Skeeter Spectacle

My neighbor has a water skeeter circus. Last summer she built a pond in her backyard and stocked it with plants and fish to make it authentic. And the skeeters came. This year they went missing, so she went to the Gully and collected more from the stagnant marshes there.

Diane found that if you tossed red ants near the skeeters they fought for the food. But she also discovered that she could entertain herself (and others) with a structured feeding regime. It’s hard to imagine, and especially difficult to take it seriously, but if you line up a few skeeters and toss red ants at them they will rear up on their hind legs and catch them in their mouths. They learned to anticipate their turn like the trumpet section in an orchestra--first chair skeeter, second chair skeeter… Mmmm, it is true--in the least likely places you can find imagination and wonder.

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