"Christmas" in Bolinas Lagoon.

 If you're at all familiar with New Mexico, you'll know the phrase "It's always Christmas in New Mexico" refers to the population's tendancy to put both red and green chiles on their food.  When you're asked in a restaurant, "Red or green?"  we pretty much know you're a New Mexican when you answer "Christmas".  That's the first thing I thought of today when reviewing my photos from today's green crab removal photos.

Green crabs are in invasive species in Bolinas Lagoon, and have decimated the local crab population.  Today's work involved collecting, gendering, measuring, and commenting on the condition of green crabs trapped in the Lagoon.

It was really nice doing science again, and we found some interesting crabs, some with battle scars from competing to mate, some with scars from predators.  I photographed this little crab who was regenerating a claw, but for some reason that went wrong, and two claws were growing.

The other unique finding was one of our native crabs: the Red Rock Crab, one of which had found it's way into the trap, and was released.

The collector brings crabs in by in plastic "totes" where they're removed by volunteers who make the observations and notations. I had a whole lot of fun doing it.

The site itself was really pretty, and I drove along the bay for most of its length on my way to the site.  I wish I'd had my other cameras with me (I only had my little waterproof Fuji) because the bay was filled with an incredible diversity of birds.  (I'll remember when I go back for the final week of the program!)

But the site itself was beautiful and peaceful and reminded me a lot of Florida on the barrier islands, especially along the gulf coast intercoastal waterways.