A little silly ol' thought

We have officially got to that time of the year when it's too cold outside for my fish. That's what my mom thinks, so we take them to their  new home in a large bucket in the garage till the spring time. It's unnatural. My dad has tried to tell us that fish are supposed to freeze in the pond, and hibernate till the ice melts in the spring. Not sure if were willing to take that risk of them thawing before we know if their still alive.

The water has been drained, and the leafs had no problem taking over.

Just a side view

 It's starting to look like a ghost town, with the way it stands still with nothing but the colors fading into the winter.

How do the fish feel about this? Do they feel the sense of not knowing, and confused. They must be confused, their home has been moved and new fish have moved in. We have a smaller pond which is just a bucket with some small goldfish. They have never met before with the fish located only a few feet away from them.  Of course it would seem as though they don't really care whats going on, but do they care or notice that their home has completely changed? They go from natural sunlight, to having a light in the garage be their controlled sun for a few months. Different depths and a nice amount of space, to all being put together in a black boring bucket. It's a huge sized bucket, so don't worry thinking they're getting treated poorly or anything.

Do fish care? They must. I wonder if they feel stress when they get put in a different environment. As though would humans, feeling like their whole world just changed and they couldn't even control it. Some of this research can be found at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2662297/Fish-feelings-Expert-claims-creatures-experience-pain-way-humans-better-treated.html. Within this article it speaks about how fish are very intelligent and do know whats going on in their lifes. Something I got out of the article was that they  have machiavellian itelligence such as cooperation and reconciliation. This means that they do know what's going on, and have as much feeling as anything else. Though there's no study saying how much they can feel emotionally. We have to stop and think. People see fish as just that... fish.  We eat them, kill millions everyday, and yet its like they don't feel any of it. Thats why i'm trying to make all of it a bigger deal.  By us moving the fish, is like taking where we live and locking us in a room with people we don't even know. What if we hate eachother? I love putting them back in the ponds in the spring, because I'd hope that they remember their long lost home.

Since we don't and most likely won't know what a fish or any other animal is thinking. It's just important to remember that it's living too, and even if they can't tell us how they feel.. we should always do the moral nice thing to do. I can't control whether the fish mind if they get moved homes for a little. But, I hope that they don't stress over the change. It wouldn't be a healthy happy life for them...I wouldn't want to deal with that guilt. Which i'm already starting to feel since things arn't going the happiest.

Now since seeing the fish outside, I've starte tort observing them a few times in the garage. I'v already noticed little changes in their behavior. We had to build a little wall on the outside ledges because one kept trying to jump out. One actually hit the floor, my dad had to hurry and swoop him back into the water. That makes me sad, why would they do this? They must be frustrated that they are there, and dont really think that they could end up dying if they jump to far.
 

Griffiths, Sarah. "Fish have feelings too: Expert claims creatures experience pain in the same way humans do - and should be treated better." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers Ltd. 19 June 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

Slowly dying

The grass isn't green anymore..

Its actually started to become depressing by looking at something that's suppose to make you feel bright and happy. It feels like just yesterday that I was looking out and it was all beautiful and just the vibe you got by being able to see the fish in within the rays of sunlight going threw the water.

Now dad isn't even watering the grass anymore, and is about to make the change of putting the fish back into the garage for winter. The colors are so gloom, and makes me realize how fast time is going. We don't even realize how fast its all going by us. The years before I would just look outside and see it as one day It being summer, then in a blink of an eye it was almost winter.. where did the time go? Since observing, that has changed for me.. I get to see the everyday changes that I might not even realize at the time. But as days keeping breezy by, I realized something major. That after the  climax of all of the beauty being the best it could be this year, came the slow changes. Everyday its slowly dying,

As the water is getting darker its harder to see the fish

Leafs are falling in the water, and rotting away before we get the chance to clean them out. It's making the water darker than normal, and makes it look colder outside. The trees are starting to gloomp down, why do they have to look so sad? We had to unplug the water pump for one of the ponds because it was getting plugged by everything that was getting into the water.

