Blue Heron Bridge Trolls

[fisheyeview]

Thursday it rained, so what would have been decent viz sorta wasn't. Didn't see a whole lot, but spent a lot of time checking out the same area I was in a couple of months ago - unsuccessfully.

Yesterday was one of my best dives ever. Even got a couple of lucky shots with the cameras.

Today was another decent day with at least 30+ feet of viz early on. I've been entering a couple of hours before high tide this trip and am thinking that's the way to go. I'll take good viz and deal with the current - which hasn't been bad at all.

Been wearing 3mm and no hood and would not have gotten chilly except for hanging in the same spots for so long. But, staying still leads to three hour dives and the use of lots of electrons via photo equipment. Who knows when I'll get around to processing many of the shots, though. I'll see if I've got a couple done from Thursday. Oddly, the little gurnard did not fly only in circles. The angelfish was screening his octo buddy in the pipe.

Kevin


KevinView attachment 125217View attachment 125218View attachment 125219View attachment 125220View attachment 125221View attachment 125222View attachment 125223View attachment 125224View attachment 125225

Nice pics

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Finally made it back to the bridge yesterday. We dove the East span with a group of friends

Nice pics Jim. Great find on the Snake Eel.

I looked all over my usual spots for pipefish with no luck.

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We tried to go Sunday but they hard the park closed, the officer said it had been closed since 8:00 because it was full.

Got there just before 10:00 Sunday, and was one of the last people in before they closed the park.

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hey, Kevin didn't know you were in town.. I did a solo yesterday, would have loved to hooked up! Oh well.
this is my find of the day, and of course need an ID..

Squat Urchin Shrimp Gnathophylloides mineri

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Well, after being away from the bridge for way too long I finally had the energy to go back. I am happy to report that I was able to gear up and walk down to the water unassisted. After 2:16 minutes in the water I was not able to get out without help. My buddy Lisa (Oceanbound) had to carry my tank for me.

Sunday we were back for another dive, but aborted before we even got in the water. I blew an o-ring on my secondary air source. I rebuilt the reg when I got home. Besides the o-ring I ended up replacing two of the hoses. (HP, and primary air)

I felt the bridge would be the perfect place to practice with my ReefNet +10 SubSea diopter. All but one of these pictures (hermit crab shot) were taken with the diopter.

 

[idive2]

Looks like some late afternoon high tides wednesday thru friday 05-30-12 thru 06-01-12. And a very early high tide saturday 06-02-12 which would
be good for parking but pretty early. wednesday 4:35 pm, thursday 5:40 pm, friday 6:40 pm, and saturday 6:50 am. Please check your own tide
tables to confirm these tide times.

 

[mntlblok]

diopters and heroines

Welcome back! I only *barely* make it out of the water and back to the car each time, garnering lots of sympathy and weird looks along the way. Great pics. Is the blue and yellow guy just a different version of fireworm than I'm used to seeing??

I've had my eye on that Reefnet diopter gadget for a while now, but I understand that it's pretty much a 100mm range thing, optimally. And, I'm now about to give up on my little "screw on" diopters for my 60mm, as it seems I can do just about as well by simply cropping and enlarging afterwards, without them, as my cheapo diopters lose a little something - and 18 megapixels seems to go a *long* way for cropping. And, I ain't the best at finding nudi's, anyway. Plus, it's a lot easier to just turn the strobes off when I want to take a pic of something bigger and farther away than carting two separate cameras around. . .

However, just back from one of my best trips *ever* to the bridge, as Miss Lureen (the cutie pictured below) was so kind as to point out a *great* location *and* advice for finding critters. Thanks, so much!! I found em. You now rank right up there with John Casey and Suzan Meldonian as my dive heroes and heroines. Getting to work processing the shots, now, with plans to start posting them soon.

Kevin

Well, after being away from the bridge for way too long I finally had the energy to go back. I am happy to report that I was able to gear up and walk down to the water unassisted. After 2:16 minutes in the water I was not able to get out without help. My buddy Lisa (Oceanbound) had to carry my tank for me.

