Dragged out the plankton net this weekend.
 

I've been lax since the holidays. Ever since I had to give up the table I was working on, and put away the equipment for guests, I've been avoiding setting back up.

To give myself some motivation, I pulled out the homemade plankton net and put it in the car. This weekend, I was out and about, so I stopped by a park that's right on Lake Washington, and it has a nice long public pier.

I'm... wondering if the plankton net is the right tool for me. I picked up a dozen small animals or so. The problem is I have a hard time getting interesting pictures of them, and they won't survive the living conditions I will subject them to. Usually, they get crushed under the slide cover if I put them on a slide, or they die in captivity because it usually takes me 2-3 days just to get time enough with the sample.

I get other stuff as well, and maybe the tiny crusteceans think the art is worth the sacrifice...

Not yet identified algae - these clumps were about 1-2mm long. In 3 different magnifications,
Low (40X)
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1596/...79dd2725_z.jpg

Medium (100X)
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1677/...3a3e5a32_z.jpg

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1537/...736d9324_z.jpg

High (400X)
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1689/...7fbf632f_z.jpg

And another high magnification for fun. This is a diatom:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1714/...5abc8b81_z.jpg