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Watchers at the Pond
Octavo, 1961, PP.264, The Mysteries, The Wonder, The Lazards Of LIfe, Progration, And DEath Within The Teeming Universe Of A POnd
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 11, 2023
You amble out on a beautiful sunny day into nature, on an unknown path and stumble across a pond, a peaceful and serene scene. Beware though as you lay yourself down to soak in the sounds of nature because all around you is death in it's myriad forms. Murderers and parasites abound and lurk in every corner. Life is but a precursor to death and for some it's a blink of an eye.
I exaggerate for effect because Franklin Russell's a year in the life of a pond is much more than a catalogue of grisly deaths and he manages to describe the different levels of life from microscopic to predator in a fashion that enables humans (who mostly see themselves as divorced from nature) to experience the incredibly complex interconnectedness of life on this earth. It's incredibly well done and should be widely read today.
I exaggerate for effect because Franklin Russell's a year in the life of a pond is much more than a catalogue of grisly deaths and he manages to describe the different levels of life from microscopic to predator in a fashion that enables humans (who mostly see themselves as divorced from nature) to experience the incredibly complex interconnectedness of life on this earth. It's incredibly well done and should be widely read today.
May 28, 2016
Beware: Those who believe in kindly Mother Nature caring for and protecting her charges: Do Not Read This Book!
For the rest of us, this book does get a bit overwhelming in the "Nature red in tooth and claw" scenario. But the writing and descriptions are wonderful, creating the scenes as with the brush of an artist.
"The trees turned their greens to red and yellow and became blobs of vivid multi color irregularly surrounding the pond."
The author follows the course of the pond from one winter to the next from the microscopic to the animals and plants we are more familiar with. Each has a story. Each has a place at the pond. Each is a watcher be it as prey or as predator at the pond.
And ultimately the book points out all life on this Earth is based and depends on death.
For the rest of us, this book does get a bit overwhelming in the "Nature red in tooth and claw" scenario. But the writing and descriptions are wonderful, creating the scenes as with the brush of an artist.
"The trees turned their greens to red and yellow and became blobs of vivid multi color irregularly surrounding the pond."
The author follows the course of the pond from one winter to the next from the microscopic to the animals and plants we are more familiar with. Each has a story. Each has a place at the pond. Each is a watcher be it as prey or as predator at the pond.
And ultimately the book points out all life on this Earth is based and depends on death.
July 5, 2017
The poetic style of this book reminded me of Loren Eiseley's marvelous science writing. Franklin Russell watches along with other animals and narrates what he sees over the course of the seasons. The other watchers include hawks and hares and muskrats, but the observations of the narrator bring the pond alive merging science with poetry.
He begins his story in the winter with some ladybirds encased in ice while chipmunks and others would hibernate nearby. Some of the birds have flown south for the winter only to return in the spring. Nature explodes in the fury of a blizzard that wrenches limbs from trees and exposes sleeping carpenter ants to the frigid cold.
The pond of the title was actually based on many ponds from a park in Hamilton, Ontario to many other ponds that he would explore in the Canadian countryside. What he finds he relates in beautiful prose that does not ignore the science on display. He can visualize single-celled organisms "by the billions in the pond . . . infinitely more varied than visible creatures . . . their soft unicellular bodies pulsing with slow and stately dignity." He does not let the scientist get in the way of the watcher or the writer. The ducks flying over the pond pass "very low and fast" and are "gone in the sound of a quack." Spring and summer come with more variety from mosquitoes to more waterfowl. He does not ignore the flora with descriptions of flowers and fruits like wild strawberries. Some of this reminded me of my own Wisconsin upbringing and time spent near similar ponds.
Thoreau wrote, near the end of Walden: "We con never have enough of Nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor . . . We are cheered when we observe the vulture feeding on the carrion . . . and deriving health and strength from the repast . . . I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another . . . The impression made on a wise man is that of universal innocence."
The year at Russell's pond ends in a kind of innocence as well. The beauty of his prose mirrors the beauty of nature yielding a classic small book about the science and poetry that one can find at the edge of ponds. I would recommend this book as a great read for any season.
He begins his story in the winter with some ladybirds encased in ice while chipmunks and others would hibernate nearby. Some of the birds have flown south for the winter only to return in the spring. Nature explodes in the fury of a blizzard that wrenches limbs from trees and exposes sleeping carpenter ants to the frigid cold.
The pond of the title was actually based on many ponds from a park in Hamilton, Ontario to many other ponds that he would explore in the Canadian countryside. What he finds he relates in beautiful prose that does not ignore the science on display. He can visualize single-celled organisms "by the billions in the pond . . . infinitely more varied than visible creatures . . . their soft unicellular bodies pulsing with slow and stately dignity." He does not let the scientist get in the way of the watcher or the writer. The ducks flying over the pond pass "very low and fast" and are "gone in the sound of a quack." Spring and summer come with more variety from mosquitoes to more waterfowl. He does not ignore the flora with descriptions of flowers and fruits like wild strawberries. Some of this reminded me of my own Wisconsin upbringing and time spent near similar ponds.
Thoreau wrote, near the end of Walden: "We con never have enough of Nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor . . . We are cheered when we observe the vulture feeding on the carrion . . . and deriving health and strength from the repast . . . I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another . . . The impression made on a wise man is that of universal innocence."
The year at Russell's pond ends in a kind of innocence as well. The beauty of his prose mirrors the beauty of nature yielding a classic small book about the science and poetry that one can find at the edge of ponds. I would recommend this book as a great read for any season.
January 9, 2022
Natural history, which reads like great fiction! This book tells the story of organisms around and in a pond though the time of a year - and does it remarkably well.
