Sunny Froggie Sunday

I need to stop worrying so much about what these critters do on their off time.  Yesterday, Toad spent the day with me. He hung out in the water, then he hung out in the rocks, waiting for errant bugs. He was fine.  I tried to take pictures of him hiding in the rocks, but the sun did not cooperate.  Also saw an adorable baby salamander in the rocks.  I am a little concerned that our evil cat, Roxanne, got locked out of the house last night. Hopefully, she didn't harass any of our amphibious friends.  Cats need to be indoors at night.

Here is the latest version of the pond. I put netting on top, suspended between the green floaties.  The back is set up so that the tall plants can move and so the critters have free access from the back.  The frogs and such can always enter through the rocks all over, but I wanted to minimize any potential frogs getting caught in the net.  This net is mainly to keep the green herons out of the pond. These  birds are adept at fishing and ate two of the original four goldfish. I actually saw them hunting through the window. I love sitting on my porch steps hanging out with the frogs, toads and fish and watching the world go by.

Today, there is a medium-sized adult Rio Grande Leopard Frog lounging in the pool.  It should be about 103 degrees outside, so he should hang out today. I smashed a scorpion this morning in the guest room and left him as an offering in the garden. This is actually little frog. not the one I saw this morning. Little frog is very photogenic, however.              


 

Marge

I am having a terrible time trying to take pictures of the goldfish, even though they are ridiculously tame. Between pond glare, the plants and inevitable movement, I just can't get those shots.   These goldfish are amazing. Marge actually will eat fish flakes right out of my fingers.  She circles around and begs when I sit by the side of the pond. They seem quite funny and kind of doglike, actually.  They have no fear when I come by, but they hide when unfamiliar people or dogs come close.  I was fascinated to find information on people who train their goldfish to swim through tunnels, under bridges and go through weave poles on command.  They actually use a form of clicker training, but with lights.  These fish can be trained to play soccer and push balls through hoops or over goals and go through moving rings.  Amazing!  Behaviorists used to say that a goldfish's memory was only a few seconds long, which is why they could be happy in a bowl .  The fact that goldfish can be trained to do fairly complex tasks and certainly recognize and distinguish humans, shows this to be false. One report says their memory was more like several months.  I have no idea on what the methodology for testing this was, but it merits more study.  Marge certainly knows the difference between me and my husband at the side of the pool.  I actually measured her the other day.  She is four inches long!   This means she has more than doubled her size in about a year. Best goldfish ever.  She reminds me of our old cat Sid, actually.  I wonder if Sid would ever be reincarnated as a goldfish? After the green heron ate their two companions, they stayed close to the bottom of the pond for some time and were very agitated and upset for a few weeks. I think that goldfish might be much smarter than anyone imagined.