Wildlife

Henry and Michael have been collecting crabs and other small animals. Here Henry is pointing to his "wildlife sanctuary": a couple of hermit crabs and a snail kept in the shell of a horseshoe crab. When he deposited a second, shell-less hermit crab into the sanctuary, there was much crab consternation. The unshelled crab tried to back into the snail's shell, and the crabs were feisty and tussling. Henry started narrating the fight: "hey, you Hermit Crab, hey you Hermit Crab, what are you doing there? why do you have no shell?" (Don't worry, no crabs were harmed; everyone was returned to the sea at the end of the afternoon.)

I've been quite surprised how much wildlife there is here at the shore. Tons of huge conchs (above), crabs, little silversides fish, jellyfish, clams, and so on, right here where we're sitting with our beach umbrellas. I think that's a good sign for the health of the ocean and bay-- at least I hope so!