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I was out making pictures by the small pond near Plum Tree Lane and the Pavilion this morning.  When I downloaded my pictures onto my computer I noticed something unusual.  The two pictures above were made 8 seconds apart.  You can see it was windy and the flag on your right was blowing.  Now look at the second picture, in the water below the electric pole.  See something sticking out of the water?  Now look at the first picture taken 8 seconds earlier at the same location.  Nothing in the water.  It must be a large fish jumping out of the water, but I didn’t hear anything.  I went back with another longer lens to make sure there wasn’t a stick or anything sticking out of the water, and I saw nothing.

The pond is a water catch basin for water running off of our streets.  The water level rises and lowers depending on the dryness of the year.  It also has lots of growth on the surface, etc.  I know the pond has large snap turtles living in it since I see them yearly when they come out to lay their eggs.  The pond also has occasional muskrats, and herons, and ducks and bullfrogs; but, I have never noticed any signs of large fish before.  Is that a large fish jumping in the second photo?

No, it isn’t a large fish and it isn’t anything jumping out of the water.  Look at the following very large blow-up of the object, in the next picture, and you can see it is a bird, maybe a green heron flying across the pond surface.

The lesson to be learned, is that you should never take as truth what others suggest with just a picture or a few words. Note that I referred to the object first as “something sticking out of the water” and then went on to suggest it was something living in the pond. I could have stopped there and not gone on to show you the very enlarged crop of the picture. I did at the end, also suggest it might be a Green Heron. I couldn’t tell that as being true from the single picture, but when I returned with a longer lens I also noticed a Green Heron sitting at the edge of the pond.

Don’t believe half of what you see or read or hear. Get more facts.