365 Project, Day 133
Here is my day 133 submission to my 365Project:
All was fairly quiet for observations today...not many bird sightings (a distant cattle egret, bubulcus ibis, and royal tern, Thalasseus maximus) and no marine mammal or turtle sightings. Despite this relative quiet, there were still a couple delightful moments to capture on film today.
We are working offshore the coast of western Africa in an area close to where the Congo River deposits its fresh water and, quite unexpectedly, a lot of vegetation which ends up drifting offshore to us. We have dubbed these clusters of offshore vegetation from the Congo 'grass islands' and see them on a daily basis (see pics of one these islands, with an egret eating a crab!, in my post from November 21).
I don't know much about this vegetation but we commonly see two different types of vegetation: large 'grass' islands and appear to be made of exactly that, grass, and many smaller clusters of small leafy plants. Until today I assumed these 'islands' drifted out to sea from the Congo River and eventually die but today I learned that these plants appear to persist in the sea and even...bloom! I spotted this small cluster of vegetation drifting passed us today and there, to my surprise, was a beautiful purple flower in this little cluster of vegetation drifting around about 30 miles offshore!
Fun fact of the day:
The Congo River (formerly the Zaire River) crosses the equaotor twice on its journey through the rainforests of Africa. The Congo's watershed drains from both the Northern and Southern hemisphere so it does not have seasonal fluctuations like many other great rivers. Part of its watershed is always in the zone of rain so its flow is relatively stable.
Read more about the Congo River at this Mongabay.com webpage.
And, a couple more photos from today:
All was fairly quiet for observations today...not many bird sightings (a distant cattle egret, bubulcus ibis, and royal tern, Thalasseus maximus) and no marine mammal or turtle sightings. Despite this relative quiet, there were still a couple delightful moments to capture on film today.
We are working offshore the coast of western Africa in an area close to where the Congo River deposits its fresh water and, quite unexpectedly, a lot of vegetation which ends up drifting offshore to us. We have dubbed these clusters of offshore vegetation from the Congo 'grass islands' and see them on a daily basis (see pics of one these islands, with an egret eating a crab!, in my post from November 21).
I don't know much about this vegetation but we commonly see two different types of vegetation: large 'grass' islands and appear to be made of exactly that, grass, and many smaller clusters of small leafy plants. Until today I assumed these 'islands' drifted out to sea from the Congo River and eventually die but today I learned that these plants appear to persist in the sea and even...bloom! I spotted this small cluster of vegetation drifting passed us today and there, to my surprise, was a beautiful purple flower in this little cluster of vegetation drifting around about 30 miles offshore!
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| An Unexpected Flower |
Fun fact of the day:
The Congo River (formerly the Zaire River) crosses the equaotor twice on its journey through the rainforests of Africa. The Congo's watershed drains from both the Northern and Southern hemisphere so it does not have seasonal fluctuations like many other great rivers. Part of its watershed is always in the zone of rain so its flow is relatively stable.
Read more about the Congo River at this Mongabay.com webpage.
And, a couple more photos from today:
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| Today`s weather was pretty variable...rainy and cloudy, as shown here, to hot and sunny. It`s the wet season! |
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| Early evening rainbow and awesome cloud formations! |
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