At the Pond

From our living room we can see the amazing water feature that came with this house. It is seriously one of the best things about this house. It has two waterfalls and surrounded by ferns and tropical plants. It is the perfect spot to sit and have a cup of coffee on Sunday morning. The only thing that could make it better would be some pretty fish. Right now all it has is small silver minnows and thousands of tadpoles. Lake Malawi is famous for it's cichlids, in fact many of the pretty little fish in your local pet store come from right here in Malawi. I am looking forward to adding some colorful cichlids to the pond in the future, then it will be just about perfect.

This morning the frogs were making an awful racket, a bit unusual, they are usually pretty quiet in the morning. We glanced out the window and suddenly we were watching a real live wildlife show in our own backyard. In the trees around the pond were several pied crow and a hammerkop. David was excited to see the hammertopf and grabbed the camera. I am so glad he did. By the time he got the screen open so he could take a clear picture one of the crows had grabbed a frog and flown to a grassy area to eat his breakfast. Minutes later the hammerkop caught his own breakfast. Mmmm...yummmy....froglegs for breakfast.

The frog looks like he has a chance to escape but he is doomed. Minutes later it was in the crow's stomach.


The hammerkop never gave the frog a chance, he just tilted his head back and swallowed it whole.

I guess I will hold off on those pretty fish after all. I don't want to pay good money just to feed the wildlife. They seem to be doing fine on their own. I now understand why there are thousands of tadpoles if these guys are out there munching on frogs. I am little less worried there will be a plague of frogs in our yard if all these tadpoles manage to survive. Perhaps one morning soon I will see a kingfisher catching a early morning snack.