An adult with a love for toys, and nature.
Since taking this picture, I was able to complete Metamorpho with a lucky inexpensive score for Classic Detective Batman (also able to complete the Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman trinity with that), and I was able to get Validus’ left leg cheap on eBay. Trying to spread out completing the other two, but all this staying at home has my eBay finger itchy.
Bonus pic of the completed DC Trinity
You know I love you both equally Cheer Bear and Gloworm, but I only have room for one in my bunk.
I’m on a bit of a moth kick. Hey, I work with what I have. While trying to identify another moth I found, I recognized a moth I took a picture of over a decade ago. This moth really stood out to me at the time. It looked alien to me at the time, and still does a bit.
This moth was outside our front door one morning, up in the alcove. Then a couple weeks later it was on our doorstep for the day. I assumed it was dead since it was on the ground, but poking it gently with a stick told me otherwise. It was gone once evening set in.
I used the site linked below to identify this moth. If you know more than I do, and I got it wrong, please let me know. I’ll be glad to update this post.
I was trimming an oak tree in our back yard. And, when I say trimming, I was up in the tree cutting out the overgrowth. I spotted this wasp’s nest, but luckily didn’t see any wasps near it. I cut the branch down as it had to come out anyway. Once on the ground, I got a closer inspection. When I shook it a little, it sounded like a rattle, so the larva are definitely old and dried out.
Are you collecting all the McDonald’s Toy Story 4 Happy Meal toys? Collecting all 10 will allow you to build the camper from the movie! I’m not aware if McDonald’s ever doing a build-a-figure before, but there was certainly a long stretch where I was not buying Happy Meals.
I was at the beach over the weekend, and walking in about waist high water. I felt something kind of slimy under my foot. I jumped at first, but then went back to see what it was, since it was kind of big. I felt around with my foot until I found it, jumping again. I investigated some more with my foot. I wanted to dive under to see what it was, but the water was really cloudy where I was. I assumed it was a crab, and that it would pinch me repeatedly if I tried to pick it up. But, I really wanted to find out what it was, and to show my daughter. So, I reached down, and grabbed under it. As I lifted it towards the surface, I saw what it was, and got spooked and dropped it, but was able to quickly recover it.
In case you didn’t know, it’s a horseshoe crab. Some people nearby were amazed that I caught this thing with my bare hands. I called to my wife to come check it out, and snap some pictures. My daughter came to look at it, from a very safe distance, but would not come closer to get a picture with it.
Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae, suborder Xiphosurida, and order Xiphosura.[2] Their popular name is actually a misnomer, for they are not true crabs.
Horseshoe crabs live primarily in and around shallow coastal waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms. They tend to spawn in the intertidal zone at spring high tides.[3] They are commonly eaten in Asia, and used as fishing bait, in fertilizer and in science (especially Limulus amebocyte lysate). In recent years, population declines have occurred as a consequence of coastal habitat destruction and overharvesting.[2] Tetrodotoxin may be present in Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda.[4]
Because of their origin 450 million years ago, horseshoe crabs are considered living fossils.[5] A 2019 molecular analysis places them as the sister group of Ricinulei within Arachnida.[6]
Read more about horseshoe crabs on Wikipedia
After showing my wife and daughter, and a few onlookers, and getting a few pictures, I released it back into the ocean.
This is the first action figure my wife actually said “wow, this is really cool” upon seeing. It is an awesome figure. It has a good amount of accessories, and the light up pumpkin (not pictured) is a nice touch.
I caught this anole in the back yard. It (understandably) wanted to bite me. So, I decided to get a picture of it baring its teeth.
I saw this dragonfly hanging out on our porch about a year ago.
I thought it was weird that he didn’t really seem to mind that I was there. I would normally expect a dragonfly to fly off if I got as close as I did. He did fly away once or twice, but came right back to the ropes here.
Then, I see this green anole creeping over. I’ve seen him plenty of times on our back porch. He’s identifiable because of the black spot on his head. I thought that it was weird that he was coming over to the area where I was, since he generally avoids me.
Then, I see that he’s going after the dragonfly. I was really surprised at how close he got.
The dragonfly finally flew away.
But, then, he came right back. And met his doom.
I kind of wonder if the dragonfly was infected with toxoplasmosis, especially since I don’t think I’ve seen the green anole since this happened. But, it would seem that toxoplasmosis only affects warm blooded animals.