From behind my fence

I posted, on Twitter, my thoughts on the pandemic. Look for the thread here.

Locked down, looking out at the world. (Strathcona)

~~~~~~

Subí a Twitter algunos pensamientos sobre la pandemia. Aquí empieza el hilo.

Lo siento, está solamente en inglés.

Infinitely complex

I was inspired by a scientist on Twitter a few days ago. Allison studies species interactions, and her experience has been in the intertidal zone. As she says, she has had"my face down in the seaweeds for 5 years" looking at communities composed of hundreds of species.

To illustrate her Twitter series, she has been searching through her old intertidal photos looking for examples of interactions between species. "What a good idea!" I thought, and dug out my oldest photos, looking for the extras, the critters that weren't the feature of the photo, but were living alongside them. What have I missed?

Worms, barnacles, mussels, miniature sea urchins, sponges, anemones, tiny fish, more worms, more worms, eggs. Seaweeds of all kinds and colours. Most of these are in the unfocused areas of the photos, but they're there.

Purple starfish. With barnacles, stubby isopods, sponge, a worm, and a half-dozen hairy hermit crabs, walking on the star, or nestled between two of its arms.

Another starfish, with at least 5 species of seaweeds. Blowing the photo up, I discovered many tiny snails, one large blue-shelled snail, a crab, a limpet and, of course, barnacles. No telling how many beasties are sheltering under the seaweeds.

I still have oodles of photos to examine. I wonder what else I'll find.

IRFD update: lizard, fossil, more!

Here are another seven happy Rock Flippers, who posted on Twitter at #rockflip:

Michael ‏@akmrbaldwin
Happy Int'l Rock Flipping Day from Alaska - a carabid beetle! #rockflip #IAmANaturalist pic.twitter.com/C7IrrL6n0D

Lobo Guará ‏@juandoso
Hidden treasures! pic.twitter.com/UcvzHVJqGs

Rebecca Zarazan Dunn ‏@rebeccazdunn
Happy International Rock Flipping Day  pic.twitter.com/8vGF2abNuF

Janet K C ‏@jkricketc
Just the usual dinosaur AKA Western fence lizard. pic.twitter.com/oQRg4kmJEZ

Jesse Calhoun Bethea ‏@jesscalhoun
Adventuring in Glen Echo Ravine for #rockflip day. pic.twitter.com/0UhD9xSbAL
Melissa found a fossil. pic.twitter.com/r5GEIpqYFx

Earthworm pic.twitter.com/h2BQHK4xTH

Catherine Scott ‏@Cataranea
Happy international rock flipping day! Perhaps you might find a beautiful spider! [photo by @Ibycter] pic.twitter.com/U3XHWoph7j

Laura ‏@lkwagonlander
September 14, 2014 http://pic-collage.com/_r4br8K49 pic.twitter.com/l2YpKZ6CIO

(This has a Rock-flipping kid.)

A couple of others also posted their photos on Twitter, but they had also added them to the Flickr pool, so they're on the first list, which I'll repost here:

• From Pennsylvania, Kate of Outside My Window participates in IRFD… without flipping a rock! I guess we’ll allow that, especially since she found some nifty spider webs and a small mammal.
• Here in British Columbia, I (that's Heather - ed.) did flip rocks, and after many tries turned up a couple of worms and a pill-bug (or something like one, anyway).
• Elsewhere in the province, (I, Susannah) face similar challenges with dry rocks, but still manage to find a few things, including (unfortunately) some non-organic debris.
• And to the south in Washington state, Dave Wenning of Wild Fidalgo flips rocks on the beach (and in his garden) and finds several Purple Shore Crabs. And a few other things. Even if he didn’t look very dignified doing it.
• Bill finds several critters under his rocks, including a beautiful millipede. (A beautiful millipede? Well, I think it is.)
• The WNY meet-up page includes a number of rock flipping discoveries, such as a lovely speckled salamander and a pair of slugs from Barbara Newman H., and a pretty black beetle and another salamander from Mark. I’m jealous – I wish I could have found a salamander!

Over in the International Rock Flipping Day Flickr group, many more interesting things have been discovered:

• Sara Rall flipped paving stones and came up with a good variety of small critters, including a rove beetleand a ground cricket. 
• Rob Cruikshank found ants and pupas, and a cute white springtail.
• Paul Fehringer, of Wild Spirit Education, found a red-legged beetle, and a strange (to me) centipede.
• And John Beetham found a spider with the intriguing name of Amaurobius ferox. Among other beasties.