The Attack of the Buzzing Birds

Back for another week.... sorry for the lack of postings and pictures lately. But I have some this week.

There really hasn't been all that much going on. The Takatz chum are growing... slowly. They're a little bit smaller than they were last year at this time. There has been a type of plankton in the water that is spikey and nasty looking through the microscope, but it gets into the fishs' gills when they eat and irritates them. Thus making the fish not want to really eat. But they are eating and we think it's getting better but we are still finding that stuff in the water. Not much you can really do though. I was just trying to find a picture of what these things look like but I can't find one. SO, imagine a center point with a bunch of long spikes radiating off of it in all directions. They are fairly simple looking but can look pretty nasty! Anyhow, so the fish are up to about a gram a piece, and we release them when they are about 2 grams so we have a ways to go yet.

We really haven't been dealing much with the weather being bad, which is nice but apparently tomorrow is supposed to be really gross. Speaking of gross stuff... we've been dealing with another element! Fish poop! HUH? Alot of the poop from the fish just gets washed out of the nets, but alot just sinks to the bottom. Unfortunately, lately something has been causing these "poop balls," if you will, to float up to the surface. Sometimes it's just small chunks but sometimes it's small ISLANDS!



I know this is a fairly gross topic to be talking about but hey, you wanted to know about all elements of my job, right!? Unfortunately this one happened at about 9pm, right after we had eaten dinner. I know you can't get the full effect of it just by this little picture. And it doesn't really even look that big. But you should probably be thankful this isn't Smell-O-Vision! You've all changed a nasty baby diaper right!? Times that by 100. We tried to just drop down the net and float it out, which worked but then we tried to get the thing to sink. Anyhow, nasty nasty stuff! :-)

Now onto a more cheerful subject, last week my brand new hummingbird feeder arrived and we filled it and put it up as soon as we got back to Takatz. The week before we had a cute little red hummingbird always buzzing around. Unfortunately, it trapped itself in the rafters of the warehouse downstairs and couldn't figure out how to get out. It wore itself out so much that Adam ended up netting it with one of the fish nets and releasing it outside, where it flew away, but we didn't see it again. :-( It probably died. BUT, since the feeder has been up we've had about 3 new ones CONSTANTLY around. There are 3 brown and red ones and 1 brown and green one that we see only randomly. But are they ever NUTS! Those 3 that are always around have gone through 16 oz. of liquid in only like 5 days! I'm sure it's mating time and probably that, mixed with them being jacked on sugar water, makes some amusing birds always buzzing around. You can stand right next to the feeder and they aren't scared to come up, which makes for some good photography. They are just really funny to watch too... they will chase another bird away if they are drinking at the feeder. They try to scare them away by fanning out their tail and then they just buzz after them. It's funny. Anyhow, here are some pictures.


This picture is really cool bigger so blow it up. I was super excited to catch two of them at the same time... Checking each other out.


I was MORE proud of this picture though. It is the clearest picture! I was amazed. The bird's neck doesn't show how interesting the colors change and reflect red and yellow but it's really pretty.


This is a close up of the bird from that last picture. The wings look transparent because they are beating so fast.


Now you can see the neck colors better, even though it's blurry. The neck looks red but it can move just slightly and it looks like it changes colors. It's awesome!


Coming IN!!!

So that's been my amusement for the week really. Last week, my amusement was something Adam showed me at night. You maybe have heard of this, but there are some types of plankton that are bioluminescent. This means that at night, it's like they glow in the dark almost. We walked out there and it almost looks like there are fireflies in the water. Random green dots flashing. But then he took a net and ran it through the water and the water lite up with green. I've heard of this before but I've never seen it and it was awesome! He said it's really cool if you take the boat out, because the water from the prop is just a trail of green. It's a pretty neat thing to see.

Well I have a few random pictures now....


This is just a cool picture I took while watching the hummingbirds. Some rain coming down not far from the house. This was around 5:30pm.


This was a cute little starfish we pulled up in one of the crab pots. I wish I could figure out a way to preserve them and them looking exactly the same. This one was pretty cool.

Well, I guess that's the wrap-up for the week. Except a few things. Friday we pulled up our first King Crab of the season. YAY! We weren't even sure if they were legal right now though. I'm trying to figure out my vacation time right now... at this point, I'm pretty sure it's going to be the first few weeks of July. So save the dates! ;-) I'm thinking I'll be home the 4th until the 15th... maybe.

Alright, I better get going. It's almost 3... I have a shower to take, stuff to pack up for Takatz, and I have two batches of fabulous brownies to make. Yesterday was Anna's birthday so that's one batch... the other is for us of course! :-) Oh, Andy and Anna are calling it quits. Actually Andy left last week and Anna will be out next week or so. But a few weeks ago we got a new guy and this Wednesday a new girl is coming in. OK, catch ya later!

SHOUT OUT OF THE WEEK - To Mom, Lee, Grandma Czuba, and Grandma Moser, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! And to all you other mothers that read this, same to you! And to Steven, shout out to you! You know why! :-)

P.S. Mom, pet my two babies for me! It's hard to be a mother away from her two furry babies!