, tethered to a knob of ice.
42) (same location) TIME: 2005-2055. AIR TEMP: -10 ca, clear, calm. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, R.M.Rankin, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Wes von Papineau, Francis R.Cook, +many more. 2005/008/e, visit () (event). natural history, seen, light, wade, axe. Mudpuppy Night outing with many visitors. Subject: MPup Notes
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 21:55:22 -0500 (EST)
From: "Wes von Papineau" <mail 423 o at dnd. ca>
Organization: DND
To: bckcdb at istar. ca
04 Feb:
A. 32 present that I counted, including the two of you.
B. I'm not sure if you had picked up another thermometer or not . . . but on the drive to the HQ, CBC said it was -2 C at 2116 hrs, and the Weather Channel saids that it was -2 C at the airport at 2135.
C. You had an eclectic mix tonight . . . your own groupies or regulars (Dr Cook, et al), the OFNC, OARA (Mike et moi) and a group from the university. Plus a young couple who had been told of the event by their friends in the OFNC (of which they are not members) and subsequently came out as 'independents'. There was also a gentleman with his daughter out tonight that were from the same field naturalist group that you hosted last week (Mcnamara's). What's that then . . . six different 'communities' educated tonight?
D. Proteus & Necturus, Cryptobranhcus & Andrias?.
Now . . . onto things Indonesian . . . - Wes.
Necturophiles,
It seems like most of you were there anyways, so it's hardly worth reporting, but for those who weren't, we were pushing the maximum Mudpuppy count tonight, as well as approaching the maximum observer count, with, among others, a huge contingent from the Ottawa Field-Naturalists Club.
As seems to be usual, Aleta and I arrived late. Every week we tell ourselves we've *got* to be in the car by 19h40, but then, despite how early we start to depart, some train of circumstances erupts that keeps us scuttling about here until 19h50, and there goes another week in which we could have demonstrated the reliability expected of adults. . .
But anyway, when we arrived, there were lots of folks standing about the bridge, with Major Wes von Papineau and past-president Mike Rankin demonstrating the Mudpuppies along the west shore to a galaxy of other visitors. This is where I'd put a disk of frozen frogs in the water at 17h30, but there was no clear indication that the frog-bait had attracted any of the 16 Mudpuppies Wes reported in that area, because the freeze-dried frogs had floated at the surface. (MEMO: next time freeze a rock in the centre of the mass of frogs).
With Mike and Wes handling near-shore interpretation, and catching 3 medium-size Mudpuppies for the bucket, and Aleta on shore to interpret them, I was free to wade the whole width of the extensive open area and make a fairly good count: 48 seen in going across the upper flats, and caulked under the east-spillway ledge. The water coming through the centre and west spillways was probably too violent for there to have been many caulked there, though the water was so churned up I couldn't have seen them if there had been.
Then I went downstream and counted 10 on the lower flats, many of them half buried in moss, which is quite luxuriant in mid-channel this winter. Wes and I chopped about 20 sq m of the still very-slippery ice from the west side flats and revealed only 2 more Mudpuppies, so they mostly seem to have been out in the main current, and mostly well upstream. They averaged smaller than last week (perhaps because the small size-mode was better populated), but I caught one exceptionally large individual (later measured at 325 mm TL) for the bucket from the downstream flats. Mike Rankin saw a Cottus (Cottus sp.), the only non-mudpuppy animal noted.
Unfortunately, those on shore, even with lots of lights, were able to see few of the 'puppies, because the water was finely turbid (with a whiff of anoxic 'cat-farts' small), and the observers were up on the old ice ledge, which is now a full metre above the water level (ice on the flats is too fragile to support more than a couple people, and was too slippery to recommend). Wes counted 32 observers, but they were coming and going through the evening, so the total may have been higher.
When we retired to the Brigadoon, the 'puppy in the bucket was brought in for three sets of diners to exclaim over, so we probably reached in excess of 60 people with Mudpuppy lore and experience tonight.
(-10 C (thermometers on the top of the car), clear, calm, Vantage Point sheathed in ice, all spillways bridged by ice, ice not much extended beyond what was present last week, little foam, water boiling up from under ice at the west spillway and steaming below east spillway, no open water visible from the bridge. )
Unless we have a major thaw, I anticipate similar conditions next week, when the Kingston field Naturalists will be the visiting group.
fred.
