Eagle Ray Flats spotted eagle rays glide over a tropical sand flat
Clear turquoise water over pale coral sand, seen from straight above. Spotted eagle rays glide through on slow wing beats, stop to dig in the sand, and now and then leap clear of the water.
Free to install. Eagle Ray Flats unlocks with Pro, $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Cancel anytime.
What you see on every new tab
Eagle Ray Flats puts you on a boat over a shallow tropical flat, looking straight down. The water is the same as in Shallow Pond, tuned for clear tropical sea: breeze ripples on the surface, nets of sunlight on the sand, and the sky and its clouds reflected on top, with cloud shadows drifting over the floor by day. The floor is pale coral sand with soft ripple marks, broken shell, coral rubble, rocks, dark bits of sea grass and whole shells: scallops, cowries, spiral shells and clam halves. Two eagle rays are already in view when the tab opens. Each one stays a minute or so, then swims off the edge of the screen, and a few seconds later the next one comes in. Usually there are two about, sometimes three.
The rays: each is about a third of the screen's height from wing tip to wing tip, with a thin whip tail about two and a half times as long as that. They fly with a few slow, strong wing beats, then glide on wings held tips-up, and bank into their turns. Now and then one curls a wing right up and over, showing its pale belly. Every ray has its own pattern of pale rings and dots. A ray swimming high looks clearer and its shadow falls farther away on the sand; one swimming low is bluer and its shadow sits right under it.
Digging: every 25 to 50 seconds a ray stops, tips its head down and pumps its snout into the sand, holding its place with quick, shallow beats while clouds of sand pour out round it. It digs for 7 to 14 seconds, sometimes moves on a little and digs again, then speeds away. It leaves a pit in the sand that fades over about two minutes. A wing tip that brushes the bottom on a low pass kicks up a small puff too.
Leaps and fly-throughs: a minute or so after the tab opens, and then every two to three minutes, a ray swings round, beats hard across the screen to build speed and leaps out of the water. No two leaps are the same: a low hop or a steep climb, wings spread, curled or still beating, sometimes a spin, and a landing flat, on one wing or nose first, with spray, foam and rings spreading out. Sometimes it leaps again straight after. Every two minutes or so a group of three also flies through together, in a V, side by side or in a slanting line, their wing beats a little out of step.
The reef: five coral heads sit on the sand: brain coral, branching and table coral, pink lettuce coral, yellow and lavender colonies, a purple fan and a red sponge. One holds an anemone with a pair of clownfish darting in and out of it. Thirteen starfish of four kinds lie on the sand and the coral edges. Butterflyfish, blue tangs and a harlequin tuskfish settle round a coral head for a while, pick at it, then move on. Parrotfish and Moorish idols pass through, and a parrotfish may stop to bite the coral in little puffs of sand. Most of the reef fish move out from under a ray that swims low over them.
On the sand: two banded moray eels live in the coral. Mostly you see just a head poking out, its jaws slowly opening and closing. Now and then one slides out and crosses the open sand to another coral head, sometimes folding back on itself, swimming a full loop or a figure of eight, or coiling up to rest on the way. Two hermit crabs, one in a brown spiral shell and one in a pale speckled moon snail shell, peek out, creep about and leave faint leg prints. Both the crabs and a peeking eel duck back in when a ray passes low over them.
The bait fish: a hundred and eight small silver fish in three schools, with a faint rainbow sheen on their sides. A school turns all at once, the turn sweeping through it like a wave, surges forward and coasts, and now and then one fish darts off alone and glides back. A school turns away when a ray glides over it, and the fish near a splash scatter.
Nothing is a video and there are no pictures in it. Your graphics card works out every frame with WebGL2: the ripples on the surface, the lines of light they focus onto the sand, the way the ripples bend your view of the bottom, and the sky reflected on top. The sand, shells, coral and starfish are painted once when the page opens, and again if the window changes size. The rays, fish, eels and crabs are drawn fresh in every frame, each casting its own shadow on the sand.
What it reacts to
Mouse: the pointer acts like a fingertip trailed through the water, leaving rings behind it, bigger the faster you move. Move it near a school and the fish gather round it, circle it, and dart up to nip at the surface, each nip making a small ring. Keep moving it and the nearest ray turns, slows and rises toward it, glides underneath and loops back for another look, for up to 45 seconds. A ring landing close to a hermit crab sends it into its shell.
Click: nothing. Clicks have no effect on the scene.
Music: nothing. This theme does not use music sync.
Night: after dusk the sun gives way to the moon, the light turns cool and dim, and the moon and stars show in the reflection. The silver fish glow a soft blue-white, and that light falls on the sand, the crabs and the rays passing near them. The pale spots on the rays glow faintly too. The fish slow down and sink deeper, the rays and reef fish swim more slowly, leaps come less often, and the eels leave their coral more often and move faster.
Free or Pro?Pro
Ambient New Tab is free to install, with three free themes. Eagle Ray Flats is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Eagle Ray Flats full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.
Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
Pick Eagle Ray Flats. Done.
Eagle Ray Flats on a 1280×800 New Tab page.
Questions
Do the rays really jump out of the water?
Yes. A ray builds speed with hard wing beats, then angles up and breaks the surface. How high it goes depends on how fast it got going. Expect the first leap a minute or so after the tab opens, then one every two to three minutes. They are less frequent at night.
Is Eagle Ray Flats free?
It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released. Cancel anytime.
Does a new tab carry on from the last one?
No. Each new tab starts fresh, with two rays already in view and the schools already formed. The coral heads, starfish and shells are laid out the same way each time, fitted to the size of your window.
Does it work on my phone?
No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome and Edge on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.
