What about lunch?

Egretta Thula (White egret)

If you've been following this story, you know that in less than a 3 day period over 2 tons of fish died mysteriously in the small lagoon not far from my house.


Fish are gone but the birds are still there. They are looking for lunch in the water, algae, worms in the mud, swimming guys that are there no more...


Results on the water and other samples are going to take a while, but these birds keep on trying to feed there.

Gallinula chloropus (Common Moorhen)

Yes, this one is picking on a dead fish.

I REALLY hope that the death ends up with the fish and doesn't take other creatures, like my dear birdies :(

UPDATE - Something fishy

Yesterday we visited the lagoon again, trying to find some answers and hoping for good news. We were not expecting this at all.


We found the fish that two days before were struggling for air.
They were dead.

Some of them at the bottom, some of them on the shore. A few small ones still fighting, breathing heavily and swimming on their sides.


The smell was very strong and the sight was sad, sad, sad.


Still nothing on the news. I don't want this to just dissappear. Last night I talked to my friend Yolanda, she's a young student and an activist for conservation of native flora and fauna. I met her a few months ago at the Wildlife Brigade. She said she was going to get a couple of friends from the university to go there and test the water, collect samples, and try to find out what is going on.


I recorded a short video too.
Sad.

Something 'fishy' going on

A couple of days ago we woke up to a funny smell in the air... something a bit 'fishy'.
It was strange until we saw the news: They found almost 2 Tons of dead fish. Where??? The lagoon Tommy and I have been visiting!!! If you are a regular reader, it is the one on the post about a Sunday afternoon and also the one with ducks 'reading' the signs.

I was running late for work, but Tommy found some time during the day to pay a visit. The fish (Tilappia) was already removed, only a few small guys were still there, washed on the shore.


Tommy says the smell was still horrible, and he was surprised to find the remaining 'living' fish trying to 'breath air', at least that is what it looked like.

Note from Tommy: The side of the lagoon accessible to the public is around 70 metres of the perimeter (I guess the whole lagoon is a little over 500 metres). The pictures you see are from all around this stretch, and it was all the same scene - literally THOUSANDS of fish appearing to gasp for air around the shoreline. A sad sight, just seemed so 'unnatural'.


No authority explained what happened: Pollution? Failure on airing the water? (It is not a natural lagoon, needs some maintainance on the human side), Someone dumped something bad in the water? Algae took over?


I wasn't there to see what Tommy experienced, but looking at the pictures I do feel frustrated and impotent. I want to know and nobody is talking!! It's so annoying!!

There was an unusual smell on the air all over Lima yesterday, I felt it outside the office (one and a half hours from home), and I can't help wondering if some other ponds or lagoons had suffered the same fate... Or maybe it was just a coincidence...


Nobody knows, not even this Egret. The only one seen at the lagoon while Tommy was there... I try to figure out what's going on in its mind... Does it know? Will it have a problem later on?
I bet it is puzzled too.

Egretta Thula (White egret)

I'll try to keep you posted on this, if I manage to find some information.

To finish up with a happier note (I do need it!!), I leave you with this Vermilion Flycatcher Tommy found close to the site.

Pyrocephalus rubinus (Vermilion Flycatcher)