Back in the water

I debated about going back in the water. Diseases aside, I wasn't sure my nose was up to the task, being as how it was broken and all.

I did a wet "dry run" yesterday in the pool and all was fine, even with my snorkel mask. 

So since today was reportedly the last day before another week of big surf and wind, I decided to venture out and into the water.

And I saw one octopus, one scribbled filefish and one flounder! So I was amply paid back for the 1/2 hour drive to the Bay.

 I only spotted this octopus because of the rocks piled outside its unusual den. I was surprised that it was sharing space with 2 urchins, one on each side. I don't know how they avoid getting poked.

 If you look really carefully, you'll see both eyes. One is to the left of the middle red rock.

The octopus only turned dark when I swam past it.

 A bit closer view of the octopus and the urchin.  And now that I'm looking more closely at home, that may be a star fish on the left! Can't really see it well enough to be sure.

I am always grateful to see any octopuses, especially since I hadn't gotten in the ocean since my fall at the end of February.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the Scribbled File fish before it was almost out and away. They are one of the larger file fishes. With a very cool pattern of lines and dots. And a neat tail.

And I hope you can see the little flounder. It was probably about as big as my hand flattened. A small one:

 Above, it has a bit of rainbow on its skin.

 You can see the ridges of its side, and the eyes are near the bottom. The rainbow runs along its other side.

 They have really great camouflage. I only spotted this one because it moved.

Other members of the cast included:

 The Sailfin Tang and Abudefduf. Amazing that similar striping pattern can look so different.

Commensal fishing featuring the Bluefin Trevally and Goatfish.

 Look really closely. You'll see the tiny Cornet fish, about as big as a small pencil.

 The Humu is so pretty. Even when it's spewing sand out of its gills.

The male Bird Wrasse

 Needlefishes

 And an operculum. I really wanted to pick it up and take it home, but didn't. I'm trying to be good! It's amazing how I can justify a bad action; in this case, it was "No one will know!"

 This poor urchin was really overloaded with rocks and shells for protection. You can barely see the animal.

This Porcupine Puffer doesn't need rocks for protection. It has big spines.

 I won't ever tire of seeing these pretty colored Picasso Trigger fish, even from above.

More flounder shots, with rainbow from the light above.

 This little star fish wiggled along the bottom. I think it was missing a leg.

Very glad for traffic that behaved, both coming and going. And for all God's cool creatures.

In case you are wondering....

I have some faithful readers, so to get rid of the suspense (c'mon, you know you are wondering!), I had a fall recently.

Missed that last step down, loaded down with groceries. So I plowed into the sidewalk. It wasn't pretty. And no, I won't be showing you pictures. That would be one of those to which you would remark: I'll never get that photo out of my mind! I won't do that to you.

So I haven't been swimming. No octopus photos today. I am told I have a "depression fracture" in my nose, so I've been told to not swim. Unfortunately, the E/N/T person hasn't called me back and I've heard there is a 111 day wait for appointments! eek. That is a long time not to swim. So I'm trying to discover more about this injury, which I've been told isn't very serious and I probably won't need surgery. EEK again. Hope not!

Anyway, I decided to get back into the post habit, so I have some operculum pix for you. Try to contain your enthusiasm.

 I poured them out on the table in the living room. There were 1866 of them. (And that's the total of the small bottle of 'em.) The amazing thing for me is that in one afternoon on the North Shore, I picked up 366!!! Just waiting on the beach for me. I probably spent maybe 2 hours looking, so who knows how many I could have found had I really applied myself.

I call the photo on the left Asteroid. I can't imagine the force required to bash holes into these operculum. They are very solid and weighty, so it had to be something really strong.

 Here they are poured out. The ones on the red fan are the shiny ones. The ones on the black thing were the bigger ones, that for some reason are NOT shiny.

 You can see in the I AM photo above the Cat's Eye one, with the blue. This is apparently a business some people have. They collect the operculum they find and then sell them. Mostly for jewelry making, I think.

 I like the lines and spots on them.

The twirly part on the bottom.

 Some of the shiny ones.

 More whirly lines.

And just in case you missed them in the original post, some shell pix with operculum in them:

 The Hairy Triton shell's operculum is different: it's more brown and I think bendable. What I love about this photo is that the brown and white below the brown operculum is part of the animal.

 Operculum still doing its job: closing the hole of the shell against predators.

 You can see more the animal below the operculum.

 I'm not sure why this one was halfway open.

Cool aren't they?