Double-click on any image to view it full size.  Click the back-button to return to your place on this page.

 

Greetings!

Thank you to all of you who sent Ruthi and me good wishes for our long-overdue trip to the beach.  We finally managed almost a week centered on the Easter weekend.  Much to our relief our cottage, which nobody had entered since we left it at the end of last August, had suffered nothing worse than some shingles blown off in the hurricane last year.  This week’s essay shares a few pictures from this trip.

If you are like me, the first picture (MMM1) probably makes you want to say “caterpillar”.

That’s certainly what I thought when I saw several of these small (about half an  inch long) but striking creatures on a bush on the edge of the salt marsh close to the cottage.  However, a few minutes Googling revealed that they are not going to turn into butterflies or moths, but rather into rather drab small beetles, Groundsel-tree beetles to be specific, and therefore do not deserve the title “caterpillars”, but rather just “larvae”.  The scientific name of the species is Trirhabda bacharidis.  The first part of that mouthful derives from the triple markings found on the adult beetles in the genus, while the second part comes from the scientific name for the Groundsel Tree itself, a salt-tolerant plant upon the leaves of which the larvae of this species feed almost exclusively.

The second picture (MMM2) is more obviously related to the ocean, and shows a Laughing Gull with a shrimp – one of several discarded by a departing fisherman.

Several other gulls shared in this unexpected feast, but the Ring-billed Gull shown in the sequence MMM3 – MMM6 chose to pick-up and transport an empty olive shell!

Ruthi speculated that the gull mistook the shell for another shrimp because of the overall size, shape, and color of the shell.  Whatever the reason, the gulls had actually collected all the similar shells along many yards of the beach into a single quite small area, so it did seem to be a deliberate action!

The last picture in this set, MMM7, came about when I saw a red bird alight on a utility pole just outside our cottage.

At first I wasn’t sure what it was (something in the back of my head keeps hoping to see a Scarlet or Summer Tanager), and subsequent inspection of the picture shows it is “only” a House Finch.  Nevertheless, I think the composition of the image (which has been helped by judicious cropping of the original) and the overall coloring is rather interesting, and certainly is not like most bird pictures one sees.  I hope you agree.

 

Have a great week!