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I live near 93560 Rosamond California over by Edwards Air Force Base and I’ve been playing with fair shrimp ever since 6/6/1986. When My mother Brought me and my little brother to the property. and put in the well me and my little brother used to collect them out on the dirt road in front of our house and neighbors think I’m a crackpot when I tell them they’re shrimp living in the road until I show them one of the puddles closest thing to fireflies we have 🙂
Thank you, Mike. They’re not just in road puddles. I hope you have had a chance to see them out on the playas of the Mojave Desert, too. Brown and Carpelan, 1971 (see References page), wrote a fascinating article about fairy shrimp in Rabbit Dry Lake, near Lucerne Valley. That article really sparked my interest. All they need is water.
Love your site! My wife and I are wildlife biologists from GA but discovered you while enjoying fairy shrimp on a ridge extending west of Lankin Dome. We did not summit the dome but based on your account we plan to the next time we visit. This was our 2nd visit to the Granite Mtns and we hope for many more. We especially appreciated your autobiography, the early days of trying to find a way to pay the bills while doing what you love. I hope your path has gotten easier, “keep swimming”. I will email you a photo or two.
Good to hear from you Nathan and Joyce.
Tin Cup Mountain isn’t as challenging or as imposing as Lankin Dome but it also has fairy shrimp in some rock pools. There are other rock pools there but I didn’t have a chance to observe them when they had water. Coincidentally, I was there 3 weeks ago finally collecting GPS coordinates for more accurate locations of the Tin Cup Mountain rock pools. My previous map-based estimates were off by 24-132 m. If you’re interested, you should be able to find them now. I hope to have the new data uploaded within a week (check the “Updates” page). The pools were dry at the time so I didn’t have a chance to explore for more fairy shrimp. At Tin Cup Mountain, you can also enjoy viewing horses and pronghorns, as I did on this trip.
Have you heard of fairy shrimp near Stone Mountain? In 1991, Denton Belk wrote me the following. “During the Crustacean Society/American Society of Zoologists meeting in Atlanta this next month, I am going to try to collect specimens and pond soils with eggs of Branchinella lithaca. This is a fairy shrimp described from Stone Mountain rock pools in 1935 and never again reported on. I have unconfirmed reports from a biologist in Georgia that there may be other populations on a similar granite dome in a state nature preserve near Stone Mountain.”
I’ve been lucky. It has rained at opportune times so my pond hasn’t dried up. Now I seem to be in deeper water with few worries. May you always be blessed with adequate water depth.