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Welcome to Plum Landing.
Today, we are on a mission for Plum.
So what are we looking for?
A vernal pool.
And we're trying to find a vernal pool.
My name is Kaya.
And I'm here with my mom, Leslie,
my dad, Jamal,
and my two sisters, Kiana and Kalea.
We're at Mass Audubon's Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary.
This looks like a vernal pool.
Just a big circle of water.
No rivers or streams or brooks coming into the pond.
Where do you think the water came from?
It could've come from the rain.
A vernal pool usually appears in spring.
The water comes from the rain and the melting snow.
We're collecting data for Plum.
I see lots of things that we can tell Plum about.
I am making a sketch of a green frog.
Have you found anything so far?
Yes, we saw two frogs over here.
We met Joy-- she's an educator at the sanctuary.
So this is a very, very special place for all the animals
that need a protected place for their eggs and their babies.
And like in a desert, a lot of water in the vernal pool
will evaporate over time, it will go back up into the sky.
I think there's a tadpole
on the surface of the water near the clearing.
That was a wood frog tadpole, just like this one.
Some of these tadpoles are in a race against time
to get as big as they can as fast as they can
and turn into frogs before the vernal pool dries up more.
Check it out, that's a dragonfly larva.
Wow.
It almost looks like the dragonfly,
except not fully grown with wings.
They need to stay in the water until they actually morph
or change into their adult phase.
We all chose different observation areas.
This is my observation area.
This is my observation area.
It's at the end of the boardwalk.
This is my observation area.
I am collecting data for Plum, and I'm going to take a picture
so she can see how nature changes over time.
I'm looking to see how the water level will change
when I come back.
We first came to the vernal pool in May.
Now it's September, and things have changed.
Wow.
It's low and very green.
Like someone just painted it over in green with paint.
Hey everybody, look, it's Joy!
Hi, Joy!
Hi, everybody.
So it's come down several feet.
What is all of the green, mossy stuff?
Oh, that's duckweed.
And each little plant has its own root and it floats around.
That's a frog.
Definitely the water level has gone down,
and we're seeing a lot more of the frogs.
All the frogs since the last time we were here
were bigger than the ones that we see now.
We're seeing more frogs
because the frogs that we saw before laid eggs
and they turned into tadpoles, which turned into baby frogs.
And as you can see in this photo,
the vernal pool was higher and it covered the trees.
And now when I look at it, the water level has moved down.
It's not near the tree anymore.
So, I'm going to compare.
In the summer, there wasn't as much duckweed as there is now.
Trying to find my observation area,
but it's changed so much I can't even tell.
Hey, that might be it.
Yeah, this is definitely it.
Back in the summer, there was so much water,
but now it's just...
the water all went away because of evaporation.
Do you think the water will be all gone in the winter?
I don't know, we'll have to come back and check that out.
Yeah.