The third time’s the charm!
After two cancelled black water trips we finally got out this past Monday night. There was a lot of particulate in the water (cyanobacteria and algae) which made it hard to find really tiny stuff. But, the somewhat larger critters still put on a good show. I use the term “larger” loosely. These guys were still under 1”.
This is my favorite photo from the night. It is a crab zoea larva. It look more like a space alien than the crab it will become.
Crab zoea larvae are the first larval stage of crabs, characterized by their slender, curved abdomen and long spines. They use their thoracic appendages for swimming and undergo several molts before transforming into the next stage, the megalopa, which resembles a small crab.
For those that like statistics, we drifted 9.5 miles over the course of 2 hours starting over 660 feet of water and ending over 585 feet. For more on black water diving, click here.
Remember, you can click on an image to view it full screen.
A couple more images from this week around the ‘hood. Still too hot for a lot of birding, but Friday was a perfect beach day. Apparently the Ibis thought so too.
