Photo Journal
Images of Westlake Park. Do you have a photo to add?
Fishing Debris
Fishing is a favorite pasttime at Westlake Pond, but it leads to a lot of debris that can harm birds. Two hours of lure extraction led to lots of lures, hooks, floats, fishing line, and other fishing debris. This pied-billed grebe got hooked to a snag of fishing line a few days earlier.
Koi fish
This large Koi fish is a type of carp (family Cyprinidae). Koi were bred for their decorative colors in Niigate, Japan in the early 1900's. This one seems to be on its way to the play structure!
Common Carp
Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) are large freshwater fish (native to Eurasia). This resident of Westlake Pond likes to float near the surface. If you are on shore and you see what appears to be a small whale floating near the surface, you may be seeing this 2-3 foot fish! Like all fish in Westlake Pond, these are not native fish.
Sunfish
One of the commonly caught fish at Westlake are sunfish - this one is likely a green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus). Westlake anglers tend to call all sunfish "bluegills" (Lepomis macrochirus), but the orange edge of the tail fin, and the electric blue accent below the eye identify it as a green sunfish. Pumpkinseed fish (Lepomis gibbosus) are also present in the pond, and can be identified by a bright orange "pumpkinseed" spot behind their eye.
Red-eared Slider Turtle
There are 15-20 red-eared slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans) in Westlake Pond. Sliders are non-native turtles that got here by people abandoning their pets. The Sliders are agressive and push out the native Western Pond Turtles (Actinemys marmorata). It is unclear if there are still Western Pond Turtles left at Westlake – they are tricky to tell apart from a distance.
Snail Eggs
This is a freshwater snail egg mass. Snails lay these on the underside of aquatic vegetation or floating dead leaves. The gel keeps the tiny eggs (the little white dots in the gel) safe from predators and from drying up.