------------------------------------------------------
43) (same location) OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, R.M.Rankin, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Wes von Papineau, +. 2005/008/ea, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 75 ca adult, seen, light, wade, axe. Mudpuppy Night outing with many visitors. I waded the whole width of the extensive open area of the upstream flats, away from where Wes had counted 16 Necturus. I made a fairly good count: a total of 48 seen in going across the upper flats and caulked under the east-spillway ledge. The water coming through the centre and west spillways was probably too violent for there to have been many caulked there, though the water was so churned up I couldn't have seen them if there had been. Then I went downstream and counted 10 on the lower flats, many of them half buried in moss, which is quite luxuriant in mid-channel this winter. Wes and I chopped about 20 sq m of the still very-slippery ice from the west side flats and revealed only 2 more Mudpuppies, so they mostly seem to have been out in the main current, and mostly well upstream.
Mike, Wes, and Aleta handled near-shore interpretation, and caught 3 medium-size Mudpuppies for the bucket. When the question of whether these were 'large' came up, I dipnetted a 325 mm individual I'd seen on the downstream flats, likely the largest one that we saw tonight (we brought her home and measured her in a bag).
The total counted was 76, and any duplication between Wes' 16 and my 48 would have been cancelled out by underestimates of the number downstream. They averaged smaller than last week (perhaps because the small size-mode was better populated).
44) (same location) OBSERVER: R.M.Rankin -- communicated to: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/008/eb, Cottus (Cottus sp.) (fish). 1 adult, seen, wade, light. noted on bottom of west-side flats. . . . the only non-mudpuppy animal noted.
8 February 2005
45) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1153. AIR TEMP: 3, foggy, overcast, calm. HABITAT: frozen-over brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/009/a, visit () (event). natural history, walk. released Necturus & retrieved cord frog bait was frozen around. Water not a lot higher but ice extensively melted and porous on surface - the yellow new ice flats are now brown. Piles of foam 30-40 cm high at the downstream end of open water.
11 February 2005
46) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1711-1730. AIR TEMP: -3 ca, sunny, sunset, breezy. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/009/b, visit () (event). natural history, walk. left frog bait for tonight's outing. Water lower than last week - central open water area with extensive placid flats from high temeperatures. Low rim of foam all along the downstream margins of the open water. Spillways sheathed in ice.
47) (same location) TIME: 2002-2114. AIR TEMP: -16, clear, calm. HABITAT: extensively frozen brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Brian Day, Kingston Field-Nats, ++. 2005/010/aa, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 80 ca adult, seen, light, wade, axe. many all through open-water areas, big & small, most in current. A Mudpuppy Night outing with many visitors. No Necturus were none crowded around the frog bait tethered to the ice on the west side, but about 15 were seen on the west side. I waded across on the middle flat and saw 37 and then 10 more on the east side in the upper eddy over the flats and 4 caulked under the east spillway ledge. Then about 10 more on the downstream end of the flats as I was wading back. Many big & small individuals, almost all in the current. A whole troop of us waded across and went to the east side, perhaps adding 5 to the count - maybe more? The group from Kingston were the best-booted group to come this winter - and this count of Mudpuppies is an historic high.
Water very brown-turbid, up about 10 cm from last week. There were NO:Lontra canadensis or other tracks on the ice above, or the 2 day-old snow below the dam. The spillways remained ice-sheathed. There were many visitors, and some just showed up briefly at the end, no adequate list of visitors was made.
One visitor recalled seeing this species diurno-aestivally active in Bass Lake, near Kahshe Lake - 44.8722 N 79.2101 W.
48) (same location) 2005/010/ab, Orconectes virilis (Northern Crayfish) (Crayfish). 1 adult, dead, seen, light, wade, axe. seen dead.
18 February 2005
49) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2009-2044. AIR TEMP: -19, clear, calm. OBSERVER: Frederick W., Aleta Karstad, & Jennifer H. Schueler, Rory Tanner, Brian Day, Guy Hallifax, Penny Tanner. FWS 05 Feb 182009/a, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 80 ca adult, seen, light, wade, axe. ca 5 on W side below flats, ca 17 on E flats & eddy. A few were large - but maybe only 2 - the rest were small. A big central open area - the same as last week with a flange of knobby ice (notes illegible - perhaps "major <1 m") on most edges. Ice snow-covered and strong. Water turbid, but no 'cat-fart' small.
