AN HOUR OF RELAXED EXPLORATION BEFORE THE RAIN
After the events described in the previous post, published earlier today, our heroes ... which means me and three of my closest friends, arrived at the small pond in the inland of this peninsula called Istra, on whose southern end we all live.
The rain was forecasted on each and every local TV channel, newspaper and Web portal. The start was only a matter of time, minutes or hours to be more precise.
We were rambling around a lovely rural area about 40 - 50 kilometers from our homes, in search for a place to stop and spend some time taking photographs before the first raindrops start to fall ...
... and we found it by the small pond, about 10 kilometers from the town called Zminj, the administrative center of that area with many small farms and villages.
This is a natural pond, a typical one for this area ... but is so lovely and well-designed that it looks like something put together by people to enhance the look of their garden.
Although we found and photographed quite a few interesting things here, the absolute protagonists were the frogs.
About a dozen of very common pelophylax esculentus frogs were enjoying their favorite weather in the shallow green water ...
... and I had the opportunity to take many amphibian portraits in one day ... probably more than I have taken in the last few decades.
This time of the year has been pretty dry. Only a couple of short, sporadic rains had fallen during the last month, and the pond is much smaller than usual. Less than a half of its winter size, so this dead, rotting fish wasn't a surprise.
As always on these occasions, I found some insects on the corpse, busy feeding and reproducing on that temporary abundance.
The ants worked in groups. They were trying to get to the meat under the scales.
These are the minuscule pavement ants (Tetramorium immigrans). They eat practically everything. Sweet stuff, salty stuff, hard to chew or liquid, fruity, meaty or rotting - they'll eat anything.
On the dried out mud near the fish, another, much bigger ant was cleaning its legs. I don't know what species is this.
Flies were also there, of course, to take advantage of the rotting flesh. I photographed two red - eyed, very similar looking species. This was the smaller one.
Here you can see the bigger one. More than double in size.
Meanwhile ...
... the frogs were chilling in the water.
Some were immersed, with only the head sprouting out ...
... others were floating.
I found this fly on the humid mud near the water. This is the Lispe tentaculata, a species found in this kind of habitats, mostly near ponds ... but also in shallow muddy inlets on the coast.
All the frogs we encountered were in the water ...
... all but this one.
Just one of them jumped out of the water on the dry bank ... but only for a moment ...
... after this shot, the frog disappeared again.
At one point, I noticed this interesting water - walking bug ...
... the Aquarius najas, a predatory insect that can move very fast on the surface.
We spent the rest of that hour before rain slowly walking around the pond ...
... and observing the frogs.
This is the last shot I took near the pond ... when the first rain drops were already falling.
When we entered the car, there were droplets on the windshield ...
... and on these shots the focus is on them ... but you can see some blurred stuff going on in the background ...
... a group of people was passing by ...
... and here you can see the name of the small village with the lovely pond at its entrance ... the pond is situated just across the street from this road sign.
And that's it ...
... after this shot, I put the camera back in the bag ... it was time to drive home - THE END
As always in these posts on HIVE, the photographs are my work.
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I loved the adventure and your photographs! What a great post.
Thanks :)
Many people are bothered by the rain, but I prefer it to inclement heat, when it rains you can drink something hot and hug the person you love with more tenderness, well that's my opinion
I see the yellow sign, don't make fun of me but I tried to translate, Slovenian is what the translator says, maybe I'm a very curious man :) the photos are great as always, great post.
Happy Tuesday