A Good Day to Be a Horseshoe Crab

Who doesn’t love horseshoe crabs? I am obsessed with them. I just love their consistency and their story of survival over millions of years. I bet even after the end of the world this weekend, they will still be scooting around out there in the bay. This is the first mating that I have spotted this season. For the sake of privacy, I will not identify the horseshoe crabs in the photo.

In other Smithtown Bay news, barn swallows have been flitting around down at the water’s edge. Perhaps there is a shortage of barns? I have never seen them there before. I also spotted two oyster catchers (it’s a bird, not a person) last week. I have seen photos of them before but never the real thing. They are extremely shy and I wasn’t able to photograph them but keep an eye out for a little bird with long legs and an orange bill.

Remember the plastic wagon wheels that appeared on our beaches? I wrote a stern letter to the sewage treatment plant in Mamaroneck responsible for releasing them and called for some help with picking them up from our shoreline. Included with my letter were hundreds of the plastic wagon wheels that I have picked on the beach over the past few months. I like to picture the plant manager opening the package and all the wheels spilling out all over his desk.