Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning
It all started as a visit to Dee and Jay so that we could get John arried off. Each time we visit, we spend some time with the treams and springs of Florida - visiting Silver Glen Springs, Lithia prings, Rainbow River, Crystal River and this time, putting in at Weeki Wachee and wondering around the Gulf of Mexico, in search of interesting sea life around rock piles.
Chris, one of Jay's great guys, picked me up Thursday afternoon with the 30' john boat and off we went - up 39 to 301 then to 98 and then 50. Cajun chicken wings and a fish sandwich for dinner and then early the next morning, Jay, Chris and I set off for the Weeki Wachee boat ramp.
Photo details: I used an Olympus 4040Z enclosed in an Olympus P 010 underwater housing, white balance = cloudy, film speed = 200. I used a UR-Pro color correction filter: GR/OP (green) for the Jay-1 photos and no filter for the Jay 2, 3, 4 photos. Looking at the photos, it is clear that the filer helped restore the color balance even though the water depth was 4-10 feet.
and here are the GPS tracks showing where we went. Jay-1 through Jay-4 are the way points where we stopped, did some snorkeling, some underwater photography, some spear fishing and swimming with the manatees. For a sneak preview, here are two short quicktime videos:
Here is our john boat and Chris - and on the right, Captain Jay:
We stopped at Jay-1, a small oyster bar with a pvc pipe marker and found many interesting crabs, conch, fish etc.
Two crabs (mom and daughter?)
A crab and her claw and another playing with a conch
Watch the crab playing with a conch (10 Mb quicktime video)
An open claw - like a pair of sissors
And a garden growing on top of a conch (with a crab (right) watching)
I found a large flounder (about 18") but did not have the camera to record this event. I was swimming around in some tall grass and out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move in the sand. I looked - and it looked just like sand - salt and papper but with eyes. I yelled for Chris and he came with the spear and I suspect had stuffed flounder for dinner. We swam around some other rocks where there were many mullets and Chris got some bait for Jay's fishing. Here is Chris - before, with spear cocked, after, and the trophy:
We moved over to the channel - where the garden was in full growth:
Finally we started home - up the Weeki Wachee stream and there was a manatee. I jumped in with camera - and watched this 15 foot huge huge hulk eat grass from the river bed. Here is a so-so photo and click (10 Mb quicktime video) for a video, which is really much better. The manatee stirred up quite a bit of silt making photos a bit difficult.
Walden Lakes - where spiders lurk
Of course, I found some spiders along the way - This is springtime and it is the season of hatching spiders. They come from an egg sack, then they fight for survival. At first, I thought this was another banana spider (Nephila clavipes) but the uniformity of color of the legs suggested otherwise. After looking around a bit with Google, I identified here as Mecynogea lemniscata (Basilica spider) and the remains of probably a sister.
There were number of infant banana spiders, though. Here are a couple of photos after passing through the juvenile stage. The markings suggest a mature Naphila clavipes (banana or golden silk spider)
And something new on the left: perhaps Mecynogea lemniscata (Basilica spider). Below is a better image of Mecynogea and her web. On the right is a small Leucauge venusta
Two new spiders: a writing spider on the left Mecynogea sagitatta and one similar to Arkys lancearius on the right:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer