Shrek, a launching rocket!

My body got so excited when Spring comes, that's why my blog is like missing in action. Hey, don't blame me, I have a life to live other than taking video of Shrek! After all, who can resist the warmth of the sun, the smell of the greens and the touch of the light breeze of Spring after three months of hibernation? Anyway, it's been quite some time since the last post, but you know, a good video takes time to make. Shrek is in action of course, but this time I see him like a rocket launching.

Watch:

Meet the neighbors I - Ben

Shrek has some friends living in the same block.

Let me just call them fishy neighbors. It may take a few posts to introduce all of them.

First, this little guy, Ben, has a few black stripes on the body. Its official name is Botia dario. It's in the loach family. Some people call it Queen loach, some call it Bengal loach. The latter seems to fit its appearance better because it has the stripes like a cat. However, its temperament doesn't suggests it's gentle at all, especially when it comes to feeding. It'll chase its neighbors from one end of the block to the other.

Don't worry, although Ben isn't friendly, he won't hurt others much, he's more like a "paper tiger" instead. His favorite meal? Small snails. When he sucks the snail out of the shell, it'll create some loud "clicking" noise. Interesting, isn't it?

His heritage? He's from the hill streams of Bangladesh.

Are they mating?

When I step out to my backyard, I tend to open the breezeway door slowly to avoid scaring the frog jumping away.

After I have observed this frog for some time, I learned that frogs in general don't like sudden movement of big objects. I guess it's their "flight instincts" when they detect such a movement as danger. However, if I move slowly close to just one foot away from it, it still doesn't care. That's how I took the snap shot of it in such a close distance.

One day, things got a little interesting! I saw another one in brownish color sitting side by side with the green one on the edge of the pond. Were they friends? Mating, anybody? The pattern of their bodies is totally identical, but their color is different. what gives?

Why the wire fence on the top?

One word: RACCOON

Not only was the frog staying in the pond, there were some gold fish in there too, that's why I needed to have some kind of protection to prevent raccoons from jumping in...

Unfortunately, fish is just too tempting to raccoons, even the fence cannot stop them from coming to look for sashimi...

One morning, I found the fence dropped down close to the water and the filter was totally messed up... I suspected it was the raccoon(s) that came to look for food last night. Anyway, I got the pond fixed.

When I came home after work at night, I went out to the backyard and caught some fresh air. As I turned around, I saw ten eyes starring at me... OMG, a family of five (two big ones and three small ones) were standing just about 5 ft. away. It was the closest encounter I've ever run into. Fearing these guys may carry rabies and jumped on me, I had a thought to rush into the breezeway, but instead, I grabbed a lawn chair next to me and chased them away. Whew!

Ahhhhh, wildlife on my patio pond

Nobody welcomes intruders, but sometimes, there is an exception.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Prince! Ahem, I mean the “Frog” Prince.

No, it is not an almighty frog that broke into my house. It is just a 5-inch-long frog, from head to toe, which has found my 35-gallon patio preformed pond a perfect summer getaway, like we Homo sapiens seeking the most exotic places on earth for vacations.

Prince obviously does not mind the floating dead wood, it’s probably a chalet in his mind. And for that I owe him my gratitude.

At the very least, it keeps me company in the morning while I'm having my coffee in my backyard. We both have something else in common though – I work at night to make a living and it goes out hunting when it's dark.

(This essay was written a year and a half ago)