We had very heavy rains this spring on top of already saturated ground a high water table. A dam burst in Midland, MI, and the whole downtown is under 6-8' of water! Our pond overflowed into the woods again. Last night I saw this thrashing in the water near the overflow area. Turns out the largest spotfin shiners are thrashing in the 2" water and trying to get into the 1" water and wriggle through the grass to get over to the other puddle of remaining overflow water. They keep trying and trying. They must have strong instinct to swim 'upstream' or to keep moving.
The thrashing and splashing of course attracted not one but 2 GBH this morning and the kingfisher has been chattering away and swooping for breakfast.
If I get close the ball of fish breaksup and they go back to safety. I had to use my super zoom camera from an upstairs bedroom to video this and where you can kind of see the thrashing. I noticed when I walked closer that it is only the largest sized shiners doing this. Have not seen this before but somehow they knew that this was the 'exit' to the pond..
