Moose Hill Marsh and Vernal Pool Trail

Moose Hill Marsh and Vernal Pool Trail Leave a comment

Took out the Laowa 24mm probe lens to look underwater. It’s been rainy for many days now, so the marshy area was filled with water (it’s often dried out).

I mostly looked in a little bit of the marsh that was cordoned off from the rest. That area turned out to have by far the most ostracods and copepods. Taking photos of them was pretty difficult, but out of several hundred photos, I got a few decent shots.

It was surprising there was so much activity at this time of year (New Year’s Day!). Even the caddisfly larvae were everywhere. And it was even more surprising that so many of them were with eggs; what would they have done if it were freezing at this time, or if there were no rain?

All identities are my best guess, I’m still learning as I go!

Copepod female, I think:

And another:

And another! You begin to get the idea. Fecundity rampant.

A better view of the male in the previous photo. I couldn’t tell if they were actually interacting, but they stayed together for a several seconds.

Copepod male, I think:

In focus, while swimming. Believe me, this was not an easy photo to take:

This is another copepod. Those sphere that look like eggs are actually fatty globules stored inside the body. The orange color comes from carotenoids.

I think this is another copecod, but again, I’m still trying to pick this up:

A caddisfly larvae in its casing. You can see the legs, but the main body is out of focus:

This photo was taken in the pool on the vernal pool trail. I have no idea what I’m looking at. It was a mass attached to a leaf, on the surface.

Now for some photos that do not involve exoskeletons:

Rain droplets are sometimes better when out of focus. The shiny bright light gets lost in the photo if the droplet is in focus (because the dynamic range of the camera is less than that of the eye), but can be seen better by spreading it out.

In this case, they didn’t need that help:

I took a series of photos of this wonderful set of droplets on a leaf in the marsh. No way I could have reached them without using the Laowa lens. The light was striking it just right.