Its all happening so fast. I'm not ready for the pond to stand still for the winter.

It makes me realize that reality is kicking in.  It stands out to me very well that everything has its beginning, climax, and end. Sometimes the end gets restarted, and it goes threw the cycle as many times as it can. With the pond, we go through it every year. Its a guidance of what time of the year it is.. and depending on that determines the life I'm living at the moment. For the one's that aren't a cycle, like amongst other things in life. Those things that just end in life, that you never get to see again.. either be a shame or a blessing.  I feel blessed that for the past couples years I'v got to see the pond go threw its changes threw the years. I'm excited now that I'll be noticing other things about the pond that I haven't before. Since before I never really looked at the pond while it was looking not at its best.

That's exciting for me, because it's a small breakthrough. That even when something may be dying, you still have to give it attention.. Life is still with it, its not lost or gone yet. You cant give up on it. Because its still beautiful, you just have to look at in a different way now. That's what I'm trying to do. I don't want to be the person who stops looking just because its starting to look different.

One Less Little Bird

The last couple weeks have been different overall in my backyard. As I noticed that the birds were coming less and less to my pond I figured out why.

We got my dad a few months back a small bird feeder, which has been a huge hit for the birds.. but also is causing a big problem. They are getting fed everyday by mom, who thinks it's her obligation. We were getting 50 birds at at time over there in the corner of my backyard! Of course their very franic, when they see one person walking up they all fly away at the exact same time.  That makes me wonder.. do they all see one run, and join in trust and/or panic?

Now, we have a new bird hanging around. A small Hawk! 

This caught me off guard, why was a hawk hanging around? Until one day we found out why. As  I was sitting there, I hear a big whoosh of air go by. The hawk was on my fence clenching to a tiny bird. He was eating the bird. As I went to go get my iPod to take a picture, he flew away with the bird with him. No wonder he was here. Also explains the feathers we found around my backyard.

From http://jimgindorff.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/coopers-hawk-and-flicker/
Not my picture, but represents what had happened.

The sad part is two other little birds were hiding in a small bush too scared to leave.

So now my mom feels guilty saying she was the reason the bird got eaten. She now thinks that if no birds are there, that the hawk is going to get our fish in the pond. Can hawks even dive into a pond of water? Would they if they were hungry or not?

It's crazy that we have a food chain going on in our backyard. Of course that's always the case, it's nature. Just sad to actual see happen. 

 I will try to post pictures as soon as I can.

The story of a Leaf

As I've been sitting there in my backyard, I've been looking at all other parts besides just my pond. Which I would like to tie into some other blogs, and show some connections I've made. Of course as we know the weather is changing, and fall is now here. Well it sure reflects on the pond itself. It grow's into a different kind of world than it is in the summer. Leaf's on my mini trees are starting to turn into the yellow that brings warmth in these colds month's.

Something that I first noticed a few day's after my first observation, was a flower on a lily pad bloomed. This had me in wonder.. did it bloom because it had rained the day before? How can a flower seem to just grow in water with no soil?

 A flower  had bloomed around September 24

As I read about lily pad's are mostly good or ponds because they keep fish cool by providing shade during those hot days. Which leads me to the question do fish ever get hot? The sun ray's must still affect them.

Right next to the flower is some algae that had grown on my rocks with the water running threw them. It's not the most prettiest thing to be seen, but sure adds character to the rest of the pond. The reason why i'm even mentioning something that may seem pointless? You see the leaf that has attached to the algae and rocks? That's why. 

This remind's me of so many things, so many situations. The leaf  was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, now it's just stuck in a mess that it cant get itself out of. Or maybe, it got into it's own mess, knew what was coming but yet still wasn't going to save itself. Or maybe, just maybe, this is their safe place.. hiding from the rest of the dangerous world. It's silly to think about a leaf like it has it's own thoughts, but that's what i'm starting to get out of this observation project. Looking at nature and comparing it to my life, to other's life. Who are the people who hide, take risks, stay hidden, want to be noticed, and be something in this world. I'm going to keep an eye out, and see how long it stays stuck, and where it travel's to next.