06.03.2026 21:11
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Lived in SB for 2.5 decades & the mothballed refinery facility in Gaviota is an expensive eyesore besides incredibly stupid. But the Harbor has been taken over by rich Republicans so they may do it again. More H2S for UCSB. Smells like Hope Ranch. It stinks. But not surprised, bought off politicians
Most of the oil in SB County, esp. where these facilities are located, is no better than asphalt. Asphalt is valuable but strategic? No.
Another Nuthatch. This little guy (there was a pair) is likely the male as the other was almost 2X bigger has climbed down a branch looking for insects & finding a gnat. One source said "1000 insects a day" during breeding season. Taken at the Dungeness Spit campground Olympic Peninsula WA.
#birds
A Rockfish swims by a small cave where a medium-sized fish called a Cabezon waits. They're ambush predators, they wait on the sea floor hoping a crustacean or 2 or 3 walks by close enough to use their buccal pump. They suck in water quickly, expelling it out their gills and that makes a meal of a small crab, shrimp, and even abalone if they're lucky.
A Black & Yellow Rockfish swims by small cave where a Cabezon lurks. Both use the same strategy on reef where they remain motionless hoping a crustacean or another tasty animal walks by. When prey get close enough they use their buccal pump to suck water & prey into their mouths.
Yeah, I once caught an 8lb one off Malibu in my late teens. Got my fingers between the spines on the tail. After it contracted the tail muscle twice I thought "if it does that again then I'm gonna let go". It didn't. Legs were bigger than king crab legs.
Probably relics from graphic editing. Originally there was a lot backscatter in this. Swell Sharks are easy to find during the day but a few feet of visibility near Santa Barbara was a treat. Normally I couldn't see more than an inch or two. Backscatter was ever present.
Hi, I'm a budding author and have not yet published anything that's on sale yet, but I have a coloring book using marine organisms that I'm looking to get out to the public and I like your illustrations. Looking to start networking, slowly, for ideas, other hints, but prefer a closed loop. Thanks.
TODAY IS THE LAST DAY SWEET BENJI WILL BE ALIVE AT FULTON COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER IN ATLANTA! IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE WHO CAN TAKE HIM
Shelter from octopus. Morays eat octopus but not crustaceans so there's safety when morays are around. I stopped catching lobsters long ago.
A Red-Breasted Nuthatch roosting in blackberry bushes at Bay View State Park near Padilla Bay WA.
I've always like these birds, and since they sit still long enough to be captured in a photo they're even better! A Red-Breasted Nuthatch roosting in blackberry bushes looking for insects. Trying to ignore the one-eyed thing with flashing lights. Meep, meep.
#birds
I'm in Denver and need a home...
24petconnect.com/DetailsMain/...
A spiny lobster looking out from a cave underwater while climbing over 2 Swell Sharks, sometimes called Puffer Sharks. These medium sized sharks hunt at night, stay in caves during the day, and have cat-like eyes which gave them their family name as "catsharks". These sharks swell up with water when disturbed and it's thought that they do so in order to keep from being pulled out of the crevices they rest in.
A spiny lobster crawls out of a recess under a reef over 2 catsharks. They're commonly called Swell Sharks since they blow up by swallowing water. Thought to keep them from getting hauled out. They hunt at night & have decent choppers so don't haul them out of their caves. People have been bitten.
Mary Trump has Donald’s number.
The only reason Trump started this war is because public opinion has starkly turned against him.
This include a portion of MAGA.
He doesn’t care for the Iranian people, and further, doesn’t care about of troops.
Trump only cares about one thing, himself.
We can’t clean up Washington without restoring integrity to the Supreme Court.
That’s why I believe we should expand the Supreme Court to 13 justices. And then, institute term limits.
Because an appointment to the Supreme Court shouldn’t mean a lifetime lack of accountability.
Trump Boasts That International Criminal Court in The Hague Has Invited Him to Receive Award
Taken with a Nikon D610 and an autofocus D lens, a wide angle zoom. I got the lens from Kenmore Camera for $40. While I like the new lenses they don't have any mechanical features & the fully electronic new ones don't work well in Washington State cause of the humidity. My best lens is a $600 anchor
Trump’s war will easily cost more than it would have cost to extend the ACA tax credits.
Republicans are telling the American people—there is always money for war, always money for billionaire tax breaks.
Just never any money for health care or families here at home.
A very small bird, probably a Golden-Crowned Kinglet, flies away from the camera from a perch in a Red Cedar tree in Bay View State Park WA.
Well, I still don't have a decent photo of a Golden-Crowned Kinglet, one depicting the two golden stripes on their heads. These birds are faster than Bushtits and far more skittish.
#birds
A sea star commonly known as The Bat Star eating a colony of bryozoans growing on a blade of kelp. Below the sea star is a red urchin who is also eating the same blade of kelp.
A Bat Star, Patiria miniata, moves across a blade of kelp covered with a colony of bryozoans, eating the colony as it goes. Underneath the kelp is a red urchin who is also eating the blade of kelp plus the bryozoans. "Individuals (stars) may combat one another if they meet, including pushing".
It is obscene to suggest that we are going to fight Trump's war of choice "FOREVER."
Congress must vote to end this immediately. NO WAR WITH IRAN.
"Billions fewer birds are flying through North American skies than decades ago and their population is shrinking ever faster, mostly due to a combination of intensive agriculture and warming temperatures, a new study found." 🧪 🌎 🌿 🪶
apnews.com/article/bird...
There once was farms. I know there's seaweed farms on Vancouver Is. + wild collection. Red abalone were farmed in BC but the diseases brought in by Cal F&G officer when abalone were imported from S. Africa wiped out a lot of farms. Farms in CA that lasted thru the die off were big Republican donors
Long ago Santa Barbara had a really great restaurant called Kyoto on upper State Street. The chef was a top tempura chef from Tokyo. They served farmed salmon nigiri sushi in dinner combos. My dogs don't know the difference so I saved those portions for them. Farmed salmon is mushy compared to wild.
The effluent coming out of an abalone farm is usually tiny pieces of kelp that wasn't digested fully; it's food for other animals like scallops, clams, sea cucumbers. Offshore wind farms would make great places while nearshore farms, esp. salmon farms, can be harmful. Seaweed farms nearshore are OK.
A dark colored fat little bird rests on a rock before plunging back into Porter Creek on the Olympic Peninsula before plunging in to look for insects.
I've always had a fascination with Dippers. This chunky little bird walks around underwater in streams hunting aquatic insects. Any place with a cold rushing stream is usually where they're found. They bob a lot, hence the name Dipper.
#birds
It's difficult to recommend abalone. Farmed salmon is nothing like wild salmon. I don't eat farmed salmon. The growers don't even try to mimic it except for the color & that fails spectacularly. Same w/abalone. Ab shells get their colors from the seaweeds the snails consume. No color, less flavor.
For close ups of the bryozoan try inverts.wallawalla.edu/Bryozoa/Clas...
Older Kelp. The older kelp is darker than the amber colored new kelp growth & often has colonies of a bryozoan called Membranipora membranacea. That's a colonial organism that starts out male, the oldest in the center. Nudibranchs eat them & I've seen bat stars eating them.
No, abalone eats mostly kelp but also red algae and dead animals like other abalone when they get to one before any other animals. Eating oysters means eating the reproductive organs as well but abalone is mostly a very strong mussel & all organs are removed.
