23 Feb, Thurs - Part 1

Thurs, 23 Feb ... i'll split this into 2 posts since i have a lot of photos from today :) .... i took the day off today, ... got up at 5:30 and prepared my snorkel stuff for the day. one of the Dive Shops, Captain Morgans (like that name) ... has a hotel-hostel out on Pidgeon Caye. you can go out there with their boat in the morning and spend the day for about $5 for the trip. so i signed up and showed up. Pidgeon Caye is pretty much all 'locals' ... there aren't any hotels out there, except the one that the Dive Shop uses for their students. ....it's pretty out there ... but there is nothing to do ... except snorkel or fish .... ... it's actually 2 small islands that are joined by a bridge i walked to the other end when i arrived ... that took about 10min :) ... this is a photo of the main 'street' .... NO motor vehicles here!!!!! ..... it was so nice an QUIET ! ... then spent some time snorkeling off their shore, and the island next to it. i showed you another Feather Duster yesterday, ... i found the actual name: Social Feather Duster. .... in this photo you can see the parchment like tubes that they suck into when disturbed. .... their color varies by region ... so they are this color here, but are light brown in Belize, and white in Cozumel. an Intermediate (teenager) Blue Tang ... still has it's yellow tail... a Parrot Fish and a Smooth TrunkFish hiding from me .... this is another type of ButterFly Fish ... the FourEyed ButterFly Fish .... it has a black spot on it's back on both sides. ...it is used to confuse it's enemy to thinking that is its head, .... so it looks like he has 4 eyes .... at night the Blue Tangs display these stripes ...... this guy was young and must have been confused ... remember the other day i talked about the Flamingo Tongue and said that it's shell was actually all white/cream ...? ...so here is a photo showing only the white shell ... i've actually never seen one white like this .. and now this one with the living tissue covering it ... beautiful, isn't it ? a NEW fish ... i've never seen one of these before, never knew they existed ... i recognized it as a type of File Fish .... ....i've seen Scrawled FileFish before; but this is a Orange Spotted FileFish ... i love these Trumpet Fish .... they are incredibly good camouflouging themselves. here he is blending in with the sand and rocks, with beautiful turquoise markings and here he is golden-brown, blending in with the Fan Coral ..and here, pretending like he is part of this Finger Coral ... this is like 'Where's Waldo" !.... i chased and dove deep trying to get a photo of the Spanish HogFish .... this is the best i could do today ... this is a tiny 3" ThreeSpot DamselFish Juvenile ... that darts in and out of the coral i made many attempts at pictures of any one of a number of BlueHead Wrasse ... this is a Barred Hamlet .... i love the design on it's head and face ! ... i saw these for the first time last year ... to be continued on Part 2 ...