Delaware Sea Grant College Program
Newark, DE 19716 USA
Phone: 302-831-8083
E-mail: marinecom@udel.edu
Desktop Calendar Wallpapers - April 2010
With the 2010 Delaware Sea Grant and College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment online calendar, you can bring the beauty of Delaware’s coastal resources to your computer screen. In addition to scenic wallpaper for each month, check out the list of notable dates as well as environmental facts, tips, and web links.
A Delicious Favorite Returns
The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus), uses its claws to catch and eat a variety of food, from sea lettuce to clams. While the tips of the male’s claws are greenish blue, the claw tips on females are red. Fishermen say she “polishes her nails.”
Blue crabs make up one of the most important fisheries in the Delaware and Chesapeake bays. And each summer, many of us enjoy pulling up a chair and a crab mallet next to a pile of the steamed crustaceans. But just like beach umbrellas, blue crabs seem to disappear when summer wanes. Where do they go? As the bay cools in the fall, blue crabs migrate to deeper water. There, they’ll hunker down in the mud and sand until the water warms again, usually in April. During spring, blue crabs return to shallower areas to feed, mate, and — perhaps — try to snag your bait without ending up on a newspaper-covered picnic table!
Find some delicious crab cake recipes from the Coast Day Crab Cake Cook-Off or learn more about the blue crab by ordering a blue crab bookmark.
Photo by Lisa Tossey
1 – April Fool’s Day
No joke: Cigarette butts are made of plastic, which degrades very slowly in the environment and can harm wildlife. Dispose of your butts in a proper receptacle.
4 – Easter
Oysters reproduce by releasing eggs — but they’re not the kind you’ll find in your Easter basket! The fertilized eggs develop into larvae, which have a tiny shell and a muscle called a “foot” used to anchor themselves to rocks or other solid surfaces. For information on our efforts to restore our region’s oyster population, download our fact sheet.
18 – World Heritage Day
Help preserve our coastal environment. Properly dispose of used motor oil by taking it to an auto service station or a Delaware Solid Waste Authority site that will recycle it.
22 – Earth Day
Begin helping our planet today by taking reusable bags to the store. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates it can take up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to decompose!
30 – Arbor Day
A great day to discover the benefits of using native plants while celebrating Delaware’s state tree, the American holly.
Choose a width:
Miss a month? Go to our 2010 wallpaper download archive, and learn when the next month is posted by subscribing to our desktop calendar RSS feed.
Download Instructions
Note: Once you have downloaded your wallpaper, you can fine-tune its appearance using your computer's desktop preferences menu (i.e. whether the image is centered, tiled, stretched to fit the screen, etc.).
Step 1.
Click on the link below the image of the month representing the size that you are interested in. This will open the image in its own window.
Step 2 For PC users:
1. Position your cursor over the image.
2. Click the right mouse button.
3. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer (v. 6.0 or higher), select "Set as Background" from the popup menu.
Step 2 For Mac users:
OSX: Drag the image onto your desktop.
Go to System Preferences and open the "Desktop & Screen Saver" icon.
Under the "Desktop" heading, use the file navigator to add the image to the library.
OS9: Drag the image onto your desktop.
Go to your Control Panel and select "Appearance."
Click "Set desktop" and choose your new image.
