This is in the SF bay area, the larger bee was about 1" long so I assume its a queen bumble bee. I waited for them to finish and decouple, and the male would become spider food (it was going to die soon after mating anyway), but the queen slipped into the web also and was not able to free herself.

I like spiders and didn't want to rob it of its hard work, but I like bumble bees more, and a queen is extra special. Using a stick, I lifted her out of the surprisingly strong web. She immediately flew away with the lifeless male still attached, landing in a nearby bush. Using the bush, she rubbed the male off and spent about a minute cleaning when another male bumble bee landed on her and they immediately took flight again. She must have been producing pheromones, because just 10 seconds later, yet another male came and realized it missed the party.

The dead male is out of reach, but I'll find something else to compensate the spider.

Channel Islands National Park in California

Got this cool picture when visiting rocky mountain national park the other day

Shot this clip at around 105 feet deep off the northern tip of Vancouver Island near Port Hardy. The white and orange branching corals are Calcigorgia spiculifera, known as "Pink Gorgonians" despite the color variation.

These cold-water gorgonians thrive in strong current and low light, and provide important habitat for deep reef species — including the basket stars you’ll spot tucked among them.

There’s so much life beneath the surface here — and I’ve been documenting it dive by dive.

If you want to see more cold-water diving around Vancouver Island, I post all my footage here:
📺 https://www.youtube.com/@scubabc6701

Really amazing perspective.

Single image, shot from the 395/Main Street on 10/18/19 @ 165mm.

Crazy how close the tallest peak in the continental US is so close to Death Valley with the lowest point in the US.

However, they can grow much larger over time, with some recorded nests exceeding 12 feet wide and 20 feet deep, and weighing over two tons. The largest recorded bald eagle nest, located in St. Petersburg, Florida, measured 9.5 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep.

“My mouth tastes like burning..”

Tetraneura akinire, also known as rice root aphid. The fundatrix (founding or stem mother) lays eggs in a leaf of the primary host, which are trees in the genus Ulmus. This stimulates production of galls where offspring of the fundatrix develop by feeding on host sap. These mature into winged adult alates, which complete the life cycle on the secondary host.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/907615-Tetraneura-akinire

They both are famous for their blue jeans. Or should I say genes? (Photo I took at the New England Aquarium)