Brass Bowl

The Bowl went on another Melbourne jaunt Labor Day, to celebrate a birthday.  While there, we took a day to see what the beach looked like.  Given the storms in the Gulf and the Atlantic, it was not a typical beach day.  I thought it would be interesting to show a beach that is NOT all sun and fun, but breezy and cloudy.

The wind was from the east, blowing onshore.  It was whipping up some fair surf, but the rip currents were also kicking up, so we didn’t see any surfers.   The lack of human activity on the beach brought out some of the native guys and girls.  This is a Ghost Crab, (Ocypode quadrata ).  They are called ghosts because they can disappear in a blink, moving up to 10 mph.  It took me a few minutes to get these shots, sitting quietly while my feet and lower legs went to sleep.

Below is a close up of this fella.  Click on the picture to see a 1024 x 768 image.

He was scuttling all over the place like Dr. Zoidberg.  What I didn’t know about the Ghost Crab is that while they can see 360 degrees, they can’t see up, so they burrow in the ground against birds.  They are about one and a half  to two inches in diameter, and look like the perfect snack size for gulls.