25 February 2005
50) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1958-2129. AIR TEMP: -17, clear, calm. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Brian Day, Bill & Barb Bowman, Wes von Papineau, ++. FWS/011/d, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 35 ca adult, drive. Mudpuppy Night outing with cooked Rana for bait. I'd written to the Nature List:
> There's no reason to think that there won't be lots of Mudpuppies at Oxford Mills tonight, and I'm even now preparing to cook up a malodorous stew of old roadkilled frogs to see if we can attract them to what we can hope they will consider a source of food. . .
* Aleta affirmed that the stew was malodorous, though to me it just smelled a lttle fishy and froggy. I cooked up abut 4 litres of old dead frogs, and brought them in the pressure-cooker pot they were cooked in.
We had a good turnout, those named and and a father and two boys from Brian's workplace. At first I just submerged the pressure-cooker pot in the water on the west side, in the eddy just downstream of the Vantage Point, without dumping out any frogs. No Necturus approached the pot, but we were wading and dipnetting about in its vicinity.
After the pot was put in the water we counted about 20 Mudpuppies evenly dispersed on the west side, mostly of the 'small' size class, and then I waded across the stream - seeing about 15 in the mossy main channel - most of them 'large' - but there were none on the shallow water of the east-side eddy or under the east spillway ledge. Were they all attracted over to the west side by the cooked frogs, or was the east side water less well-oxygenated? They had their gills well-expanded, as if oxygen levels were low, but they were moving around quite actively.
The open water extends from the spillways down almost to the drop-off to deeper water. The spillways have massive amounts of ice on them - there's a boxlike chunk tipped out from the central spillway that seems to be about 2 x 2 x 2 m - but the falling water can be directly seen in some places. There was a faint smell of 'cat-farts' (indicating low oxygen levels), very brown-turbid water, and lots of steam coming off the water for the temperature.
There was extensive new thin shelves and slabs of ice, and we removed about 20 sq m of thin ice and a small area of thick ice from the west side - many of the shelves had been held 5 cm above the falling water, and collapsed with just a few axe blows. We cleared the ice from a bit of the Vantage Point ledge, which we saw for the first time in months, about 2 cm above the water level. At the downstream end of the open water there were piles of flakey little pans, not much denser than snow, piled up among some of the 1-2 m slabs.
Wes tried to walk across on the ice below the open water but broke through twice, tipping up a slab and dampening his outfit to chest level, obliging him to retire to his vehicle and change into dry clothes.
After I dumped all the cooked frogs into the water in the west-side eddy, we saw several Necturus approaching fragments of frog in a determined way, and one with a half-swallowed frog in its mouth.
Just as were were leaving, another party of about 8 arrived late, from Ottawa, who had seen the OFNC notice in T & L. They were in street shoes, and in the beam of Bill Bowman's light (which retained more charge than mine) we watched a small Mudpuppy close to shore in a crack in the bedrock, and saw a larger one briefly in 60 cm of water (almost invisible due to the murky turbidity). I then waded across to the east side, seeing a fair number, again in the central moss, and also seeing many of our fragments of frogs out in the main current - so the frogs had dispersed half the width of the stream, and doubtless had sent many of the Mudpuppies under cover to digest their good fortune. Again there were none on the east-side eddy.
So if the water level remains steady and oxygen levels fall further, we may not see many Mudpuppies next week, but if the water level falls it may let enough air under the ice above the dam for oxygenation to be restored.
28 February 2005
51) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 0753. AIR TEMP: -9 ca, light overcast, Beaufort light air. HABITAT: frozen-over brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/013/a, visit () (event). natural history, driveby. open water 25%covered with fluffy brownish slush & frozen foam.
4 March 2005
52) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2001-2046. AIR TEMP: -15, clear, calm. HABITAT: largely frozen-over brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. FWS/013/ba, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 14 adult, light, wade. a few active in low-oxygen stream. Last week I wrote: "So if the water level remains steady and oxygen levels fall further, we may not see many Mudpuppies next week, but if the water level falls it may let enough air under the ice above the dam for oxygenation to be restored. "
But with a week of mild temperatures, and a heavy fall of snow to further seal the water off from any air, the oxygen content seems to have fallen further - there was a distinct whiff of "cat farts" from the water, and it was very turbid with brown particles - the bottom sometimes not visible at 60 cm depth. The west and central spillways are almost completely occluded by ice, so most of the flow was through the east spillway, leaving only a small area of eddy on the east side. There was an (unprecedented?) big slow eddy on the west side - constantly skimming over with ice, which piled up in big heaps of yellowish 'frozen foam' - though it wasn't really since it hadn't ever been foam, it was just piles of skimmed off sheets of ice crystals. Water coming down the east spillway alternated between strange siren-like and horn-like tones.
I broke off about 100 sq m of the thin ice that had formed over the previously open water - slabs and masses of slush, only 2-4 cm thick, and sent them downstream in the strong central current. Only a couple of the mid-stream Necturus were under cleared areas.
The Mudpuppies were blurry through the turbid water: 2 (2) under ledges on the west side, 7 (4) in the west side of the main current, and 5 (4) in the east side eddy. The first numbers are from the first outing (2001-2027) and those in parentheses from a revisit at 2030-2046. They were quite active, but had gills widely expanded.
53) (same location) FWS/013/bb, Cottus (Cottus sp.) (fish). 1 adult, light, seen. sluggish in low-oxygen stream, ca 10 cm TL.
54) (same location) FWS/013/bc, cf Branta canadensis (Canada Goose) (Bird). 1 adult, tracks, seen. tracks from open water above bridge to water below bridge. This bird walked up from the open water onto the east shore ice, turned around at the stone wall, and then turned downstream to walk under the bridge to the open rapids below the bridge.
11 March 2005
55) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2000-2048. AIR TEMP: -6, 5, calm, light snow. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Wes von Papineau, Brian Day, Joe Sparling, +. 2005/016/e, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 6 adult, dipnetted, light, axe, wade. a few active in low-oxygen stream. Last week there weren't many Necturus, and there was the distinct whiff of "cat farts" from the brown-turbid water, which indicate low oxygen.
After a week of moderate sub-freezing temperatures the flow had further decreased, and these conditions were intensified - only 6 Necturus seen, all fairly big ones in the 30-40 cm water of the main current, and none under extensive areas of ice cleared on either side of the current. Two were dipnetted up for demonstration purposes. They were moderately active, and had gills widely expanded.
Again the water was very turbid with brown particles - the bottom sometimes not visible at 60 cm depth, and the particles settling out in a fluffy layer on the bottom of the west eddy. The flow through the spillways is more nearly equal than it was last week, and I chopped away for a while on the massive sheathing ice of the west spillway to try to increase oxygenation of the water coming over the dam (trying to increase the Mudpuppy count for the crew coming from Toronto tomorrow night). There was a very strong odor of cat farts where the water is foaming over the spillway.
The ice over the lower part of the flats was big loosely jammed floes (probably from last week's chopping), with a huge field of 30 cm thick white foam - not very frozen above it. Then on the east side there were areas of 1 cm ice that was rippled like corrugated roofing, and fairly big areas of flat 5-6 cm ice. At all of this I whacked away, while Wes carried kids pick-a-back to see Mudpuppies in midstream. I cleared maybe 150 sq m of ice and foam, both in serach of Mudpuppies (none seen under cleared ice), and in hopes of increasing oxygenation potential for tomorrow.
12 March 2005
56) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2014-2050,2250. AIR TEMP: -9 ca, calm, clear. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Wes von Papineau, Steve Marks, J, D & C.Sharpe, Smith & Bolton. 2005/017/ha, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 7 adult, dipnetted, light, axe, wade. a few active in low-oxygen stream. The OBSERVER party from Toronto comprised Steve Marks, Jason Sharpe, Derek Sharpe, Chris Sharpe, David Smith, and Ryan Bolton. Conditions very similar to last night, with strong "cat farts" odor from the brown-turbid water, indicating low oxygen. Again the water was very turbid with brown particles - the bottom sometimes not visible at 60 cm depth, and the particles settling out in a fluffy layer on the bottom of the west eddy. There were a few little (5-10 cm) ice pans in the west eddy.
Again there were 6 fairly big Necturus in the 30-40 cm water of the main current, though tonight there was also one under some of the ice chopped or moved on the west side of the current.
We released 4 litres of cooked Rana (True Frog) in the west side eddy, but didn't attract any Necturus, either during our main visit, or in a brief post-Brigadoon revisit, when we saw only the drifts of dead frogs and 1 Necturus in midcurrent.
