The Eyes of March -- Answers revealed!

Okay, here we go!  The answers you've all been waiting for.  To review, below is the collage from the "Eyes of March."  The game was to try to identify as many of the 12 animals as possible.

 

Most of these animals have been featured in previous blog posts.  So I'm going to include an active link to those posts with their names.  Click on the name to see the full picture of the animal.

From top to bottom and left to right:

Row 1: Red-legged Frog, Short-eared Owl, Red Octopus

Row 2: Harbor Seal, Ochre Sea Star, Acmon Blue Butterfly

Row 3: Crab Megalopa, Sculpin, Ensatina (Salamander)

Row 4: Racer (Snake), Red-backed Jumping Spider, Common Loon

The two pictures that haven't been featured on the blog before were the Harbor Seal and the Ochre Sea Star, so I'll show those below.  If you didn't know it before, I think you'll remember it now — sea stars have tiny red eyespots at the tips of their arms!

 

 

It was so much fun to put this game together...and even more fun to hear from everyone who played!  I was so impressed with all of the entries.  I didn't want to make this too easy, but it was harder than I thought, so I'm thankful for everyone who rose to the challenge.  This game tested a very broad natural history background, and I can tell and am very proud to say that there are many excellent naturalists among us!

For those of you who are wondering about the winner.  There were many entries that came extremely close to the highest total.  It's hard for me not to list everyone as a winner!  But in the end there were only two that correctly identified all 12 animals — Kristin A. and Kitty B.  Because of the "tie," I drew randomly from a hat.  Congratulations, Kitty!  (And Kristin, I'm sure you'll win another one in the future!)

Thanks again to everyone for playing!  I hope it was fun for you, too.  And that you simply enjoyed the beauty of the animal eyes around us.