Well it looks like Tammy got in the last word for the whole year!  Chris is probably reaching middle age ... Tracey says a parakeet will live 15 to 20 years in captivity.  I haven't looked it up so I will take her word for it.

 

So here we are and another new year.  It will probably be Feb. or March before I start writing the year 2007 without first flubbing it or having to think about it.

 

 

I was surprised at how large goldfish can get and how fast they multiply.  Tracey put 6 little goldfish in her pond and they grew very big and fast.  We have at least  twenty to thirty at any one time.  The heron eats the big ones and the frogs eat the little ones and the population stays about the same.  Just enough to eat the mosquitoe larvae and that is their job.  What mosquitoes the goldfish don’t get ... the dragonflies, bluebirds and barn swallows finish off (with an occasional bat).

 

 

In the Spring I accept donations into my pond.  If you want to set your goldfish free (with all the benefits and RISKS that entails) I would gladly accept donations when the water warms up.  In fish tanks average life expectancy of a goldfish is 5 to 10 years ... but there are some reported cases of them living over 40 years.