Day 305

Besides restarting our nature videos, we are excited to explore our land and the adjoining nature preserve to find new nature topics and discoveries. Still, we can’t forget about the past. When the kids and I reminisce about our citizen science days in our old neighborhood, we are reminded of a very special friend.

Snippy. 

One of our tasks was to monitor the ephemeral pond. We would put out some traps to see what we could catch and then report your findings. From various frogs and crayfish to an occasional garter snake, we were always excited to see what creatures we caught.

Especially Snippy. 

He/she was a crayfish that got a little too friendly with my oldest child. In one of our first captures, my daughter got a harmless but surprising snip from the pincers of a caught crayfish. From that point forward, every crayfish we caught was Snippy, Snippy Junior, a cousin of Snippy, or a friend of him/her. 

But since we don't have a pond on our property, will we ever run into Snippy again?

Potentially. At this time, there are three possibilities I can think of.

First, our golf course neighbor has a pond that acts as a border between properties. When we search for golf balls, we make sure we don't accidentally fall into the drink, though it’s a hotbed for errant shots. In the area near this pond, we see crayfish holes and have even found a pincer or two but we haven’t seen Snippy yet.

Secondly, we could add a pond to our property. Not only would this attract crayfish, but we would probably have an influx of amphibious friends as well. It is certainly something we are interested in and a potential project that could fit into our budget, but I don’t see it as a priority right now.

Lastly, I’ve been told there are a few small ponds in the nature preserve. I haven’t explored this property enough to see if that is true but if so, we may have the answer to our question. 

Snippy might be making a return. I know a few kids who will be happy to see him/her again.