The watercress darter is a small, very colorful fish measuring up to 2.5 inches in length. The fish is currently found in only four sites in the upper Black Warrior River drainage near Birmingham, Alabama.
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this is a ...small [4x6] watercolor ... i painted of a portion of a creek at the preserve here in bessemer as i sat with my feet in the water
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not long ago at another local preserve for this fish a caretaker opened a dam killing off a number of this rare species. the damage has been repaired and a number of the fish survived....but that doesnt make much difference to the ones who were killed that day. and it doesnt make much difference to the goldfish in my pond.
for one reason or another goldfish in my pond over in the chicken lot began to die off a few months ago. i figured all of them had died. the pond developed a lot of algae....i mean the water was thick with it. thinking there were no fish in it yesterday i dumped about a cup of chlorine in it. i figured kill off the algae then start anew. alas this morning when ebbie and i walked over .. as we do most mornings .. we saw that there were 3 dead goldfish floating on the surface. i didnt feel very good at all about that.... after all i could have used a 'fish safe' algae destroyer designed for just that purpose... and i have some of it here. because i had no idea that there was anything living in the pond i used the chlorine instead as it would work faster.
neither me nor the fellow at the preserve had any intention of causing harm ..and .. i dont suppose the fellow who opened the dam on the darters was any dumber or less responsible than i was.........certainly to the fish it didnt matter.
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From the promise land in Lipscomb Alabama
Where golden eagle table syrup and buffalo rock
Flow freely
And the train whistle blows
