Mass grave

Last week most of Charlie’s Pasture was flooded; so many minnows in the pools, the water bubbled with them. They actually made noise flipping against the surface. The sound caught my attention and I made a quick video. You can hear the fish even though there was a small plane droning overhead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBiKp9N8q_c

Today, I walked past the same spot and it was dry. There has been no rain.


It looks like pebbles or shells remain, but look a little closer.


Thousands of minnows that didn’t make it. Cut-off from deeper water, they perished as the pond evaporated.

So many levels of life. So many cycles. We have the Gulf of Mexico on one side of the island, and the Laguna Madre on the other. The Laguna Madre is vast and shallow for a hundred miles and more. It is the safe haven nursery for all manner of critters in preparation for their life in the deeper water and open-ocean when they’re bigger.

A complex and brutal web of life; each kind of animal depends on other animals not making it. The insects and bacteria breaking down the dead minnows will provide nutrients for the next round.