POND LIFE Tennish

BULLFROGS, BLUE DASHERS and a RED-EYED VIREO (not on video)

Bullfrogs! They like to vocalize don’t they? Especially late or early on. They keep me awake and then when I drift off they wake me up again. They are at it all hours. They are vigilant and voracious in all appetites, eat the young of their own predators, such as snakes, and after three days of 90 degrees in the shade they are still fucking about in the cooling mud. The breeding season lasts three months so we have to get used to it. Meanwhile, not a heron or kingfisher in sight.

These creatures must be the most dissected species in America. I wonder why that tradition started? Also why is it that only their legs are eaten? Cuisses de grenouilles are obviously popular in France, but also now around the world. Maybe in an effort to curtail their spread? They are seen as an invasive species in Asia after being introduced from America. How the world turns, but you know, protein!

I ate ancas de rana in a tapas bar. It was okay, but you should always double check what you order.

The pond seems quite peaceful on a summer’s day. You don’t get the whole frog chorus going on usually but there is so much life and death happening even on the surface.

The heat slows things down for the warm blooded amongst us. The birds are singing but well hidden in the juicy foliage. A red-eyed vireo warbles for hours having some kind of syrinxical battle with a cardinal high up in the maples.

The blue dashers (it’s a small dragonfly, or skimmer) are busy everywhere, however, and don’t usually stop long enough for a photograph. They are eating on the wing. They eat all day, catching mosquitoes and gnats amongst other insects, and always on the lookout for more. They can fly backwards and are one of the most successful predators on the planet, as in they get their prey nearly every time. Of course they get eaten too. They fight each other whilst avoiding bullfrogs. I wonder on their life expectancy, they are tiny, colorful workaholics. Apparently both these species are prone to cannibalize, as if life wasn’t hard enough. Whatever it takes to survive - wing or leg?