The early bird gets the worm: IRFD 2009 - 1

... or snails. Or maybe a spider or two.

Leftover shells from bird breakfast. Not under a rock.

Rock Flipping Day 2009 is underway! Posts and photos are coming in, a few as early as Saturday morning, and we've got a great line-up of flippers waiting in the wings.

And there are prizes! Even not completely imaginary prizes! Cephalopodcast, the creator of the original IRFD badge, has made a Junior Award badge; if some of your crew of RockFlippers are under 7 or thereabouts, add this badge to your post. (It might be a good idea to print out copies for each kid, to stick on the fridge or hang on the door ...)

Badge, by cephalopodcast.com, under a Creative Commons license. Original, and other sizes, in Flickr IRFD pool.

And now, without more ado, let the show begin!

First up, in the early bird category:

• From The Natural Capital, hailing from Washington, DC, a grand collection of critters, including a video of frantic ants, with birdsong.
• Bill Murphy, blogging in Fertanish Chatter, (NY) found an interesting greenish spider with grey socks.
• Sadly, Pablo from Roundrock Journal, flipped his rock and found nothing at home; just an open front door. I wonder what's living down there?
• I was out early, too, flipping the landscaping.
• Julie and her family, Just Playin' Around, flipped paving stones and discovered what they've been walking on. The kids are 2 1/2 and 5; don't forget to add their award to your post, Julie!

Sunday:

• The Science Goddess, in western Washington, discovers that "the rock is providing habitat services for any number of organisms. I will now have to stop thinking of it as an eyesore by the road." She writes about it in What It's like on the Inside.
• Kris Abel, CTV's tech expert, checked out a rockbed in the Toronto Music Garden, and found low-tech, silent residents. His photos are also in the Flickr pool.
• The latest (as of noon today) photos in the pool are by BugLady, of Bug Safari. She is not thrilled with her finds, but I like her spider. I guess what you see every day becomes old hat after a while.
• Sofia_Alexandra, in Sweden, found ants and loaded them to Twitter. #rockflip The cat doesn't say what he found.
• Ted Simpkins added photos of a redback salamander to the pool.
• Roberta, of Growing with Science, found a change in the under-rock habitat after a dry summer in the Sonoran Desert.
• At Chicken Spaghetti, Susan finds an earthworm and gives us some handy book titles to go along with it.
• Laura, at Natural Notes, says her photos are Not Much to Look At. On second thoughts, however, they are "kind of neat in their own way."
• Elizabeth, blogging at Yips and Howls, looks at piles of Oregon basalt, and finds "small critter turds".
• Hugh, of Rock, Paper, Lizard, makes a determined search through Rip-rap & rubble. He is finally rewarded with a well-camouflaged spider.
• Nothing. Sort of, says Kate, after flipping rocks in two counties. The dry weather worked to her advantage, though.
• Andrea, the Dog Geek, found slugs. And more slugs. No dry weather for her!
• Glass snails from the garden, in Dave Ingram's Natural History Blog.
• Dave Bonta, at via negativa, weighs in with videoetry: Advice for Prospective Troglodytes.
• Sarah (at Unplug Your Kids) and her family explored the woods, looking for perfect rocks. She describes the ones they found as, "quite beautiful, volcanic, and full of holes."
• Ange, from Quebec, added a photo to the Flickr group; are these egg masses? If so, what laid them there?
• ORCA: Observar, Recordar, Crecer y Aprender, blogging from Barcelona, Spain, found "escarabajos y hormigas,"* and, I think, some springtails. (*That's "beetles and ants".)
• Will Rees, in North Carolina, goes out herping/'shrooming/rock-flipping. Among his finds; a cottonmouth and other snakes. He also has a valuable tip for anyone hiking in snake country.
• And here's Seabrooke, at The Marvelous in Nature, with some good info about ants. (She found several species.) And how to tell a centipede from a millipede.
• From Aotearoa, New Zealand, Pohangina Pete sends the story of a walk in search of rocks (in a drowned totara forest). The garden turned out to be a better bet.
• MrsJurus, from Centerville, OH, added photos to the Flickr pool The evidence shows she was accompanied by at least one kid.
• Ontario Wanderer found "a worm in the worm" in one of his flower gardens.
• Candeiasleal added a woodbug from northern Ontario to the Flickr pool.
• A couple of toddlers, with Bare Baby Feet, discovered the Ant Queen of Okemos, Michigan, big, red-and-black, and beautiful.
• And the Pickle family turned up a Spiderman disk and a nickel. That's besides the earthworms and a cool slug.
• Crickets and a handful of worm. At Crazy Maize World.
• Dr. Omed broke all the rules. But his beetles are worth looking at, so we'll forgive him. This time.

Late entries:

• Rob Cruikshank added a millipede and a sowbug to the Flickr pool.
• Bill Murphy, from Fertanish Chatter, weighs in again with Rock Flipping Day Outtakes.
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As the rest of the posts come in, I will update the list. Refresh this page occasionally to see what's new. And don't forget to check the Flickr pool, as well.

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