It's a frog eat frog world
Today is pond cleaning day. Drain pond, remember to remove fish at last minute, move frogs out of the way (tons of little frogs and a few fat, happy bullfrogs...little did I know), scrub rubber liner like a fiend, clean filter, etc.. While I cleaned some of the accumulated junk from the bottom I found myself squatting next to a big ol' bullfrog. In an attempt to strike up a conversation I commented on the abundance of bugs this year, especially bees.
"Do you eat bees?"
<frogSilence>
"How about fish? Can't seem to find the brown fish this time.
<blink nictating membrane>
"Doubt it. He's bigger than you."
</frogSilence>
At which point the bullfrog jumped a half foot up the pond edge. I turned to see the legs of a smaller frog clamped firmly betwixt bullfrog lips. What followed was the slow, steady progress of moving froglet into gullet. For a fleeting moment I had the urge to reach down and try to save the little croaker. Instead I ran and fetched the camera.
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I stumbled onto the Universal Access preferences pane yesterday and found a few nice bonuses:
First off, under Hearing, you can set it to flash the screen whenever there is an alert. Nice when the audio is muted or iTunes is crankin'.
Secondly, for late night coding sessions when eyes are fried and monitor brightness won't go any lower, Switch to White on Black comes to the rescue (control-option-command-*). The photo is from a heavy duty full-screen zoom while in White on Black mode.
how could you be so cruel, insensitive. don't you know frogs are going extinct but not bullfrogs. last year I was there to help you. did all the big fish survive. do you have to get a new tank for them. the normal norman kids and abnormal mom, plus marvelous me
I wasn't the one eating frogs nor would the bullfrog be persuaded from his frog eating ways by something I said. Lots of frogs this fall. Our dinky pond has at least a dozen and the beaver pond down the road is hopping with them.
The brown fish isn't missing after all, at least in the typical sense. After two years of being a dark brown/black fish it decided to turn orange like its peers.
No idea on winter quarters for the fish yet...the twenty gallon tank is pretty tight.