There was a 30-40 cm windrow of frozen white foam against the loosely jammed floes on the lower part of the flats, and our ice-moving activites were mostly attempts to reduce the area of this ice by shattering or stacking it.
AIR_TEMP is the average of departure and return temperatures at home, because we forgot to expose a thermometer.
57) (same location) 2005/017/hb, cf Branta canadensis (Canada Goose) (Bird). 1 adult, tracks. tracks between open water above & below bridge.
14 March 2005
58) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1740-1748. AIR TEMP: 0 ca, sunny, sunset, calm. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/019/c, cf Turdus migratorius (Robin) (Bird). many adult, tracks. edge of ice trampled with Robin-like tracks. These tracks were in 1 cm of new snow on the edge of the west eddy near where we'd trampled down the snow and dumped 4 litres of cooked Rana (True Frog) on Saturday, so maybe Robins (or Quiscalus?) were picking up frog fragments that had washed up against the ice. There were also Tamaisciurus hudsonicus tracks along the edge of the ice, and they may have been after the frogs as well.
The water continues brown-turbid and 'cat fart'y. There's extensive thin new ice, and some brown foam among the floes, minipans, and sheets lodged across the downstream portion of the flats.
59) (same location) TIME: 2030. AIR TEMP: -2 ca, clear, calm. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Matt Scott. 2005/019/da, Canis latrans (Coyote) (Mammal). few call, heard. heard howling just as we arrived.
60) (same location) TIME: 2030-2118. AIR TEMP: -2 ca, clear, calm. 2005/019/db, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 8 adult, seen, light, dipnetted, video. mostly small, 3 in west eddy, 5 in mid-current. This was the first outing for AKS' Kemptville Creek Video. Again the water was very turbid with brown particles - the bottom sometimes not visible at 60 cm depth, and the particles settling out in a fluffy layer on the bottom of the west eddy. The water continues to smell 'cat fart'y. There was extensive thin new ice, and some brown foam among the floes, minipans, and sheets lodged across the downstream portion of the flats. Our ice-moving activities were mostly attempts to reduce the area of this ice by shattering or stacking it.
About 20% of the 4 litres of cooked Rana (True Frog) we released on Saturday remains on the bottom of the west eddy, and the first three Necturus we saw were among these, one nosing up to a frog-fragment, but none actually seen feeding. Five were out in the 30-40 cm water of the main current, on or among the moss, and Aleta filmed them in the water an in an aquarium. All but two were small, and the larger were only medium-large (ca 25 cm TL).
18 March 2005
61) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2000-2048. AIR TEMP: -6, clear, calm. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Brian Day, Monika Vogel, Jennifer Helene Schueler, Rory Tanner, ++. 2005/020/a, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 6 adult, seen, light, dipnetted, video. mostly small, 1 in west eddy, 5 in mid-current. There's a residue of the 4 litres of cooked Rana (True Frog) we released on Saturday on the bottom of the west eddy, we saw one small Necturus near these. Five were out in the 30-40 cm water of the main current, on or among the moss. None on the east side or caulked under the spillway ledge. All but one were small, and the only larger one was only medium-large (ca 25 cm TL).
The water was lower than last week, and fairly turbid with fine grey particles. The water continues to smell somewhat 'cat fart'y. The warm daytime temperatures have resulted in a big area of open water, little new ice, and there was an extensive field of frozen fluff-pans and white foam. The water was open all the way from the spillway almost to the downstream limit of the flats. The ice on the spillways is breaking loose leaving the east spillway exposed for most of its height (a big chunk I was kicking at came loose from the middle spillway, but it didn't sweep me into the water).
There was a family of immersion-prone children who waded successfully across the creek before breaking through the ice on the east side, but I didn't get their name for the OBSERVER list.
Brian Day set up his telescope in the parking lot and was able to clearly resolve the Cassini Division in Saturn's rings, though fainter objects (the Orion nebula) were more affected by the brilliant first quarter Moon, of which he took some spectacular photographs.
On some Mudpuppy Nights I feel that what we've seen is mostly due to the accidents of ice and water level, but this week our observations: not many active and the majority small, seem to be a real reflection of what's going on.
