Some of the creatures in the lakes of Mountain Lakes:

Please note: 

When we list something as “possibly native” we mean that its natural range includes Northern New Jersey.  It is hard to know what might have been here in the swamps and ponds that existed before Mr. Hapgood bulldozed most of our lakes into existence in the early part of the last century.

“Bait bucket biology” refers to the tendency of people to dump unused baitfish into the lake at the end of the day.  The fish may be native species, non-native species, or the young of something surprising.  Some of the odd fish caught in our lakes can only have come in this way.

Some people take it upon themselves to dump fish in our lakes because they like that species better than another.  Besides being illegal, it is very poor lake management.  As one of our paid lake biology consultants put it, if we stocked Muskellunge (a very popular large game fish) in Wildwood Lake, we would wind up with one very hungry under-sized Muskellunge, and nothing else left.

Dumping aquarium fish in our lakes can be worse.  Besides the non-native snails and plants that may travel with them, even Goldfish, which will survive our winters, are bad for the lakes.  Goldfish are related to the Common Carp, can grow to a foot or more long, can live for a decade in the wild, and eat native plants and the eggs of native fish.  Don’t break the law; keep aquarium fish until they die, or kill them humanely, but don’t put them in our lakes.

By the way, we’re not showing Birds on this list because there are too many kinds and their presence is fairly obvious. Go to www.birds.cornell.edu for a great guide. Our monthly issues lists often give more information on Canada Geese and Mute Swans, the most visible birds around the lakes.

Finally, we try to keep links up to date but we do not promise that the links will be available, useful, or screened in any way.  Web safety is your responsibility.

FISH

Largemouth Bass – Micropterus salmoides.  Non-native, introduced for fishing.  They eat almost any moving creature that will fit in their mouths.  Most people fishing in the lakes of Mountain Lakes are looking for bass. See the following site for an image. 

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/lgmouthbass.gif

Calico Bass, Black Crappie – Pomoxis nigromaculatus.  Non-native, introduced for fishing.  A large member of the sunfish family that likes to eat small fish.  Has a large but fragile mouth so handle it gently if you catch one. 

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/blackcrappie.gif

www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=12

Bluegill Sunfish – Lepomis macrochirus.  Non-native, introduced for fishing and as forage for other fish.  See the following sites for images.

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/bluegill.htm

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/bluegill.gif

Pumpkinseed Sunfish – Lepomis gibbosus.  Possibly native.  See the following sites for images and information.

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/pumpkinseed.cfm

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/pumpkinseed.gif

Redbreast Sunfish – Lepomis auritus.  Possibly native.  See the following sites for images.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/southflorida/everglades/marshes/glossary/redbreastsunfish.html

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/redbreast.gif

Lepomis sunfish species are closely related and inter-breed, so it can be hard to be sure what kind you have in hand. 

Eastern Chain Pickerel – Esox niger.  Possibly native.  See the following site for image and description.  These are aggressive ambush predators that eat small fish.  They have many sharp teeth but will bite only if you catch one and put your hand in its mouth.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/chainpickerel.gif

Yellow Perch – Perca flavescens.  Possibly native.  Colorful, likes cooler water, tends to form tight schools of fish, eats small fish and insects.  See the following sites for images and other perch information.

www.canadianbiodiversity.mcgill.ca/english/species/fish/fishpages/per_fla.htm

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/yellowperch.gif

Brown Bullhead Catfish – Ameiurus nebulosus.  Possibly native.  See the following sites for images. 

http://www.nj.gov/dep/wmm/bfbm/fish/brownbullhead.jpg

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/brbullhead.gif

Channel Catfish have been stocked in Mountain Lakes in the distant past but should not be present now.

Golden Shiner - Notemigonus crysoleucas.  Possibly native, possibly stocked by “bait bucket biology”.  See the following sites for images.

http://www.nj.gov/dep/wmm/bfbm/fish/goldenshiner.jpg.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/goldshiner.gif

Goldfish – Carassius auratus.  Not native to North America.  Pets dumped out of fishbowls or fish tossed in by “bait bucket biology”.  Grow much larger in lakes and are damaging to other species and vegetation.  It is illegal to dump non-native species in our lakes, or to deliberately stock native species without permission.  See the following sites for images of Goldfish, as well as other non-native, closely related, fish such as Carp.

www.njscuba.net/biology/fw_fishes_bottom.html

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/goldfish.gif

Trout

For a brief period every Spring, there are trout in Birchwood Lake.  This follows stocking for the annual “Trout Derby” fishing contest for children.  Luckily, most of the trout are caught and taken away, since there is little chance that they could survive a summer in any of our lakes.  The most heat tolerant trout are stressed by temperatures above 65°; our lakes significantly exceed that for months on end.

