Fearful for Jamaica, hoping the island survives the hurricane without catastrophic destruction. So great a contrast to how peaceful it can be in the Caribbean, like this moment on neighboring Little Cayman last spring, returning to shore after a day's diving. {{{{Jamaica}}}} #Caribbean #ScubaDiving

Brittle star tucked away in the folds of a sponge. Bloody Bay wall, Little Cayman island. April. #TropicalTuesday #CoralReef #LittleCayman #Caribbean #ScubaDiving #Diving

West Indian Whistling-Ducks are usually nocturnal so it was a treat to see these rare birds in a mangrove swamp on Little Cayman island. Threatened by habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, these large ducks need wetlands to survive. And they do whistle! #TropicalTuesday #Birds #Caribbean

Red-footed booby and chick on the nest. Booby colony on Half Moon Caye, Belize. March. #TropicalTuesday #Birds #Belize #BirdPhotography #Caribbean #PastelColors

Striped Sunstar sharing a tidepool with barnacles, anemones and red coralline algae. Low tide. Salish Sea, Washington.
#addOcean #MarineInvertebrates #SalishSea #Tidepooling

Spawning Creole Wrasses. These schools of plankton-feeding fish usually cruise the edge of the reef in rivers of blue and purple. Sometimes they pause to have a mass spawning event, swirling around releasing eggs and sperm. #TropicalTuesday #Caribbean #ScubaDiving #CoralReef

Magnificent Frigatebirds scuffling at the breeding colony on Half Moon Caye, Lighthouse Reef atoll, Belize. A nestling Red footed booby looks on with interest.
#TropicalTuesday #Caribbean #Belize #BirdPhotography #Wildlife #Birds

Bufflehead drake bathing on a rare sunny winter afternoon, showing off his splendid iridescence. Lopez Island. #Wildlife #NaturePhotography #SalishSea

Diving on a seamount in the Bismarck Sea, off a volcanic island on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. Seamounts are underwater oases of life, often with ripping currents. Nice to just hang in the water watching the action. #TropicalTuesday #ScubaDiving #Wildlife

Spotted drums are secretive fish, you have to look in crevices of the reef. The babies look totally different compared to the more fishlike adults: they have extremely long sinuous fins that swirl as the tiny fish swim in circles, a camouflage strategy. #TropicalTuesday #CoralReef #ScubaDiving

Shy seahorse tucked in a gorgonian coral, anchored, waiting for food to drift by. Seen on a Little Cayman reef. Seahorses are small (like a few inches) and hard to find! #TropicalTuesday #CoralReef #ScubaDiving

Caught a pic of Ed stepping off the boat for a dive on the reef at Jackson's, north side of Little Cayman. April. What a beautiful day. #TropicalTuesday #ScubaDiving #CoralReef #LittleCaymanIsland #Caribbean

Loggerhead turtle swims by Ed and me last May at Turneffe atoll. He was rankled by the bright lights of another diver (who took this pic).
#TropicalTuesday #CoralReef #ScubaDiving #Belize #TurneffeAtoll

#TropicalTuesday Ed communing with reef squid on north side of Little Cayman island. They watch us as we watch them. Cephalopods have such interesting minds, and expressive bodies. Their feelings are colored. #scubadiving #coralreef

Introducing TropicalTuesday, warm moments from my dive trips to the tropics and subtropics.

Today we have a group of Scrawled Filefish grazing on corals and other reef invertebrates, in Belize. Slow moving, unaggressive, shy, very flat.

#TropicalTuesday #ScubaDiving #CoralReef #Belize

The pair of Trumpeter swans who spend a lot of time in the little pond behind the bay are now being joined occasionally by a third. Swans aren’t usually in this pond except very intermittently; this pair has been hanging out here this year for the past couple of weeks, since winter migrant started.

Leucistic dunlin at Hayton reserve, Fir Island, Skagit county WA a few days ago