View allAll Photos Tagged bluecrab
Hyannis, Cape Cod, MA, USA
Came across a guy crabbin' in a creek in Hyannis, who graciously allowed me to get a shot of his haul !
Perhaps as close to parity as I have ever seen in a fight between a Yellow-crowned Night Heron and a blue crab but still a one-sided affair. After only a couple of rounds the crab had lost most of the appendages on the right side and those on the left soon followed. Even then it took quite a while for the bird to pulverize the crab's carapace sufficiently to get it down the hatch. On Horsepen Bayou.
American Raccoon chews with its mouth open while rinsing the next bite of blue crab in the brackish water of Horsepen Bayou.
One of the blue crabs found at the aquarium.
I went to the "Audubon Aquarium of Americas" in New Orleans several days ago and spent the afternoon 'trying' to photograph some of the exhibits. I found it quite challenging as I had never photographed an aquarium and because of: lighting, moving animals, reflections on the glass, people constantly moving around and many other factors but it was an interesting time and hopefully I got some reasonably fair images. I will post more in the future. :-)
Found this guy in a tidal pool at low tide on Ilse of Palms, SC. He was kind enough to pose for me and show off why he is called a Blue Crab.
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I granchi blu non si possono contenere??
Gabbiano reale (Larus michaellis) con granchio blu (Callinectes sapidus) nella sacca degli scardovari (RO)
Blue crabs can't be contained??
Yellow-legged gull (Larus michaellis) with blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) in the scardovari pouch (RO)
Got my picture on the cover of the....Coast Monthly!
Sharpshooters article starting on page 14: eedition.coastmonthly.com/2024/03/#page=14
A Yellow-crowned Night Heron repositions a blue crab to further pulverize it prior to sending it down the gullet. Depending on the size of the crab, it can either go down in one piece or be turned almost to mush, but either way, the bird has to deal with the hard carapace, which comes out in undigested pellet form.
A Blue Crab goes on the offensive against a Yellow-crowned Night Heron on Horsepen Bayou in a valiant, if brief, forestalling of the inevitable.
Although crustaceans fill the base of the food pyramid for a White Ibis, this is the first one I've seen preparing to dine on blue crab. In Saint Charles Bay, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas.
How does a Yellow-crowned Night Heron swallow a Blue Crab without lacerating its gizzard? By running it through the blender first. Series from Horsepen Bayou.
Same bird, different crab. I made a circle around the big island west of Alligator Alley on Horsepen Bayou and the same Yellow-crowned Night Heron from yesterday's post was still on the hunt and still chowing down on blue crabs. It was having a good morning and I had no complaints either.
Yellow-crowned Night Heron taking a freshly caught blue crab from the water to the mudflat for further processing where it can't get away. On Horsepen Bayou.
Same bird, different crab. I made a circle around the big island west of Alligator Alley on Horsepen Bayou and the same Yellow-crowned Night Heron from yesterday's post was still on the hunt and still chowing down on blue crabs. It was having a good morning and I had no complaints either.
An out-gunned blue crab struggles valiantly against its Yellow-crowned Night Heron captor on Horsepen Bayou.
Same bird, different crab. I made a circle around the big island west of Alligator Alley on Horsepen Bayou and the same Yellow-crowned Night Heron from yesterday's post was still on the hunt and still chowing down on blue crabs. It was having a good morning and I had no complaints either.
This Yellow-crowned Night Heron appeared to me to be a youngish bird and the way it was hunting, I thought it was going after small, easily handled prey. So I was unprepared when it came up with one of the larger blue crabs I have seen plucked from Horsepen Bayou, then immediately bolted for the shoreline to landlock its catch.
Hardly a stroll in the park for a small Blue Crab in the maw of a Yellow-crowned Night Heron on Horsepen Bayou.
Around this time each spring, Yellow-crowned Night Herons descend in large numbers on Horsepen Bayou and they come mostly for one thing: Blue Crab. This bird took two in a row in just the short time I was watching.
It was more of a theft than a fight but this Willet wound up the winner of a small Blue Crab on the beach at Bolivar Flats in Galveston County, Texas. After two failed attempts to swallow the crab, the bird opted instead to put some distance between its prize and its jealous cohorts, running up the beach and eventually out of sight.
When a Yellow-crowned Night Heron snags a blue crab, it often makes a beeline for shore in case its prey gets loose. Not very sporting, but nature rarely is.
This, right here, is what Maryland is ALL about!!! (well, and taxes, too, but forget that for now). THE mighty blue crab. Lexington Market, Baltimore, July, 2017.
A Yellow-crowned Night Heron surprisingly recaptures a blue crab that had escaped back into Horsepen Bayou after giving up its left pincer. Since blue crabs can regrow their pincers, this was a reasonable sacrifice, but wasted when it tried to hide in place rather than scurry away once it returned to the relative safety of the water. The bird, on the other hand, did not learn from its near loss, and makes the same tenuous claim on the right pincer, which gives way forthwith. Now two pincers down, the crab has no way to capture food but the bird is not about to allow it to consider that predicament as the second escape is a very brief one.
A Yellow-crowned Night Heron surprisingly recaptures a blue crab that had escaped back into Horsepen Bayou after giving up its left pincer. Since blue crabs can regrow their pincers, this was a reasonable sacrifice, but wasted when it tried to hide in place rather than scurry away once it returned to the relative safety of the water. The bird, on the other hand, did not learn from its near loss, and makes the same tenuous claim on the right pincer, which gives way forthwith (see previous post).