Sunday we were back for another dive, but aborted before we even got in the water. I blew an o-ring on my secondary air source. I rebuilt the reg when I got home. Besides the o-ring I ended up replacing two of the hoses. (HP, and primary air)

I felt the bridge would be the perfect place to practice with my ReefNet +10 SubSea diopter. All but one of these pictures (hermit crab shot) were taken with the diopter.

View attachment 125461View attachment 125462View attachment 125463View attachment 125464View attachment 125465View attachment 125466View attachment 125467

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However, just back from one of my best trips *ever* to the bridge, as Miss Lureen (the cutie pictured below) was so kind as to point out a *great* location *and* advice for finding critters. Thanks, so much!! I found em.

My first squat urchin shrimp. I know there's also a very small pineapple in the shot, but is there also a little box crab??

Kevin

 

[Biminitwist]

Very nice Kevin.

I'm jealous as that urchin squattie has been on my to do list for awhile.
Tie some crime scene tape on the next urchin you find with one to cut down on my search times

 

[mntlblok]

round toit

Very nice Kevin.

I'm jealous as that urchin squattie has been on my to do list for awhile.
Tie some crime scene tape on the next urchin you find with one to cut down on my search times

Miss Lureen is the ticket. Her advice was spot on. Would you believe that I ran into these (there were three of them on the one urchin) on the way to my primary spot, and then passed through that same urchin area, low on air, on the way back to the beach, and found a very photogenic bumblebee shrimp? So, another photo first. *And*, got to witness some interaction stuff in the middle of the dive that just blew me away.

BTW, yer "to do" list is topped by editing some more cool video for us.

Kevin

 

[jimw]

Tie some crime scene tape on the next urchin you find with one to cut down on my search times

I haven't seen an urchin with crime scene tape on it yet, but it's just a matter of time!! I recently DID see an urchin wearing a hospital bracelet!! Yep, it looked as though it had JUST been released!

 

[Biminitwist]

I think you need to elaborate on this so called "interaction stuff"



I did see one awhile back carrying a pink nerf ball that was pretty sporty, no squatties though....

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John

 

[mntlblok]

Sailfin Blenny interaction

Well, it seems common around here to speculate about whether things are fighting or not but, after a bunch of Google research tonight, I'm convinced that these are two guy blennies fighting - at least not not-fighting. Whilst the females of this species are, indeed, lighter in color, they *don't* have the big, floppy dorsal fins. Didn't see any of those (as far as I could tell) the last two days.

I had been observing the most active guy in the colony for some time over two days when I suddenly noticed that he had turned from nearly black to a very light color, though still hanging his head out of one of his bottles. (He semi-regular bolted between two nearby bottles). Shortly, all hell broke loose and I just tried to keep snapping photos. Still haven't even made it through all of them, but I'll post some starters.

Had opened up settings for a bit more light since the day before I seemed to be too close to the active guy to catch his whole body on his leaping displays. f/10 turned out to leave something to be desired for depth of field for "interactive" shots. :depressed: But, I'm still pretty stoked.

The "other" interaction stuff that I (think) I got - haven't gotten that far, yet - is something that I'm certain you have *much* better examples of on video from the day you took me on my birthday tour. More to follow. . .

Kevin

I think you need to elaborate on this so called "interaction stuff"



I did see one awhile back carrying a pink nerf ball that was pretty sporty, no squatties though....

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John

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Going through some more shots proves that my "box crab" is actually just a little broken conch shell.

Kevin

My first squat urchin shrimp. I know there's also a very small pineapple in the shot, but is there also a little box crab??

Kevin

View attachment 125482

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Congrats on the squat shrimp. wondering if that was the same urchin I turned over on Friday...it too had 3 on it.

 

[Biminitwist]

Jenny If it had some crime scene tape you would know!


Kev-
are you trying to say you have scooped the other item on my macro hit list, not one but multiple sail fin blennies.....
fate is cruel
I am going to hang out in the parking lot with a sign that says "will edit for *******" till the list is complete.
Look forward to seeing your pictures.
John