Nothing For Dinner

And this fully-grown white ibis evidently had nothing for dinner. However, judging by his red face, he was very embarrassed about something. Not sure what...

Crab Dinner

This immature White Ibis had himself a little fiddler crab for dinner tonight. Mmmm, good!

A Ghost!

As it turns out, I did spot a ghost yesterday when I was out and about on Mullet Key. As I walked down the beach, I saw this ghost crab duck into his hole in the sand. I crouched down nearby and trained my lens on his hole in hopes that he'd come back out once he thought it was safe. It took a little bit, but he did come back out and here's the picture to prove it. It's been years and years since I got a picture of one of these guys. I think the previous shot was so old it pre-dates the blog. No, I'm mistaken. It was 2005, the first year of the blog, and you can see it here.

Crabby

I meant to share this guy with you a while back, as I shot him right before I went to Ohio, but I forgot. I shot him in the shallow water at Quick Point Nature Preserve on Longboat Key. I like to go out there at low tide and see what I can see in the water and on the sandbars. This night I found this cool looking crab. He really didn't like me, after I pushed him out of the seagrass with my feet and tried to take his picture. Right after this shot, he tried to burrow backwards into the sand, but I wouldn't let him. When I finally felt I had enough pictures, I let him go and he scuttled off sideways back into the grass, lickety-split.

Hermit

I've tried to get some pictures of the hermit crabs down in Sarasota Bay recently, but I guess I'm not patient enough. They get about this far out of their shell, then I make a move they don't like and they crawl back in. However, looking at this guy, I'm not sure how good of a picture I want to get of one of these critters. Oh, and I have a confession. I'm always picking up shells at the beach, and I always try to look inside and make sure there's nothing living in there. I brought one home Saturday night that I thought was empty, and left it in the car overnight. When I picked it up Sunday afternoon, I realized there was a hermit crab living in there. He was dead, unfortunately. Oh, well.

Fiddle Faddle

Here are a couple of shots from a short trip to South Lido Beach this weekend. Part of the beach on the bay side was covered in these little fiddler crabs. When I approached them, they scurried off en masse into the tall grass and weeds, making an odd rustling noise. If I hurried along and cut them off, they'd run the other way into the water, but they prefered the grass. I suppose it offers more protection against predators. If you aren't familiar with fiddler crabs, the males feature one large claw, which you can clearly see above, and one smaller claw, which is visible in the photo, but just barely. Most of these crabs were about an inch long, but the one above was a giant among crabs at almost an inch and a half.

Egrets & Crabs & Snakes, Oh My!

I had already pretty much written this whole weekend off due to the passing tropical storm, but I was pleasantly surprised to wake up Saturday morning to blue skies. I drove all over town hunting down things that needed their pictures taken and my last stop was sunset at South Lido Beach. Sunset was a bust, but I got a few interesting animal shots for my trouble.

This handsome fellow is a Reddish Egret. They aren't the most common of egrets, and I didn't even know they existed until I wound up with a photo of one, and it didn't look like the egret I thought it was when I photographed it. You can see the reddish color of the neck feathers, which are also rather shaggy, the pink base and dark tip on the bill, and even the blue legs that tell you what species this is. There were two of these fellows feeding in a tidal pool this evening. I don't know how to tell the sexes apart, so they may have been a pair.

This crab claw was washed up on the beach, possibly a limb lost by a victim of the on-going red tide in the area. The beach was also littered in dead fish, some of them up to two feet long. But none of them were as photogenic as this colorful little carapace.

This little sneaky snake was pretty lucky I came along when I did. As I pulled into my parking spot, I spotted a great blue heron picking at something in a puddle. Before I could tell what it was, another car scared off the heron, so I walked over and found this guy who had narrowly escaped becoming supper. He was a little shocked from the experience, lacking the energy to even run away when I tried to pick him up. He made a couple of half-hearted attempts to bite me, but he mostly just curled up around my fingers and enjoyed the sensation of still being alive after having been pecked at by a giant bird.

I took over 800 pictures today, so I'll be posting stuff throughout the week from my adventures. Stay tuned for more fun!!!

Ghost Story

It was a mighty productive day on Longboat Key this past Sunday. One of the more unique things I spotted was this little crab. This fellow is called a ghost crab. They live in those holes you see on the beach, coming out at night to feed, and occasionally during the day to wet their gills. That's when I spotted this guy, as he ran to take a dip in the Gulf. I came up on him from behind (below), snapped a quick picture, then he turned around, I got one more picture, and he took off into the surf. Luckily, both pictures looked pretty good. So enjoy!

Coming Out Of His Shell

I told you there was a hermit crab inside that shell!

Under The Sea (Sometimes)

I was worried that I wouldn't have any good pictures to show you from this weekend. Going into Sunday, it had rained pretty solid for 5 days, and when it wasn't raining, it was gloomy and overcast. So when the sun finally showed it's face again on Sunday afternoon, I headed off to the beach to get some pictures for my loyal readers. These shots all come from the Quick Point Nature Preserve at the southernmost point of Longboat Key. I just happened to get there at low tide, so I was able to walk out on the flats and shoot some of the wildlife that's normally on the bottom of the bay.

The above shot is the business end of a sea urchin. You don't normally see this end, but I wanted to show you the little mouth under there that does all the damage.

This little crab is in disguise, trying to look like a sponge covered rock instead of a tasty morsel for a passing predator.

You may not be able to tell from this shot, but this giant whelk is a foot long and almost 6 inches across. You can tell he's been around a while from the barnacles encrusting his shell. He's so big that when you flip him over, he has a hard time getting back inside his shell.

I thought this was just another interesting shell when I took the photo. I even picked it up and put it into my pocket to take home. Imagine my surprise later that night when I found out the shell wasn't empty. There was a small hermit crab living deep inside there. I have to carry him back out to the beach tonight, if he survives the day in my sink.

There were lots and lots of these little snails, the name of which escapes me. They are really much more colorful than this picture shows.

Last but not least is this odd-looking fellow. I think it's a sea slug, but I really don't know. There were a pair of them out there, and I was almost afraid to touch it. You never know what sort of response you're going to get from an unknown creature. (Update 20 June 05-I think this is a chocolate chip sea slug.)

Crabbin'

Take a close look at the little blue heron above, and you'll see that he's got a little crab in his beak. If only I could have been closer...