23 March 2005
62) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2130. AIR TEMP: -2 ca, light overcast, calm. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Don Mc Alpine. 2005/023/aa, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 1 adult, seen, light. in 30 cm water of the main current, ca 24 cm TL. The water was a little higher than last week, and not particularly turbid (though I didn't really note the turbidity), and continues to smell somewhat 'cat fart'y. The warm daytime temperatures have resulted in an increasingly large area of open water, with a frill of 1-2 cm lobed 20-60 cm shelves off the shores, open all the way from the spillway almost to the downstream limit of the flats. The ice on the east spillwat is gone, the central spillway is almost completely blocked, and water is flowing under a partial ice shield on the west.
63) (same location) 2005/023/ab, <aquatic moss> (not listed) (Bryophyte). 1/dominant herb, specimen. in 30 cm water of the main current. Because of high water in the summer, autumn, and December, there's an unusually luxuriant carpet of this moss here this winter.
25 March 2005
64) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2014-2045. AIR TEMP: -6 ca, clear, calm. HABITAT: very turbid brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Brian & Robin Day. 2005/023/c, Necturus maculosus (Mudpuppy) (herp). 2 adult, seen, light. in 30 cm water of the east eddy, ca 24 cm TL, full Moon. Sun and warmth have finally resulted in an increase in flow. The water was much higher than on 23 March, and very turbid with fine grey particles - bottom details completely invisible at 30 cm depth. We didn't wade the main current or the west side, because of the water depth. On the east side there were none on the flats, or above the spillway ledge (10 cm depth) but the two seen were among the grass, within a metre of each other, glimmering up from the murk and grass of the moderate current of the lower east side eddy. There may have been more in the deeper areas of that eddy, but they'd have been invisible. One supposes that there must be more oxygen than in past weeks, and that the melt must relese some food items to be swept over the dam.
There was little or no 'cat fart' odor. The water is ice-free all the way from the dam to well below the bridge, and there are flakes of little ics-slush pans floating in the eddies. The east and west spillways are clear of ice, and the central spillway retains its block of ice, but water is flowing under it.
AIR_TEMP is a compromise between exposed-to-the-sky (-11.5 C) and driving-along (not far out the window (-4 C) and on the porch at home afterwards (-7 C).
31 March 2005
65) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1210. AIR TEMP: 16 ca, sunny, breezy. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/025/h, visit () (event). survey, seen. ice cover gone, water level moderate. The only ice remaining below the dam is banks on the shore on the west side - the water level is about up to where it was when the ice banks formed in December.
1 April 2005
66) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 2007-2020. AIR TEMP: 5 ca, overcast, calm. HABITAT: high brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad Schueler, Brian Day, Timothy Thomas. 2005/027/e, Helisoma campanulatum (Bell-mouth Ramshorn) (Mollusca). 20 ca shell, seen, drift. washed up on upper west shore ledge. The grey turbid water is 50 cm over the Vantage Point ledge, and these shells are washed up on the next highest ledge. There's foam and perhaps ice on the 'Helisoma Ledge' but we didn't go to the east side to look at it in detail.
The only ice remaining below the dam is a couple of eroded floes a few metres of submerged banks on the shore on the west side - the water level is well above where it was when the ice banks formed in December. Obviously we saw NO:Necturus, and there was probably no place where they could have kept a grip on the bottom.
There was little or no 'cat fart' odor, and amzing turbulence and surging all over. Because we had to rush home to fetch a forgotten ms, we didn't think to look above the dam to see how much ice might be left there.
8 April 2005
67) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1130ca. AIR TEMP: 7 ca, sunny, calm. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler. 2005/034/aa, visit () (event). survey, seen, driveby. water still high, Helisoma ledge still flooded. Though in recent days (unrecorded) it has been even higher. We really ought to stop and look at the Helisoma ledge for once to see what shells are there when it's awash.
9 April 2005
68) (below the dam at Oxford Mills) TIME: 1518-1532. AIR TEMP: 18 ca, sunny, breezy. HABITAT: brown-water creek at limestone flats below old milldam, water 4 C. OBSERVER: Frederick W. Schueler, Jennifer Helene Schueler. 2005/035/a, Mollusca () (Mollusca). shell, drift, specimen. fine drift at Typha ridges on W shore, 30 cm above water level. Helisoma campanulatum (Bell-mouth Ramshorn) hasn't accumulated on the Helisoma Ledge, which is awash up to the big Rhamnus cathartica (Common Buckthorn) there. There are Helisoma ssp in eddy drift above the dam, but I didn't sample that. The sample is from the bushy area on the west side, which has an upper level of small shells, which only forms here in a few springs. JHS photos of the scene.
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