Sunday, September 05, 2010

So many good rocks!

One more week till Rock Flipping Day!


Have you marked your calendars yet? This year, we're flipping rocks next Sunday, the 12th of September. If you missed the announcement, instructions and links are here.

I'm already looking for a good rock or two. This one absolutely begs to be flipped:


"Me! Me! Flip me!"

It's too little to be very productive, though. Maybe this one:


Lots of goodies in that crack. White Rock beach.

I'd love to pull that apart, but we'd need machinery. And we'd never get it back in place again. Have to be a bit less ambitious:


These look good. Barnacles and snails on top, worms and crabs and no telling what else underneath.

And some don't need flipping:


I was leaning over the bridge at Cougar Creek, looking at the muddy water behind the beaver dam, when this fly landed on a rock below me.


Helophilus, maybe fasciatus, probably female.

We won't flip this one, nor any of the smaller ones around it; I don't think the beavers would appreciate us mucking around in their new pool.

I found the fly on BugGuide; it's a hover fly. One of their photos notes, "Extremely common around flooded wooded areas." That describes this area of Cougar Creek perfectly. Those beavers have been very busy, and there are dams on each branch of the creek entering the little lake; the creek is backed up well into the bush.

2 comments:

  1. And a handsome hover fly it is too! I haven't had too much success with rock flipping day the last couple of years but I'll give it a try once again!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this idea. Just given you a mention in my homeschoolers newsletter.
    Hope you get lots of takers!
    best wishes, Julie.

    ReplyDelete

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