Fellow adventurers and curiosity-seekers, I have a piece of general advice for you here:

If a child offers to show you something cool, say "yes". You see, children are often the keepers of amazing and curious things.

Example: a young fisherman recently offered to show me something so exotic that he wasn't even sure what to call it. He motioned me over to a shallow pool in the sand and pointed, I thought, to a floating piece of a mangrove tree. "Oh cool," I said, feigning interest. "It's like a sea bean." (Like the millionth of those I've seen today, I thought.)

"Noo," he said with a tiny hint of impatience. "That!" He thrust his finger emphatically toward a small blob of detritus.

I squinted at the blob and realized that it was not drifting but actually swimming -- although through some invisible mechanism. What on earth...?

Clearly I had not given this kid enough credit with my sea bean mistake. This critter looked like a tiny, self-propelled ball of algae. It was two of my favorite things; weird and a mystery.

The boy was then joined by the adults in his clan, including Duncan, from Ontario. Duncan and the boy helped me get a better look at the mystery blob, which I finally surmised was some sort of collapsed-looking fish. I promised Duncan and the boy that I would post about the creature on my blog once I had learned more about what it was and selected the best photos.

So, here it is -- the full report. I think Duncan-From-Ontario and Young-Relative-Of-Duncan found a baby burrfish.

It seems that all of our observations of this tragic-faced little fish blob match with the striped burrfish ID. The strange, almost uncoordinated swimming style, the "invisible" fins, the blobby body, the tiny yellow projections... It all looks like burrfish to me!

Facts About Burrfish

A type of pufferfish
Fins are mostly clear
Swims using fins rather than through typical fish motion
Range includes Gulf of Mexico south to coast of Brazil and north to the coast of Maine
Can grow up to 10 inches in length
Common but still encountered much less often than "sea beans"

I ran in to Duncan on the beach one night and told him what I had learned so far about the fish. I mentioned that I planned on doing more research. He urged me not to go to too much trouble learning about it.

I smiled and said, "Ah, I enjoy it -- I'm pretty curious, after all." As I walked away, I chuckled to myself, "Actually it's kind of what I do."

Thanks:
A big thank you to Duncan and his young counterpart for taking the time to show me their amazing little discovery. Stay curious, guys!

Note:
The baby burrfish was released back into the ocean shortly after these photos were snapped.

Sources:
Learn more about burrfish through Encyclopedia of Life, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species or visit one at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

The ubiquitous "sea bean". (A red mangrove propagule.)

“Clearly I had not given this kid enough credit with my sea bean mistake.”

A macro lens reveals the "self-propelled ball of algae" as a baby burrfish with a very tragic facial expression.

“It was two of my favorite things; weird and a mystery.”

Watch a quick clip of the mystery fish here.

Adult striped burrfish (Chilomycterus schoepfii) at Clearwater Marine Aquarium. — Adult striped burrfish *(Chilomycterus schoepfii)* at Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Strange Folk Festival 2014

Occasionally, I emerge from my lair and join the unwashed masses at a festival or similar event. One such event was Strange Folk Festival in O'Fallon, IL.

Now, I would love to provide you with a stellar review of Strange Folk but mere minutes in to the event, I began to suspect that I was sick with some sort of stomach illness. To appreciate why this is important, you need to know that I am terrified by the idea of getting sick in a public place.

Deep breathing and positive internal thoughts kept me in the game long enough to peruse a few booths, including the art of Matty Cipov. He mentioned that he used to have a keytar like the one featured in his squirrel print, but that his mother had gotten rid of it without asking. (Mr. Chipov, I'm sorry that I didn't feel well enough to tell you about my pet squirrel, Rascal. My mom didn't even try to get rid of him. He would have just come back anyway.)

Anyway, back to Strange Folk and my impending doom... After some additional sweating, nostril-flaring and general stumbling around, I admitted to my friends that I felt sick. I asked them to continue shopping while I lurched off to meet my untimely death under a large maple tree.

After about 45 minutes of nursing a bottle of water and tiny-portioning a slice of pumpkin bread into my mouth, I decided I wasn't going to throw up (or die) after all and ventured out for another round.

And thank goodness I did!

I was rewarded with the best two sights of the day. First was Parsimonia's turquoise and white vintage travel camper. The second was a seriously chatty alpaca whose name I didn't catch. (I do so love alpacas -- best of all the camelids in fact. Although I haven't actually met a vicuna or a guanaco, so I guess it's not entirely fair to pick favorites yet.)

Anyway, the festival was good, but not throwing up in front of people? THAT was even better!

Addendum: My friend just commented on my (above) photo caption about the sloth and the squid. She said that the sloth would be screwed if the battle was taking place in water because sloths can't swim. I declared that sloths can, in fact, swim quite well. A quick web search yielded this absolute gem of a video, titled CRAZY SWIMMING SLOTHS - Does a Sloth Sink or Swim? Not only is this video slothtastically entertaining but it also provides the important public service of instructing people what to do if they encounter a drowning sloth. (Because that happens a lot.) (I guess?)

Props to AnimalWire for creating that bewilderingly fantastic video.