It is easy to tell the time of year in a pond.
Spring is the season of birth.
Turtles and frogs wriggle out from the shallow bottom after a long winter's nap. The water's surface ripples with aquatic insect larvae chasing each other. Male red-winged blackbirds arrive to stake their claims to the cattails. Tiny spring peepers twang for mates all night long. They only become silent when raccoons appear at the water's edge, their yellow eyes glowing in the dark.