BLACK CARP

Then there was the day I was standing on Main Bridge watching the carp get fed. People at the feeding landing for the carp and turtles in Quasi Pond were giving them food.

I say "feeding the turtles", but they're so slow and have such small mouths, the carp usually get food thrown in their direction before they get there.

With one exception.

When humans were tossing out food to carp, I noticed black shadows leaped off the bridge where I was and flew to intercept it!

"Hey, that was for the carp!"

"But we're just flying carp!" the crows insisted: "haven't you heard of black carp?"

With the morsels of food in between their beaks, the crows returned to the bridge, where they continued to dive repeatedly for "black carp" food.

I think some of the carp heard the crows and acted like they took them seriously.

A few days later, at Duck Pond, I saw a black carp struggling in the reeds, flapping her pectoral fins furiously, pretending, I think, like she was "trying to learn to fly."

She knew full well that's for the birds.