Underwater Wednesday: Coney Grouper

Today’s Underwater Wednesday features a bicolor coney grouper. This fish is sporting the current “colorblock” trend with a bold dark red stripe down its middle. You'll also notice the coney grouper is adorned with perky polka dots galore! (Why do I suddenly feel like a fashion blogger?!)

Well, this fish doesn’t exactly look like a fashion model…in fact, Michael thinks it looks like a puppy with its adorable under-bite!

©Life as an Artist’s Wife
Coney Grouper photographed in Cozumel.

Photo Fun Facts:

• Despite the sweet puppy dog face, the coney grouper can actually be somewhat aggressive!

 

• The coney grouper dines on small fish and crustaceans.

 

• This fish was about 18 inches in length.

 

• Michael took this photo at a depth of about 50 feet.

The Case of the Minnow Bandits

Michael was so excited last week to receive a delivery of 50 pounds of minnows for the pond. These minnows play an important role to the overall health of the pond… and they keep the bellies of our bass, bluegills, and catfish full and happy!

The morning after we received the minnow delivery, I went down to Michael’s office. He was sitting by the window with his binoculars gripped tightly in his hands. With a concerned look on his face and a serious tone in his voice, he said “Angel, we have a problem.”

Uh-oh…what’s wrong?! Maybe he discovered an issue from our recent storm? Perhaps something happened to his newest landscape project? Or...was there a dangerous animal lurking in the woods?

Nope.

Evidently, the 50 pound delivery of minnows brought with it…the delivery of a pair of Belted Kingfishers!

©Life as an Artist’s Wife
One of the beautiful Belted Kingfishers.

Not knowing what a belted kingfisher looked like, I grabbed the binoculars and said "Oh, they're so cute! What's the problem?" 

Michael replied, "The problem? They're stealing all my doggone minnows!"

<Insert my little giggle here!>

Yes, the belted kingfishers are known to feed on aquatic prey…they feed on MINNOWS! Michael watched in horror as the birds swooped up the minnows one by one. For three days straight, it was an all-you-can-eat minnow-buffet!

Here is how these spunky, spikey-crested birds would catch their prey:

They would sit up high on a branch…

©Life as an Artist’s Wife
Belted Kingfisher getting ready to move in on the minnow.

They would plunge down to the water to catch a minnow with its long bill…

©Life as an Artist’s Wife
Belted Kingfisher diving for a minnow.

They would fly to a safe spot, shake the minnow (errr, actually beat the minnow senseless on a branch - ouch!), pitch it up in the air, and then swallow it whole – head first! Eww!

©Life as an Artist’s Wife
Belted Kingfisher with the minnow in its mouth.

We were in awe as they repeated this cycle of catching the minnows over and over again. How could their stout little bodies possibly eat so many minnows? 


By the end of Day 2, we noticed that they looked bloated and were moving a little slower.

By Day 3, Michael was wondering "How many pounds of my 50 pound minnow delivery are left in the pond?"

By Days 3 and 4, we saw them less and less throughout the day. Perhaps they were in and out of a minnow-coma?

Also, by Day 4 Michael was a little more tolerable...and forgiving of these cute little birds. (Although he wishes there was some sort of "money back guarantee" for all those minnows we lost!) 

It'll be interesting to see if these belted kingfishers stick around for awhile or if they find another freshly-stocked pond.

Oh, and the BIG question: How did these little minnow bandits find our pond...the day after the minnow truck was here? Mikey still thinks they hitched a ride on the back of the minnow truck...riiiiight!!

And, I still think they're cute ;)

Underwater Wednesday: Moray Eel

The moray eel is quite the funny-looking underwater creature. In fact, with their wide mouths that continuously open and close, you’re not exactly sure if you should be amused...or intimidated!


A moray eel is typically spotted protruding from a reef crevice, (rather than swimming out in the open waters), but today’s Underwater Wednesday shows you an example of both!


 

©Life as an Artist’s Wife

Moray eel photographed in Cozumel.

©Life as an Artist’s Wife

Moray eel photographed in Cozumel.

Photo Fun Facts:

• The continuous opening and closing of their mouths actually isn’t to intimidate (or humor) those they encounter. They have particularly small gills, so this open and close movement helps with water flow and respiration. 

• They usually hunt at night...and seeing one swimming out in the open during a night dive can be a bit scary!