Came across this book while reading 'My Husband and other animals' and I was not disappointed.
Came across this book while reading 'My Husband and other animals' and I was not disappointed.
April 5, 2010
A year in the life of a pond and its inhabitants. I enjoyed the description of all the insects and animals doing their thing throughout the year, and seeing how all the creatures intermingle and feed of each other. It gave me a sense of the interdependence of all life - something that goes on every day and that we take no notice of - and wonder for the sheer volume of life going on all around us. But! Unfortunately, in many ways this book was boring as all get out. It changed how I think about the natural world, though.
August 17, 2019
Truly capturing the 'web-of-life' in compelling and often dramatic prose, this book wonderfully transforms a set of observations into a year-long story of birth, reproduction and death, the never-ending saga of predator and prey. This is not a gentle, lyrical, romanticized version of nature; it's a no-nonsense struggle for survival. But it also sets forth in startlingly clear terms the necessary WHOLENESS of the natural world, where each creature plays a vital part in the success of the ecosystem. I first encountered this book in my student days, when it left me with a lasting awareness of the complexity and the tenuousness of the living world that most of us rarely notice. Reading it again now, so many years later, I find that it has lost none of its impact.
Russell was born in New Zealand and observed and wrote about nature there and in Australia and Britain, later in Canada. Based on the details covered in this book, it was clearly set in Canada, but just change a few species and adjust the climate and the story could take place anywhere in the temperate parts of the world.
Russell was born in New Zealand and observed and wrote about nature there and in Australia and Britain, later in Canada. Based on the details covered in this book, it was clearly set in Canada, but just change a few species and adjust the climate and the story could take place anywhere in the temperate parts of the world.
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February 22, 2022Boy, the pond is brutal. Every time I read this book I'd be reminded of that oft-parodied Herzog "nature is violent and base" monologue. It reminded me, too, of PBS nature shows in general, those quietly anthropomorphic and sometimes monotonous montages of weird creatures murdering each other. I liked this book a great deal, a lot of the passages were beautiful and spoke to the cycle of nature, the delicate balance of things, and made me glad as a human I'm more or less comfortably at the top of the food chain. But it did take me a month to read, and I'd gloss over paragraphs and have to start them again after realizing I hadn't been understanding what I'd read, and in general the paragraphs were organized in this annoying way where they didn't concentrate on one animal/activity, but started and stopped in ways that always seemed abrupt. I've been trying for years to be more naturey/sciency, but I'm afraid this sort of stuff will always be difficult for me to differentiate and absorb.
June 9, 2025
Finally finished, but this was a sloggggg. If I hadn't bought the actual book, i would've dropped it; This style just isn't for me. the illustrations and cover are gorgeous, and the prose itself is fine, butI don't understand what the actual point of this type of book is.
It's a nature book, and theoretically tells the story of a year spent in and around a pond. through winter, spring, summer, fall, as the plants, animals, and nonliving things cycle through the seasons. But it isn't actually based on observation of a pond ecosystem...it's just an amalgamation of Russell's observations of MANY ponds and his lab/research experience that is then fictionalized to create a narrative. It simply didn't work for me.
It's a nature book, and theoretically tells the story of a year spent in and around a pond. through winter, spring, summer, fall, as the plants, animals, and nonliving things cycle through the seasons. But it isn't actually based on observation of a pond ecosystem...it's just an amalgamation of Russell's observations of MANY ponds and his lab/research experience that is then fictionalized to create a narrative. It simply didn't work for me.
January 31, 2024
It is a beautiful depiction of life in a pond from the perspective of its inhabitants. After the first 30 pages I was bored. I'm sure though, that if you love critters, amphibians, plants, birds, etc. you will love this book. It's a good book if you're into that scene. A friend lent me the book and wanted me to read it as she had enjoyed it.
August 17, 2022
I loved this book as a child and I still love it as an adult. View the pond through the eyes of all who live there. Very well written with a great deal of descriptive language. It is almost like being there!
March 15, 2018
Beautifully gruesome. This book showed me a new perspective of nature.
February 15, 2019
I absolutely loved every word of this book. This has become my new all-time favorite.
June 16, 2019
Must read book of natural history wherein life in and around a pond over a year's seasonal cycle is written in simple, yet beautiful prose.
October 22, 2020
A rare book, one for the collectors of nature and poetry books.
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January 18, 2022One of the best books on nature and life and points how most of us humans are unaware and blind to what is around us
March 19, 2022
I love this beautiful, soulful book. It is a meditation on the exquisitely-intricate web of life that exists in a pond through the seasons of the year. It brings us face-to-face with the infinitesimal complexity of life that surrounds us, that we are a part and reminds us, as the poet, Gary Snyder said, "Nature is not a place to visit it is home." This book should be in every home and every library.
I just finished reading it again.
I just finished reading it again.
October 13, 2015
Wonderful insight into all forms of life (and many deaths) in a year in and around a pond very similar to one I grew up beside in S. Ontario. So much of nature that we depend on is unseen and usually ignored, to our cost. This book is an easy window into understanding how all life is interconnected.
April 11, 2011
First published by Alfred Knopf in 1961, this 1966 TRP edition has the usual problem: brittle glue & fragile 'perfect' binding.
August 27, 2015
The story is about the life cycle of a pond over a whole year. Parts of the story were interesting. Fascinating facts about some animals but other facts didn't interest me.
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October 25, 2017beautiful language and descriptions, gives all the details, including many deaths of animals. Some parts may be a bit much so I would recommend pre-reading and possibly skipping those parts.
Older kids
Older kids
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews