Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: vernal pool

Just a few miles from our home are the beautiful Upper and Loweer Table Rock plateaus. Every spring the rain turns these plateaus into large marshy areas with pools of water everywhere. The flora and fauna are wonderful to see, and some are unique to the Table Rocks. Steve and I ventured up to the top for a photo walk back in March 2012 and enjoyed photographing the special environment there. These buds are probably a common, very tiny flower called Spring Sandwort, and when I saw these buds surrounded by water, I couldn't resist taking pictures! It was a challenge to get this image and not fall face-first into the muck!

[best appreciated at full size against black] Here's the perfect music for this picture! www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlCiDEXuxxA At the top of the Upper and Lower Table Rocks, there are seasonal marshy areas called vernal pools. They are the home to many plants and animals, including the very rare fairy shrimp and a flower found only on the Table Rocks, Dwarf Wooly Meadowfoam. (I hope to take pictures of both as the season progresses!). I didn't think I'd find any frogs, though they were making an incredible racket, but I thought I might see a pollywog or two. Nope. What I DID find were zillions of little black beetles zooming around in the water! I took some pictures, all the while figuring they wouldn't be interesting enough to post, but when I got home and looked at my images I found... TINY BUBBLES!! After looking through my pictures, I realized that making a collage with the bubbles would be much more fun than showing off the water scavenger beetles, which you can also see in three of the pictures here. I hope you like them! :D If you would like to know more about water scavenger beetles, take a look here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrophilidae If you would like to know more about vernal pools and the Table Rocks, take a look here! :) www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/tablerock/table-rock-... This image was taken in March, 2012.