On first glance these icicles look like sharp teeth, and on second glance this looks like a large alligator's head.
If you click on the photo and make it larger, you'll even see his little eye peering over at you.
Today was a cold day as you can guess from the icicles in that photo, and being by the lake made it feel even colder. All that chilly air was blowing off Lake Michigan. At least it was a pretty day.
Cool clouds, hey? I didn't doctor the color of that sky; it really was that intense blue. You can still see a tiny bit of snow on the sand. Not surprisingly, this was not a busy day at the beach. Funny, how no one wants to lounge around on the beach in 20° weather. This is pretty much the only creature who didn't mind the cold (as far as I could tell).
I don't think I've seen a light brown, speckled seagull before.
I had to think about the "Polar Bear Plunge" that happens in Lake Michigan every New Year's Day. That's when brave souls run into this very area of the lake. I wasn't even comfortable in a winter coat today!
Brrr.... That just looks cold.
Walking along this beach today, I couldn't help thinking of The Fog. Those of you who've seen the movie might remember the part where the little boy is walking along the beach and finds a piece of wood. The wood is from an old ship wreak.
I ended up having to take some photos of my computer screen as the movie played to get these two pics. Funny enough, no one bothered to put stills of this part of the movie online.
Well, what should I happen to see while walking along the beach today?
Ooh spooky... You know what else is spooky? That dark piece of rotten wood next to it that looks like some old leg bone. No, I didn't take the piece of wood home so I could get haunted like that kid in the movie. Well, actually it's his mom who gets haunted.
As I said above, I was playing the movie online. I actually found The Fog in its entirety on YouTube. The catch is it's in Italian. You won't need to know Italian to understand what's going on in these parts, though. If you skip to the 23:54 mark, you'll see where the kid discovers the old piece of wood on the beach. And if you skip to the 43:05 mark, you'll see what happens when his mom brings it to work.
Now you see why The Fog crossed my mind as I looked at that piece of wood on the beach!
Recently, my mom and I took our yearly trip to the Kohler-Andrae State park just outside Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Some of you might remember the photos from last year's trip. Last time I focused on the fungi in the forest with the post, Mysterious Forest Mushrooms. I saw some neat mushrooms this year too, but I'm going to share a little of the scenery first.
We always start our day at the park with a picnic on the beach. We had such a nice day for that this year. The sky was a beautiful blue as you can see. I didn't intensify that color at all!
There were lots of seagulls on the beach as usual. You can always expect that they will appear the minute you bring out the picnic. You can't help thinking of "The Birds" as they fly overhead in groups. The gulls weren't overly interested in our health food, but I once saw seagull pick a chip out of a woman's chip bag on this beach!
There was one determined seagull who was interested in us. Here he is, strutting along.
This was my favorite seagull picture of the day. I like that little webbed foot of his.
There are many different environments in this one area. Just steps from the beach is a forest. Like last year, we saw lots of cool mushrooms. I seriously thought this one was an ear at first!
Even the color of the mushroom is skin-like! Not that it made sense for an ear to be growing out of a fallen tree.
Another piece of nature that fooled me at first was this twisted twig that looked like a crawling snake:
Some of the fungi was beautifully colored:
Here's a close-up view of some bright green pine needles:
This fallen tree looks like it should have a story. It looks like a haunted, twisted bark or a home for little gnomes.
Out of the forest, the landscape changed yet again. We were then on the dunes, a sandy area with spiky grasses. Wooden planks curved around steep hills. It's quite a hike! Grasshoppers jumped this way and that through our walk.
I got a chance to use the fisheye lens on my new camera. The dunes were curvy and the sky was swirly, but not to this extent.
We had a fun day at the dunes with wonderful weather. For once, the sand was even the perfect temperature!
Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that every day I post something called The Daily Pin Board. Basically, it's a Pinterest board that I find interesting or fitting to share that day. Many of these are Halloween or spooky themed, and some are just goofy. You can catch up on all the pin boards I've posted by going here:
Get ready, because there's a lot to look at! Today's pin board was a collection of strange sea creatures. Paging through the board, I was fascinated by what I saw. There are so many creatures we'll never see and are not even aware of. Many of these creatures are in Asia. That's one of the fun parts of the internet - being able to see things you'd have to travel pretty far (and in this case, pretty deep) to see in real life. Here are the sea creatures:
The creatures ranged from adorable to horrifying. Seriously, movie monsters could be based off some of these. I've seen some B-Movies that could have used a little help, as far as sea monster design. This comes to mind:
So, here are my picks as far as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, under the sea. This is just my opinion. You might find some of the ugly ones really cute for all I know!
The Good:
Nembrotha Cristata - It looks like a little undersea Pretty Pony to me!
A Flying Fish, Raja Ampat, Indonesia - Looks kind of like an undersea hummingbird.
I love this little guy. Thanks to Arsenic and Old Lace, I now know he is an Axolotl, also known as the Mexican Salamander.
Glaucus Atlanticus - This one is making it in the "good" category for being so cute and Pikachu-like. I've read that it can give you quite a poison sting, so maybe it's not all that good.
The Bad:
The Goliath Tigerfish from the Congo River in Africa - Locals say it's the only fish that doesn't fear
crocodiles. It's been known to eat some smaller ones and even attack people!
A Moray Eel in Indonesia
I don't know what this is, but I'm afraid.
Lamprea - I don't really know how "bad" this is, it just looks menacing. I'm sure it's menacing to some creatures! I watched a video of another worm-like critter that is definitely menacing to its tank mate. I'll warn you, this is creepy. Giant Bristle Worm:
I guess anything with a mouth full of teeth looks mean to me!
The Ugly:
This is the Blob Fish. Doesn't this look like Ziggy?
I'm not sure what this is, but it looks like a character off SpongeBob. If anyone out there is familiar with some of the unnamed ones, please let me know what they are!
It was hard for me to decide if this is "bad" or "ugly" but yikes. It's a Northern Skygazer, which is a pretty name for something that looks like it would bite your ankles as you walked by.
I'd say these pictures would make a good warning for what to watch out for at the beach, but chances are you won't be seeing any of these!
There's one more creature I want to share, that doesn't really fit any of the above categories. It's an Oarfish.
Have you ever seen anything like this? I watched a video of one of these slithering around the water at a beach. At least, I assume I was watching an Oarfish. Maybe it was Nessie's Tropical Cousin!
This video makes me think of every beach party monster movie I've seen. Except, these people don't seem all that unnerved by these things! Wouldn't you want to move away if something this large swam up to you?
