The little green herons seem to have absconded for the winter. The wood duck hen reappeared a couple of days ago, but with only three youngsters left. She lost about half of them.

We’ve tested the pond water a couple of times, with the same results. The good news is there are little to no phosphates, nitrites and ammonia in the water. The not so good news is that the pH is very high — about 9. According to the online extension services, this is too high for “high quality” fish like trout and bass. We definitely have some fish in the pond, probably sunnies and other critters known as “trash fish.”