Killer Eider gets Common Crab!

My husband, Tom, managed to capture these actions shots of an Common Eider catching a crab near the beach of vacation rental house in Pocasset, Cape Cod. The funniest shot of this series has to be when the eider throws the crab up in the air.  I think she is trying to kill it by drowning it!  Of course, another explanation would be that the crab pinched her, and she tossed it away instinctively!

 She immediately grabbed it out of the water, though.  Then she proceeded to shake it vigorously for over five minutes.

The crab was tough to kill, if that's what she was trying to do.  I saw a Herring Gull tear a crab to pieces and eat it alive this weekend, but I imagine that is pretty tough to do while swimming.

The Common Eider shook the crab for quite a while, and then she tossed it down whole.  Catching and eating these good sized crabs was a fairly common practice for ducks, gulls, and osprey this year.  Evidently it is a very good year for crabs!

Gull and Blue Crab on Cape Cod!

Since I didn't see the beginning of this drama, I'm not entirely sure this particular gull was responsible for catching the crab in the water or not! What I found most interesting was the color of the crab. Unless it was a trick of the light, I was sure the crab was BLUE.

Like every other gull, duck, and osprey I saw on vacation, this young gull knows that crabs make for good eating, no matter what color they are! He isn't about to let a meal like this one walk or float away from him.

Dragging the crab up onto the beach is not an inconsequential task. It take quite a few tries before the gull makes any headway at all.

When he pulls the crab from the water, it becomes apparent that this is indeed a blue crab. I had to google this phenomenon to verify that there were blue crabs on Cape Cod in the first place.

According to an article by Dana Eldridge in the Cape Codder, blue crabs are only an occasional visitor on the cape. These lovely colored fellows are more likely to be found in Chesapeake Bay than in Cape Cod Bay. Occasionally they get carried up here by the tide, however. When this occurs, it is good news for birds, people, and many other predators because evidently blue crabs are a tasty little treat for all!

Great Egrets Flying (and Dancing!)

A Great Egret. You can almost always count on seeing Great Egrets at Leary's Conservation area in Bourne, Massachusetts.

This Great Egret was simply too close to miss! He basically flew right over my head.

Seeing such a spectacular bird on a regular basis doesn't make the sight of a massive Great Egret flying above any less awe-inspiring!

Tom captured this magical shot of a Great Egret touching down (very lightly!) to land in the shallow water.

Tom also captured quite a few outstanding shots of an egret hunting in Monks Cove, which is near the Pocasset River on upper Cape Cod.

Seals Swimming at the Seashore!

We captured some excellent images of the seals at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham.


There were a ton of seals right offshore.


They seemed to be having an excellent time in the water!


The surf was probably a bit chilly for humans on the ocean side of the cape.


But evidently the water was ideal for seals!