Monday, September 1, 2008

Something In The Water

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water... These are the best two pictures I got of this thing. I was standing on a bridge looking at the water striders. I noticed a big clump of them, and noticed something odd. This creature was hovering just beneath the surface of the water. It was grabbing the water striders and pulling them below. At the time, I could tell it was a kind of crustacean. The only kind in these waters are crayfish, but this one was huge. It was about twice the size of any I've ever seen. It just looked fatter than a crayfish to me. When I got home and looked at the pictures, I could see it was probably a big crayfish.

A crayfish is a freshwater crustacean that resembles a small lobster, which they're closely related to. Crayfish are also known as crawdads, or crawfish. They live in streams or brooks. I've seen them in ponds. They cannot live in polluted water. They also burrow underground near the water. A lot of people eat them, but the only seafood I'm brave enough to eat is fish. I've been reading that they eat plants and maybe small fish. The one in the pictures sure seemed to like water striders.

These pictures aren't as clear as I'd like, but I'm not sure I can get any better ones. Hopefully you can see them anyway. It was a fun part of my everyday adventure to spot this crayfish during mealtime.

Here we go, we're off!

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