Blowing his own trumpet

I had promised to try to get a photo of the tiny tubeworm's "trumpet", so this afternoon, I propped the camera an inch away from the worm, and got him to sit for his portrait.

Red trumpet calcareous tubeworm, Serpula columbiana, back view of the mouth.

The worm ("Red, for short) wasn't the least bit shy; I kept taking a few photos, picking him up and repositioning him, trying again, moving him again ... "Red" would hide in the tube while I moved things around (wouldn't you, too, if a monster the size of a skyscraper picked you up?) but by the time I'd got back to the camera, there he was, waving his tentacles around enthusiastically.

And I finally got a clear shot at that tiny "trumpet".

It still looks like a badminton birdie to me. On a stem.

This is the door of the tube. When Red goes back into his tube, he pulls the feeding tentacles in, then the "trumpet", which he spreads across the opening, locking it down.

I noticed, in my photos, many even tinier plants or critters, like those white pinheads to the left above, or little green shrubs, too small for my eyes alone to see. I wonder if I can zoom closer in, to get a good look at them, too. It's turtles, or at least critters, all the way down!