Flora and Fauna

Happy weather  to report today.  Blue sky, no clouds, perfect for a walk along my favorite path, the Big Dry Creek Trail.    I remembered my camera today and a good thing too as the wildflowers (weeds) were blooming and I got to appreciate them in the open space instead of my lawn.   Photo heavy post coming...............

There is a small lake that attracts all kinds of ducks, geese, and today a heron.   But what really caught my eye first was major splashing around in the shallow water.    What it turned out to be was a huge Koi surrounded by several catfish and smaller yet huge goldfish and assorted carp.   I was told by someone more familiar with the sex lives of fish that they were spawning...right out there in public for all the world to see.    So what do I do, but pull out the camera to photograph some fish porn for this blog!

The huge orange Koi had to be nearly30 inches long and its "friends" were about a foot long each!     Sounds like a fish story for sure but the photos tell the story!

And there is more!    

The heron only let me approach just so far before it took off across to the other side of the lake so I followed around the path to get closer again, when all of a sudden it caught a fish for lunch.

It played with it a while then swallowed it whole....you can see how thick the neck became as it was consumed into its throat.    It posed like this for the longest time  before the neck regained its graceful curve.   Wow!