Digging out a few ants

Here's yesterday's woodpecker. Watch how she picks up ants and swallows them in between hammering sessions.

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Aquí está el video del pájaro carpintero que vi ayer. Mira como, entre golpe y golpe, recoge hormigas y se las come.

Lady B., Earth Mover

One of the things crabs do best (and most) is dig. Dig and dig and dig, making holes, burrowing under rocks, undermining oysters; all day and all night. And when they've finished a burrow to their satisfaction, they up stakes and move on, to dig somewhere else.

I discovered Lady Bird* digging right up against the aquarium wall, and videotaped her.



*Named for her "feathers".

All those little eyes!

I had brought in a fresh batch of eelgrass for the aquarium, and a hermit crab in berry found herself a safe place there, far above the marauding crabs and nosy fellow hermits, where she could do a bit of housekeeping, and give her babies a bath.

I happened by just at the right moment to see what she was doing and took photos and a video.

Ma hermit and family.

This was three weeks ago, just before my family arrived and we took off on vacation. When I was back home and settled in again, she seemed to be baby-free.

I cleaned the tank, added fresh water, and, as usual, screened the old water before I discarded it. First, I strain out the big stuff, bits of seaweed and so on, look it over carefully, collect any stray critters, and dump the rest. Then I run the water through a fine sieve, check the sieve for moving critters, and replace them in the tank.

Finally, I strain the water through a coffee filter, and look over that under a bright light, watching for movement, even if the animals are too small to really see. And here, I found two tiny dots, about the size of copepods (under 1 mm.), that moved too slowly for copepods, and too fast for snails. I captured them with an eye-dropper, and looked at them under a microscope.

I could see, there, the tiny coiled snail shells. (I'm glad some of my baby snails don't make it, and leave their shells for other babies.) And in front of each miniature shell, I could also see the two tiny dots that were their hermit crab eyes, looking up at the world.

They went back in the tank. Maybe they'll have a chance to grow up.

Talented half dollar

The little sand dollar in my aquarium (more like a 50-cent piece) wanders all over the tank, usually underneath the sand and shells, but sometimes coming out in the open for a brief look around.

He moves more quickly than I would expect, travelling only on spines a couple of millimetres long. When I clean the tank, I remove him carefully so as not to break off those fragile spines, and then put him back on the surface of the sand at the front of the tank when I'm done. Within minutes, he's upended himself, and is burrowing back down out of sight.

Sandy, feeding. Much larger than life.

A few days ago, he showed up right by the glass wall, and I got a video of him feeding and "walking". Once again, I was amazed at his talents; with those hair-like tube feet, he picks up fat grains of sand, lifts them to the mouth to check them for edibles, then drops them.

And he manages to walk and chew sand at the same time. Smart critter!

Here's the video. It helps to watch it on the full screen.

Rain and dry rust

So it rained. All day. A nasty, cold rain, half-way between a friendly Scotch mist that freshens the skin but doesn't call attention to itself, and a decent downpour calling for rain gear; an adventure to go out in, pleasant to sit inside and watch. Nah. Just drizzle, drizzle, drizzle. We skipped the beach and went shopping instead.

All is well, though; I've got what promises to be a great video in the works for tomorrow or Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the rain reminded me of these old photos of rust, totally dry rust:

Summer. 2009. Railroad bridge crossing the Little Campbell River, where it joins the beach at Semiahmoo.

Four rows of iron pimples.

Crumbling away.

Back to trimming video segments. Nose to the grindstone.

(Blogger says it's showing the Tweet button, but I can't see. I added another. If anything else is missing, I'll appreciate it if you tell me. Thanks!)

Guessing game

This was an experiment that didn't quite work out, but it gave us a laugh.

Now I'll settle down and do some real work.

Still here ...

I'm hung up loading a video to YouTube. It should be ready a bit later this morning.

Here's a hint, with a heart for Clytie:

And now YouTube is back on line. Gotta go!

Coffee break, with blue sky

I'm making another video, and as usual, it's taking much longer than I planned. It always seems so easy! And then reality trips me up.

I need something peaceful to rest my eyes. This seems about right:

Afternoon sunlight, late February.

And a steaming cup of coffee. Ahhhhhhh! Now, back to the grindstone.

Odds and Ends and a Trial Run

Links, first;

Can't keep your lawn watered? Paint it! From A Blog around the Clock. (Sheesh!)

More on those Texan social spiders, and an excellent photo, from Zooillogix.

And from the same blog, good news: that extinct white dolphin is not quite gone yet. One has turned up, alive.

A third from Zooillogix: too good to miss. The fish with a metal detector chin.

And more strange beasts: on MilkRiverBlog, a fascinating National Geographic article about cave-dwelling animals, or troglodytes.

Not so strange, but fun: a Flickr group dedicated to Insect Porn.

The Friday Ark, #154; animal stories galore!

And the Circus of the Spineless for the last week in August is on Naturalist Notebook; great stuff, and a beautiful newly-designed blog.

And today is International Rock Flipping Day. Get out there and start flipping!


These rocks look interesting enough. As long as we're wearing good mud-proof boots.

And the Trial Run. Blogger has stuck in an icon for loading videos, so I thought I'd try it out. Here's a short clip from yesterday's picnic at Second Beach in Stanley Park; a few of my grandkids and a swing.

I am still trying to make sense of the instructions for taking videos on my camera; I can't seem to tell whether it is on or off. So this is a trial run in more ways than one. However, I thought it might bring a smile.

Fingers crossed ...