Tadpoles

Today I saw millions of tiny tadpoles in the pond. The little guys are black, about 1/4 inch long, with round heads and wiggly tails and endless energy.

I can only guess that the koi are having tadpole for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I haven't actually seen them in the hunt. Whenever I go outside, the security alarm for the back door beeps, and the fish come rushing over to see what I have for them. And when I come close, they watch me with a mixture of fear and loathing, not entirely sure about my intentions--with a white t-shirt on I probably resemble one of those big birds that come down to terrorize them. Where is the love, guys?

Despite all my my persuasions, my camera (I'll blame it on the camera) was able only to record a picture of the reflection coming from the surface. I tried all sorts of settings and angles (like this obviously stupid attempt reflecting the sun) but nothing.

We tend to think that a camera sees what we see, but it cannot adjust itself the way our mind does when, for example, we look into a mirror for just the right angle of light, for just the right combination of shadows, until the image comes close to what we hope others can see, something we do automatically and without effort or training, while the camera always needs some combination of settings, and even so it never can fool us into thinking that the image is something that it is not, even when we are looking for tadpoles.

So, in order to compensate for my inability to control my images, here is a video of tadpoles that look very much like the ones in our pond.