Once again I saw Black skimmers, piping plovers, willets, black-bellied plovers, ruddy turnstones, American oystercatchers, nesting black-backed gulls with fluffy babies, common terns, least terns, roseate terns, sanderlings, and osprey. Baby seals were also on the beach - so cute!
But this year I had a special treat. I was there at the perfect time to see mating horseshoe crabs. In a remote stretch of beach it was fascinating to watch this species older than dinosaurs. The females, about 1/3 larger than the males, would move toward the shallow water and attract numerous males. Some females had at least five males in attendance and she would bury herself in the sand beneath the water. Often the only way I would know she was there was her tail protruding above the sand.
As I child I remember seeing numerous horseshoe crabs during the summer but for decades since there have been so few. It was gratifying to see dozens in 60 yards of beach.
Here is one of my photos.
5 comments:
I remember studying these amazing creatures during my brief university "experiment" a few years ago. Did you know they have blue blood, Linda?
Hi Peter,
Yes, I did know about their copper-rich blue blood. How neat that you got a close look at them. Do you know if they ever existed in your part of the world over the last 400+ million years? Linda
I have a feeling that's a trick question, Linda! Plate tectonics!
Didn't mean to be tricky. Curious, I headed to google for a search. Did just find that fossil horseshoe crabs have been found in Australia.
See: http://www.geocities.jp/tomioitow/newpage9.html
A late Permian specimen has been found in Tasmania, a 200 million year old one in Sydney, and the latest historic one from the Cretaceous period in Victoria.
Thanks for the link, Linda. Didn't mean to accuse you of trickery; it's just that "my part of the world" is an inexact location given the time scale you stipulated! This stuff is endlessly fascinating, and is one of the reasons I commenced a zoology degree not so long ago. I remain fascinated, despite the fact that I haven't continued with formal studies.
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