PJ:

“How do isopods differ from insects?”

Well isopods are not insects at all (they are crustaceans), they still belong to the same phylum as insects though.

Just based on morphology isopods have 2 pair of antennae while insects only have one pair. They have simple eyes while insects have compound eyes. They have 7 pairs of legs where as insects only have 3 pairs.

There are some other differences too…but these are probably the biggest differences between isopods and insects from an outward appearance.

Yesterday we had a rain/snow storm here on the Cape and today it is 45 and sunny….perfect for waterfowl birding. I picked up 3 new life birds.

Here is a male (winter plumage) long-tailed duck. There were probably 2 dozen of these ducks in a harbor on the lower cape. Boy were they noisey.

Although it is a poor picture, here is a red-throated loon out on the very tip of the cape near Race Point.

And my third life bird was this cute little horned grebe. I almost walked right past it thinking it was just another merganser until I took a closer look.

I saw came up over a dune and saw this cute little sea lion with his/her head above the water just twirling in the sun. Then it realized I was there and took off and I was only able to snap this one shot of it unfortunately.

To see more pictures from this morning, including better pictures of red-breasted mergansers see here.