My First Ocean Fish!

Today I managed to catch my first fish from the ocean at New Brighton State Beach. I only caught one, but in comparison with my usual catch rate of zero, I have made some progress!

Barred Surf Perch

The First Jalapeno Has Been Picked!

I have a jalapeno plant on my patio, and I have waited for the first one to become fully red before I picked it. I don't know if it's more or less spicy than when they are green and not fully mature. I guess I will have to try...

Hiking in Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve

Hiking today in Sierra Azul, I used my dad's camera and got some nice pictures.
P.S. (I saw that there is a caption setting when you click on the pictures so I will use that from now on.)

A bird with an acorn.

Damselfly

Grasshopper

Another Grasshopper

Junco lifting off (I can't believe I got this picture!)

Flying Junco (Another really cool picture!)

A nice fuzzy caterpillar that I ended up letting walk all over
me.

Baby rattlesnake

Common Buckeye Butterfly

UC Santa Cruz wildlife research box. It has a camera and
flash on the front. It probably doesn't take pictures during
the day, but I made a face at it just in case.

Top of UCSC research box.

Photography Around the Apartments

My parents said that I had been inside for way too long and that I should find more outside activities to do, so I decided to take a short walk around my apartment complex. I brought my camera along with me and found a few simple everyday things and took some pictures from different points of view, showing them in a perspective that normally we don't see.

Irrigation Control Box

Storm Drain Cover

Purple Flowers

Dandelion

Pill Bug Update

I know I haven't posted anything in a while, so I took the time to take a picture of the pill bug babies progression. In this picture they are swarming around a tomato.

Pill Bug Babies!

I checked on my pill bugs today, and I saw little white things crawling around. When I looked in, I realized that they were tiny, white pill bugs! Yes, they are babies! I know the quality of this picture sucks, but they are really hard to focus on, even though I used the digital microscope to take the picture. I measured them, and they range from 1 - 1.5 millimeters in length... They're so cute!

Yes, all those little white things are baby pill bugs!

Pill Bugs Unite!

Today, I went in search of more pill bugs (since I only had one) to add to my colony. I went to a nearby school like I had planned and looked in the tanbark. I found nine. Not much of an accomplishment. Oh yeah, and they were all tiny! I put them in and they all burrowed deep into the soil. Saddened, I went back around the apartments in hope that somehow, I would find some more. That's when my luck turned around. I found a long piece of plywood on the dirt behind the dumpster. I picked it up to take a look, and was surprised by the THOUSANDS of pill bugs walking around! Thousands! And they were all huge, not tiny like the ones I found at the school. I grabbed a bunch and brought them home. These guys are much more active. Oh, and there's this really tiny one that I brought from the school. For some reason, he always wants to be at the highest place he can go. They're all awesome.

You can't really see the multitude of all of them in the picture, but at least you can see a few of them...