Yesterday my family and I went to one of my favorite spots: Abbot’s Lagoon in Pt Reyes National Seashore. I often go there to find animal tracks and sign of coyotes, bobcats, otters and other awesome animals. We did see some otters but it was something smaller that caught my attention thanks to my 1 year old daughter. We were hanging out on the sand dunes when she suddenly screeched in joy and pointed to something in the sand. At first I didn’t see anything, I was looking for birds or dogs or other things she usually points out. When I looked more carefully though I saw something small moving in the sand, a little black thing trying to crawl up a big sand hill. My daughter kept following it excited to watch its journey. It was some kind of black sand beetle I think doing a lot of hard work to navigate the dunes. My daughter followed it for probably 15 minutes or more all across the dunes, gently pointing it out to me when i disappeared. It was just as fun as trailing a deer really :)
Photo of a Circus Beetle by NPS/Patrick Myers
It reminded me that all natural things are wonders. Even small things like beetles that we barely notice sometimes. So maybe you are not able to go to glamorous natural spots right now with this virus thing going on, but look for what’s amazing just in your own backyard. I think it was this Circus Beetle. Click HERE for more on Circus Beetles and other local insects.
-Posted by Mia Andler