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)
Medium (100X)
High (400X)
And another high magnification for fun. This is a diatom: