Today I thought I'd play hooky from all of the yard work and indoor work I have been doing and go find some migrating birds. Off I went to Kimbles Beach where I ran the famous Larry Niles from The Shorebird Project. I actually had no idea who he was but he was wearing a shirt that said the Shorebird Project so I figured that I'd tell this person how upsetting it is to see all of the horseshoe crabs turned upside down and not be able to get back over for whatever reason. People aren't allowed to help because there is a ban on being on the beach from May 5 to June 5 during peak migration times. Usually horseshoe crabs use their tails to flip themselves but when I was on Reed's Beach road last week there were well over 200 upside down horseshoe crabs. Turns out The Shorebird Project is looking for volunteers to turn the crabs back over so I have volunteered my sister, Jenny and I to help when I am off. We will have to fill out some data but I think it will be fun and a good way to help. We also do horseshoe crab tagging when we are able. Who knows maybe sometime they'll ask us we we'd like to go along when they tag the Red Knots and other shorebirds. The female horseshoe crab lays up to 80,000 eggs per spawning year which is then eaten as protein for the shorebirds to bulk up on before flying North to the Arctic to breed.
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| Female (with eggs on exoskeleton) trying to right herself. |
Today I thought I'd play hooky from all of the yard work and indoor work I have been doing and go find some migrating birds. Off I went to Kimbles Beach where I ran the famous Larry Niles from The Shorebird Project. I actually had no idea who he was but he was wearing a shirt that said the Shorebird Project so I figured that I'd tell this person how upsetting it is to see all of the horseshoe crabs turned upside down and not be able to get back over for whatever reason. People aren't allowed to help because there is a ban on being on the beach from May 5 to June 5 during peak migration times. Usually horseshoe crabs use their tails to flip themselves but when I was on Reed's Beach road last week there were well over 200 upside down horseshoe crabs. Turns out The Shorebird Project is looking for volunteers to turn the crabs back over so I have volunteered my sister, Jenny and I to help when I am off. We will have to fill out some data but I think it will be fun and a good way to help. We also do horseshoe crab tagging when we are able. Who knows maybe sometime they'll ask us we we'd like to go along when they tag the Red Knots and other shorebirds. The female horseshoe crab lays up to 80,000 eggs per spawning year which is then eaten as protein for the shorebirds to bulk up on before flying North to the Arctic to breed.
1 comment:
What a neat thing to do!
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