Friday, June 20, 2008

Soldier Crabs

Out on the sand flats at low tide hundreds and thousands of soldier crabs run busily around. If you stand still and listen, all the tiny feet moving over the sand and through the shallow puddles sound like the rustle of silk.

Roosting terns are surrounded by armies of little crabs.

They walk and swim through the puddles left by the retreating tide.

If they feel endangered they simply burrow down out of sight into the wet sand.

2 comments:

  1. G'day - love that first photo with all the soldier crabs. I have tried patiently to get a shot like that but they always scurry off at the slightest movement.

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  2. Thanks Mosura, there are so many of them up here in the Great Sandy Straits that there is always another one to photograph that was too slow about running off.

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