• The dorsal fin of the moray eel runs almost the entire length of its body.

• They are almost entirely blind, so they hunt by smell.

• Because they don’t have pectoral and pelvic fins, they have a snake-like appearance. 

• This moray eel was about 5 feet long.

• Michael took this photo at a depth of about 40 feet.

Underwater Wednesday: Grunts

With so much "back-to-school" buzz going on, I thought it would be fitting to showcase a "school" of fish for today's Underwater Wednesday!

©Life as an Artist’s Wife

School of grunts photographed in Cozumel.

Photo Fun Facts:

• You read the title correctly...these fish really are named "grunts!" (But, with their bright, cheery yellow stripes and fins, the name "grunt" just doesn't seem right!)

• Schools of grunt are often found swimming near coral reefs (a good food source...of course!)

• You can swim into a school of grunts and they will part around you...kinda freaky, but super cool!

• Michael took this photo at a depth of about 60 feet.

Underwater Wednesday was Interupted Due to...

A BIG, bad storm!

 

 

Yesterday's storm brought 2 (some are now saying 5) tornadoes to the area with up to 120 mph winds. We lost 7 trees (and a few more deeper in the woods). We were out of power for 21 hours. The power company reported about 50,000 customers lost power. Tens of thousands are still without power. And, we spent over 13 hours cleaning up the yard.

 

But, we are SO grateful. Our "damage" is nothing compared to the damage that a lot of families in town and in the neighboring towns are dealing with. And, we're praying for those families.

 

Here are a few pictures of our damage...



  

The top of this tree landed right on the beach.

This tree at the back of the pond went down...
fortunately it didn't land IN the pond!

  

This tree in the front yard went down right outside my office window.

  

Amazingly, Michael's bird feeder/tree invention didn't encounter any damage!

Lumberjack Mikey spent the day strapped to his chainsaw...



...And I was very proud of him for wearing most of his PPE!
 

Michael and I have been through our fair share of weather-related disasters. We have learned so many lessons and the best lesson we have learned:

Keep a positive attitude and count your blessings!

 



Michael’s Newest Landscape Art

Counting our blessings throughout the day is the surest way to put smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts!

 

 

One of our favorite blessings is this beautiful piece of land we live on. As an artist and landscaper, our backyard is basically one BIG blank canvas for my creative renaissance man. Michael has designed a pond with two waterfalls, paths that curve throughout the woods, and countless flowerbeds…just to name a few of his landscaping achievements. We often joke that he’ll never, ever, ever get bored outside because his “Future Outdoor Projects” list is about a mile long!

 

 

And this summer Michael has been busy working hard to check off some of those projects from his list. This is all in an effort to maximize the beauty of the land...and to show God how much we appreciate our little piece of peace in this fast-paced, crazy world!

 

 

Michael loves spending time outdoors playing with dirt…and rocks…and mulch…and wood…and tools. (And I just love that he’s a boy who’s not afraid to get his clothes dirty or his legs scraped up…even if that means I need to keep an abundant supply of stain remover and first aid supplies on hand...at all times!)

 

 

But, his favorite part about being outside is "talking with God and thanking Him for all of our blessings." (Those are Michael's words, not mine J).

 

 

One of Michael’s current projects is a three-tier flower planter. Check it out:

 

 

Michael posing by his three-tier flower planter.

Michael was inspired to design this flower planter because there is a tree stump under the top tier that was a bit of an eyesore. So, he loaded his 4-wheeler trailer with dirt and tools and went to work! He spread out the dirt and leveled it to create three tiers, placed rocks to define the tiers, and added mulch to each bed. Now, we just need to take a trip to the nursery to pick out some pretty flowers to plant in the tiers!


Michael endured a lot of backaches, sore arms, and tired legs with this particular project. It took a lot of strength to move those rocks around so much (because, of course, they had to be placed to perfection!) But, I think Michael will forget about the pain once this cool piece of landscape art is finished!

The flower planter sits to the right of the smaller waterfall that flows into the pond.

Oh, and how cool is this....Once Michael finished detailing the planters with rocks, he realized that the top tier formed a perfectly shaped heart!

The heart-shaped flower bed.

We don’t think the heart shape is a coincidence. We’re convinced God guided Michael’s hands to create that shape as a constant reminder that He is everywhere...and He loves us!

Whoever does not love does not know God,

because God is love.

 

-1 John 4:8