Natural Mystery

[Chief Grey Bear]

A little bit ago there was some discussion on this forum about fish showing up in odd places mysteriously. Some said that eggs stick to the legs of water birds. I believe that since my dad many years ago said it. We always believe what our Dads say don't we? He told of his young days in the country in Barry County of ponds that were built and never stocked but ended up having fish in them.

Some of you don't believe that and I can understand your questioning of such. I also questioned my dad about it. He didn't have an answer but had seen it happen. But I'm gonna stay out of that debate, (Yeah right) that is not what I am writing about. Well, sorta.

My kids have a red wagon that is full of rain water. It's been in there a few days now. Well, as I was sitting outside last night reading and enjoying the birds feeding, my son says "Dad, there is a water spider in my wagon." I get up to investigate and sure enough there he is. Now it is quite a ways to the nearest pond. 300 or 400 yards anyway. Last I knew, they don't migrate like turtles. SO just how in the heck did he get there?

[gonefishin]

The flood water of recent days??? Transporter from Star Trek? Terry is kinda buggy maybe he sneaked in while you was away and pulled a practical joke on you.

[duckydoty]

Leave it there and in a couple more days there will be fish in the little red wagon. It will be one of the first natural mobile ponds.

duckydoty

[Kansas Fly Fisher]

The flood water of recent days??? Transporter from Star Trek? Terry is kinda buggy maybe he sneaked in while you was away and pulled a practical joke on you.

Now we know where the "assassin bug" went that Terry found! He sent it to you and has placed a "SPI-der" in your wagon to keep track of your secret fishing spots and methods! The plot thickens!

John

[gonefishin]

Yeah. What Terry didnt know was that by planting that SPY-der he was really inventing the mobile pond that someone else will get credit for.

[davekeim]

I concur Chief! People can't explain some things about mother nature. We tend to laugh and scoff at it. How does a new body of water gain natural habitat?

The latest in a series of bizarre British weather phenomena is a rain of fish. It may sound like the stuff of legend, but such events are increasingly well documented.

On Wednesday, the village of Knighton, in Powys, was reported to have endured such a fishy deluge. Not a story easily believed - an odd site for a Biblical-style plague, one might think, perhaps to be followed by the waters of the nearby River Teme running red with blood?

But in fact, as the Met Office explains, such occurrences are not as uncommon as they may sound. Not only are they not quite the miraculous events that they seem, rains of fish - and other even more surprising objects - are reported with some frequency.

1. Fish are picked up from lake

2. Cloud moves over urban area and drops fish

They even provided the inspiration for some of the events in the 1999 Paul Anderson film Magnolia, which went to the extreme of having a diver falling from the sky.

That may be going too far, assures a Met Office spokesman. Fish are the most common thing to have rained down on you - other than rain itself, of course. Rains of frogs have also been known, as have such strange items as tomatoes and even lumps of coal.

Hail, Caesar: Pliny reported a hail of frogs

The phenomenon can be explained simply: given strong enough winds, in thunderstorms for example, small whirlwinds and mini-tornadoes may form. When these travel over water any small items of debris in their path, such as fish or frogs, may be picked up and carried for up to several miles.

Sooner or later, the clouds carrying them will open and drop their strange cargo - resulting in a hail of fish, frogs or whatever the winds happened to pick up.

Weird rains are not limited to Britain - they have been recorded all over the world, throughout the ages. Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century AD, mentioned storms of frogs and fish.

Some believe that these events may give a clue to the origin of the plague of frogs recorded in the Book of Exodus. Two US scientists have come up with an explanation of the 10 plagues of Egypt as a series of linked natural disasters - each following as a result of the other.

So perhaps the residents of Knighton should continue to keep a nervous eye on the river water.

Signed,

Cardiac

The Cards stink so what else do I have to do?

[fishinwrench]

I've come to grips with the "raining fish" thing....fish DO fall from the sky far away from their home water ....as do frogs, crawdads, and other pond critters after a tornado passes over a farmpond...somewhere.

We had a F-2 tornado March of 06....a few of our belongings have fallen from the sky 45 miles (by road) from where our house was. (the heaviest being a ink pen with my business name on it) So it's easy to see how small critters could get relocated. fish would most likely be dead, but frogs and crawdads might make it if the landing wasn't to abrupt.

Just this last April there was a cloud of red dust that settled in the Portland, and Hermann, Mo. area....supposably it was from a dust storm/or tornado out in Oklahoma.

Once an object (stick, rock, fish, pelican, goose...ect,) is in the jet stream, I guess it can be pushed for a very long distance.

[jcoberley]

I've come to grips with the "raining fish" thing....fish DO fall from the sky far away from their home water ....as do frogs, crawdads, and other pond critters after a tornado passes over a farmpond...somewhere.

We had a F-2 tornado March of 06....a few of our belongings have fallen from the sky 45 miles (by road) from where our house was. (the heaviest being a ink pen with my business name on it) So it's easy to see how small critters could get relocated. fish would most likely be dead, but frogs and crawdads might make it if the landing wasn't to abrupt.

Just this last April there was a cloud of red dust that settled in the Portland, and Hermann, Mo. area....supposably it was from a dust storm/or tornado out in Oklahoma.

Once an object (stick, rock, fish, pelican, goose...ect,) is in the jet stream, I guess it can be pushed for a very long distance.

by George I think he's got it!

I tend to think there might be a little something to this....

[Chief Grey Bear]

OK OK, there may be something to this thing that Terry planted a device to determine where my hot spots are. It looks like that since you guy's outed him, the creature is gone.

Maybe they do migrate?????????

[Wayne SW/MO]

We also have to look beyond our own short visits to earth. In some instances it only takes one event in several hundred years, or more, to make a long term change.