AMPHIBIANS

Bullfrog - Rana catesbeiana.  Native.  The large frog at the edge of our lakes whose Spring call is usually described as deep, loud, and sounding something like “da da duum” or “jugaruum”.  The following site has a number of pictures and sound files describing bullfrogs.

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/bullfrog.htm

We also have Green Frogs – Rana clamitans. Native. They’re smaller, and less obvious, than Bullfrogs and have pronounced ridges down each side of their backs. (They have a “twanging” call and stay out of the way of Bullfrogs since a large Bullfrog will happily cram a Green Frog in its mouth and eat it.)

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Rana_clamitans.html

Wood Frogs (sound vaguely like a quacking duck) use temporary ponds to breed.  They don’t use the lakes but you can hear them calling in wet woods.  (If you want to learn more about the ecology of wetland woods, you could start by looking up “obligate vernal pond breeder”.)

American Toads (call is a high trill), Spring Peepers (loud ringing chirping), and various salamanders (no breeding call), also use the lakes in Spring.  American Toads usually breed in lakes or ponds that contain water year round.  Spring Peepers are frogs that can breed using lakes or temporary wet spots.

REPTILES

Snapping Turtle - Chelydra serpentina.  Native.  Large to very large turtles.  Probably the only creature in our lakes that can and will bite hard enough to seriously hurt a human. They do not attack, and usually move away from humans, but will bite if you step on them or grab them. They stay in the water once they’ve hatched, though you may see their heads sticking out as they surface to breath. The females come out of the water once a year to lay eggs.  If you see one, leave it alone because it will bite to defend itself and its bite can snap a broomstick or sever a finger.  Their necks are quite long, can reach your hand at the side of the shell, and a Snapping Turtle can move much more quickly than you expect.  The primary predator of adult Snapping Turtles in Mountain Lakes is the automobile.  The sites below show images of snappers.

http://www.nps.gov/wica/Turtle-Common_Snapping.htm

http://www.cortland.edu/herp/keys/images/turtles/cserpelg.jpg

Eastern Painted Turtle - Chrysemys picta.  Native.  It grows to a shell length of about 6”.  You may see yellow markings on the head.  This is the turtle you are most likely to see sunning itself on a rock in our lakes.  If you see a turtle with a red mark on its head, it is probably a Red-eared Slider, a non-native turtle whose ancestors were dumped in the lake when people tired of them as pets.

http://www.dgif.state.va.us/wildlife/species/display.asp?id=030060

Northern Water Snake - Nerodia sipedon.  Native.  A large example of this snake will usually look all black and it will be swimming (hunting fish) or trying to get to the water.  Do not grab even a small example of this snake as it has a mouthful of sharp, backward pointing, teeth designed to hold fish, and it will have a hard time letting go of you when it bites to make you let go of it.  They want to stay away from humans but they can be aggressive if you corner them, so give them space.  They may look unpleasant but THERE ARE NO POISONOUS WATER SNAKES IN MOUNTAIN LAKES, or New Jersey for that matter.  There is no reason to kill a snake and certainly none to harm an uncommon water snake in Mountain Lakes.

http://www.dgif.state.va.us/wildlife/species/display.asp?id=030034

MAMMALS

Muskrat – Ondatra zibethicus.  A large aquatic rodent (but much smaller than beaver) that burrows into the shores of the lakes.  They eat plants, cause some damage to the shoreline, and produce many offspring, which makes the Snapping Turtles happy.  The following site shows far more than you will ever need to know about muskrats.

http://my.net-link.net/~vaneselk/muskrat/

There are recipes for cooking muskrat on that Web site.  To the best of our knowledge, no one on the Borough’s Lakes Management Advisory Committee has tried them.

Muskrats are harmless in the sense that they won’t bother you unless you trap them or threaten their babies.  However, they don’t get out of the water to go to the bathroom, so they are one of the reasons we don’t drink lake water (They can carry Giardia, but so can dogs.  http://www.hyperionlab.ca/giardia1.html)

Beaver – Castor canadensis. The largest native rodent in North America. At this writing (in 2007), we have Beavers in the swampy areas behind Birchwood Lake, cutting trees and blocking trails by raising water levels with their dams. Giardia is sometimes called “beaver fever”.

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) hunt for freshwater mussels and crayfish from the shallows of our lakes. You may find empty “clam” shells or broken crayfish shells in the shallows or on the shore showing where they fed.  (Their scientific name means something like “early dog, the washer” referring to their habit of washing their food.)

It is possible that we have an occasional Mink (Mustela vison) passing through our lakes.  They eat fish, crayfish, Muskrats, and most small creatures.

Deer, bear, and Coyotes drink from the lakes but don’t forage there as a primary resource.

MACROINVERTEBRATES

This is a partial list of water creatures that are visible to the unassisted eye and don’t have backbones, including insects, crustaceans, and molluscs.

Dragonfly/Damselfly

The insects commonly called dragonflies are usually larger, strong flyers, whose wings extend perpendicular to their bodies when they are resting.  Their immature stage (nymph) is large, squat, and can jet forward by expelling water from openings in the rear of the body.  They have extendable jaws to catch their prey.

Damselfly is the name commonly applied to more slender insects whose wings fold back over the body at rest.  Other than that, they often look much like dragonflies in flight.  The immature stages (nymphs) in the water usually have leaf-like gills at the end of their bodies and swim by wiggling their bodies.

Dragonfly – Common Green Darner – Anax junius

This is a big green dragonfly likely to be seen over our lakes and lawns, but is not the only dragonfly in Mountain Lakes.  (In June you can easily see three species in one hour at Birchwood Lake, plus damselflies.)  For an illustration of the complexity of nature, while dragonflies are migrating, they form a food source for migrating Broadwing Hawks.

Adult:

http://www.njodes.com/Speciesaccts/darners/darn-comm.asp

Dragonfly – Common Whitetail Skimmer – Platythemis lydia

This is a fairly obvious creature with its strongly patterned wings.

Adults:

http://www.njodes.com/Speciesaccts/skimmers/whit-comm.asp

The immature insects (nymphs), dragonflies in particular, in the lakes are great hunters of small creatures, even tiny fish.

Common Green Darner Nymph:

These are relatively large insects and eat smaller creatures, including tiny fish.

http://www.umd.umich.edu/eic/aquatic_insecta/odonata/aeshnidae_family.htm

Damselfly – Variable Dancer – Argia fumipennis

One of the Damselflies you might see in Mountain Lakes.  And for further confusion, newly emerged adults of a given species may be a different color than older examples and females of several species (as with Variable Dancers) are a different color than the males.

Adult:

http://www.njodes.com/Speciesaccts/damsels/danc-vari.asp

Damselfly – Familiar Bluet – Enallagama civile

Another species you might see in Mountain Lakes.

Adult:

http://www.njodes.com/Speciesaccts/damsels/blue-fami.asp

Familiar Bluet Nymph:

http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/na/aquatic_insecta/odonata/coenagrionidae_family.htm

Other Insects:

We have the whole spectrum of aquatic insects to be expected in warm water lakes and streams. Examples have been collected ranging from Dobsonfly, http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insects/common/images/b-txt/bimg123.html

to Mayfly http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/177/Mayfly-Acerpenna-Blue-Winged-Olives

Crustacean:

Crayfish

In Mountain Lakes, ours are likely to be Procambarus species.  They look like lobsters a few inches long.  Bass love to eat these.

http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/NewAstacidea/species.asp?g=Procambarus&s=acutus&ssp=acutus

Molluscs:

There are freshwater mussels in Mountain Lakes (and twelve native species in New Jersey).  The empty, fragile, dark, “clam” shells you may find on the shores of the lake are likely to be native mussels.

The following site will give you more information about molluscs in our area than any casual reader will need.  For example, one of the mussels likely to be growing in Mountain Lakes has to have Yellow Perch in the lake to survive.  Their young must spend time as skin parasites (mostly harmless) on Yellow Perch before they can grow to older stages.  (They can’t use the skin on most other fish, much less humans or other creatures.)

http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/mussel/

In general the bottom material in our lakes (rotting leaves, decomposed organic material, sand, clay, stones) is full of living creatures. These are not swimming pools, sterile and controlled.