Nathaniel Basch-Gould – Wall’s Pond – Blog #1 – September 25, 2009 – 2:00 pm
Another beautiful day at Wall’s Pond. The sun is high and there are just a few fluffy culumus clouds off to the south. It’s about 60 degrees – a cool breeze from the southwest at 5-10 mph tempers the sun’s warmth just enough to make jeans and a tee-shirt the optimal getup. I notice that the construction around the town rotary has stopped and the pond today is much more tranquil than when last I was here, despite some museum-going lunchers at the picnic tables near the southeast entrance. What a day; it’s truly a pleasure to sit out on the eastern edge of the pond and observe the other changes from my last visit.
Walls PondWalls Pond Leaves at the top of the maple to the north of the pond (I could find no suitable identification in the Audobon guide, but will keep looking) have begun to turn a burnt red color. Likewise some of the beech and ash along the western boundary (between the parking lot and the pond) have started to turn yellow and red as well. The lily pad cover has thinned out a bit since last time, as well, and this time the closed buds that I had spotted on pond surface were open, and identified them as fragrant water-lily.
Some other flora that I have identified since last time:
– Goldenrod, growing copiously in the grasses around the pond’s edge
– True forget-me-not, interspersed occasionally in the pond grasses
– Mugwort, the dominating flora around the pond’s edge
– Arrowhead, in the shallows
– White pine, dominates the southern edge of the pond
There were several species of maple which I could not match to anything in the Audobon guide. With some more time I can most likely attribute them as well; perhaps deeper into the fall the color-changing foliage will provide some more answers. There was also a very tall (8-10’) grass or weed that had grown taller since my last visit that I was unable to find in the Audobon guide. It has bursts of small fluffy buds coming out at the top in clumps of three, with some errant grassy shoots all the way up the main stalk. Perhaps the internet will yield some results.
I was more aware today, also, of the topography surrounding Wall’s Pond. The pond itself is a mere football field away from the foot of Stone Hill, the major topographical landmark in the area, and one of the more prominent lookout spots in a town full of prominent lookout spots. The water level pond sits about 15 feet lower than the elevation of the parking lot (more or less even with the bottom of Stone Hill) and this makes for a rather steep embankment that runs all along the southern edge of the pond and about halfway up the western side.
The eastern edge of the pond, however, sports a much more gently sloping embankment that rises from the water’s edge about 5 feet (over a run of more than 30 feet) leveling off in the field that stretches around the eastern and northern sides of the pond. This slope continues around to the north, where, past the large maple and the bench, the pond-side field has it’s highest elevation – about even with the parking lot. To the east of this point, about 30 or 40 feet, is a downhill slope that culminates in the low point of the field, a trough, running about 100 feet from north to south and maybe 50 feet east to west, that about 5 feet lower in elevation than the water level of the pond. In terms of bodies of water, my experience has been exclusive to the inlets and harbors of Cape Cod, all tidal areas where even low points and hollows set well back from the beach hold a little water at high tide. It thus perplexes me that this point, which sets well below the water level of a sizeable pond just yards away, should not have standing water all the time. But, this is very clearly a different place with a different topography and I’m excited to get to know it even better.