The Pond and Point & Shoot Fun

There are gizmos that you can buy to hook up your camera to your microscope or telescope.  They are great (I guess -- I don't have either).  But I have put my point and shoot pocket camera's lens up against the eye piece of the microscope and the telescope.  The results are pretty darn good.   If you try this -- hold the camera steady and let the auto focus do the work.  Be careful not to scrub the lens against the glass of the scope.  Also be sure you have plenty of light.  The microscope is great because it has the built in light from underneath. 

The photos today are of a goldfish egg and a newborn gold fish from my backyard pond.  These photos were taken in the spring a few years ago.  My "big momma" goldfish -- the one I believed laid the eggs was eaten by a heron about 18 months ago.  Just recently I noticed the two remaining koi are missing -- and my daughter told me the other day she saw a heron on our roof.  Pricey lunch, buddy!

The frogs eat the fish also.  When we first put the pond in -- one morning I stepped out onto the deck to peek over the edge and see what was going on early in the day.  I spied a big bullfrog with a pretty golden tail hanging from its mouth.  The war was on.  For weeks I would catch the bullfrogs and the kids would haul them across the road to the "cow pond" and let them go there.  I kept having a frog issue -- I finally gave up.  The day I saw the frog grab the bird and pull it under...well...ick.

Then I saw the snake.  There is some kind of snake in the pond.  Or it was -- I did not see it much after last year in the late spring.  Since it is so early now -- I don't know if I have one or not.  They eat fish too -- and those pesky frogs.  I call them pesky -- but I really like them.  Just in the past couple evenings I have heard the signing sounds of frogs and toads from the backyard.  Another 'when the pond was new' story -- all of us went out on the deck one night -- when we heard the frogs -- with flashlights to see what they were doing.  The night we shined the light on the bull frog with the toad's legs sticking out of its mouth...well, again...ick.  And my daughter summed it all up: "I wish I had not seen that!"

I think I have a pretty good number of goldfish -- comets and shubunkins.  No koi left.

But I have these cool photos.  Oh and in the egg photo -- it looks like there is some kind of pond water creature -- long and skinny -- you see the spine in the upper left.