Tag: pics

Monday Pics: A Thursday Tradition

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Incoming, a wave about to crest over the camera

Black and white waves crashing on a beach

Low waves coming into shower with towering clouds overhead

Went down to Florida for a sorority sister’s wedding. She had it on the beach in Santa Rosa Beach, which was absolutely lovely. The area is called the Emerald Coast for the green color of the water and you can see it in these pictures (well, not in the black and white one). I’ve never been much of an ocean person, preferring Lake Michigan, but these was a really fantastic beach. The way the waves were coming in reminded me a lot of the lake and it didn’t have the awful algae problems the Great Lakes have now. Also, there were shoals of tiny fish and swimming crabs. The wedding was lovely but the beach was better. I think we may have to start visiting more often.

Thursday Pics: Bee Edition

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Mason bees emerging Mason bees emerging Mason bees emerging
Mason bees emerging Mason bees emerging Mason bees emerging

A few weeks ago I was working from home and went out to work on the back garden over my lunch. I managed to catch the mason bees emerging from their nests. Mason bees are a native pollinator that lays a single egg in a hole and then blocks it up with clay mud to protect the larvae as it matures. They will happily use a bee house like mine that’s just holes drilled into a block of wood. These bees generally emerge around the same time so I got a bunch of pictures of different bees chewing their way out. You can see the jaws of the bee in the lower left picture working on the hole. If you stood quietly next to the house, you could hear all kinds of chewing as they worked their way out.

These bees are great pollinators and the best sort to have for blueberries. They also won’t sting and don’t do any hole construction like carpenter bees do. They are also unfairly fuzzy and adorable.

Click through to Flickr to see 70+ images of the bees emerging.

Thursday Pics

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Red Devil Crab

Micro Crab

New crustacean pets. The top crab is a Red Devil crab, which is a terrestrial rainforest crab. They can live in water for a bit, but will eventually drown. They really prefer to be on damp, humid land so I’m creating a vivarium for them.

The second is a Thai micro crab. This is a true aquatic crab who’s body maxes out at about the size of a pencil eraser. They’re living in the aquarium I have at work right now with a bunch of cherry shrimp. I rarely see them as they are well camouflaged and are quite small.