Rensselaer Adventures

This blog reports events and interesting tidbits from Rensselaer, Indiana and the surrounding area.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Over the weekend

Did you have a nice Fourth despite (or because of?) the rain? On Sunday the LaRue Pool had almost a normal contingent of people, but the assistant pool director said that on the Fourth they had only one paid admission and had closed early. I am a pretty die-hard swimmer, but I did not go. It was cold and raining. (Last year they had a day when the pool opened and no one came.)

The coolness did not seem to discourage people in my neighborhood from shooting off fireworks. For a couple of hours it sounded like a war zone or a shooting range.

Over the weekend I noticed slow progress continues on the reconstruction of the top part of the elevator. Compare this picture with what is here and you can see how much has been done. There is still a lot to do, and when it is done it will look very different.
Another rail crossing is under construction, the Melville Street crossing. (That is the morning Amtrak going by.)
I thought that the city would be extending the Melville Street storm sewer system at the same time the railroad redid the crossing, but I see no evidence of that.
There was evidence of tracks being ripped out, but I could not figure what tracks were missing.
Meanwhile, the little pond just east of Weston Cemetery is drying up. The picture below shows some carp with no place to go. The rain on the Fourth raised the water level of bit and will give them two or three days of extra life, but by the end of this week, if there is no more rain, this field should be dry.
What is bad news for the carp is good news for the heron that spends a lot of time there. In the picture below it may be easier to see the reflection of the heron than the heron itself. I have tried several times to get closer, but herons do not like people near them.
There are plenty of raccoon tracks in the mud, so it is not just the herons that benefit from the drying of the pond.
On Sunday morning I found a baby wood duck in the middle of Lincoln Street, just sitting there. I probably should have left him just sit there and take its chances with traffic, but I picked it up and put it in the pond, which was not far away. I think its chances, unless it is able to hook up again with its mother, are slim. If the raccoons do not get it, the heron will.
What should I have done in this case? And should I try to rescue any tadpoles when the pond finally dries up, or should I leave them die in the sun? How about any little carp?

5 comments:

Ed said...

Forget the carp!

RoadRunner1117 said...

Thank you for rescuing the duck! I am going to imagine that it survived :)

Anonymous said...

Save the tadpoles! They need all the help they can get sometimes.

reMark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
reMark said...

Years ago ReMark and his wife tried to save a baby wood duck from this same area. After it died, we found out it needed mosquito larvae as a main source of food (I am still uncertain of the validity of this). We fed it pancake batter, but were unsuccessful So, you helped all of us out by putting the duck where the larvae are!