sarka's Journal

Having spent a month in Iberia, heading back home to Washington state, we rode the wave a few days before the pandemic reached Spain. (March 1st) . 12 days after returning home my husband got a mild fever for three days without any explanation, no other symptoms.

It was a great month-long trip. Among new things to be found, there were many rock outcroppings between Madrid and Alicante that were definitely fossiliferous . Here is a observation of one of a set fossils that I found in a beautiful hilly remote park area.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38770087

See my other naturalist finds from this timeline.

I have been trying to get this photograph for a while now. White marked blacktail deer! I think they must be rather rare. But, somehow they exist on the east side of Orcas island. I wonder how this came to be.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9696507

I have been going through some older photographs of my trips. I took no pictures of the wildlife around me in Europe.

There were so many opportunities in Switzerland, France, the U.K., Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal. So many... all I can find is my husband and I eating. So disappointed. Thank you iNatularist for getting me to, now, take photos and have curiosity beyond having a fancy meal.

I am so surprised that a ciliate called Vorticella is used in purifying sewage water. I see these in water from the ocean very often attached to seaweed. They are very common in freshwater too.

I have been missing having fun finding observations to put on iNaturalist.

Hurricane Matthew cleanup has consumed my life! I hope to be done with most of it very soon. I want my hobbies back.

See my hurricane scrapbook. Most of the images are within 25 miles of my house:

https://www.facebook.com/SEAWEED.LADY/media_set?set=a.1108753432493598.1073741830.100000768568199&type=3

It has taken me quite sometime to feel satisfied with the photo qualities coming out of my new 5mp microscope camera. I use the Celeston microscope camera that inserts into the eyepiece of a microscope. It required me to tinker with all sorts of image setting parameters... Yesterday, I realized that the software was never saving all those settings! Thus I have been unhappy :(

Now that it is fixed I have found a fairly decent - FREE - image stacking program. It is used mostly for microscopic images. It is very difficult to see a whole image in true focus. The more 3-Dimensional the subject is, the worse the picture. Focus stacking lets you bring it all into focus....

Here is a link to the free PICOLAY:

http://www.picolay.icbm.de/index.html

Up until now I have been using a 2mp Celeston Microscope camera that inserts into the eyepeice of the microscope. Well finally, a 5mp is heading to my mailbox! I'm hoping my images will improve greatly - fingers crossed.

I really like the simple Celestron cameras. The software is very straight forward to use, very simple. The cost is below $100.

I have tried other cameras and have returned them. The software is usually to blame; buggy, cumbersome, trying to do too much in exchange for usability.

http://www.celestron.com/browse-shop/microscopes/microscope-accessories/imagers/5mp-digital-imager

I am super excited to have one of my blue-green algae images featured in this week's blog:

http://inaturalist.tumblr.com

Thank you iNaturalist!