Gary Jackson: Fire When Ready Pottery
A Chicago potter’s somewhat slanted view of clay & play
Categories: nature

Along the shore of Pickering Beach, I found a lot more horseshoe crabs.
And with these signs along the road… it wasn’t so much of a surprise this time!

Again, for some reason, most of the horseshoe crabs were lying on their backs, feet sticking out and tails pointed up!?

This time, maybe because they were on the sand, you could also see where marks where the crabs were trying to flip themselves over. It kind of made me feel bad that you could see how they were struggling to flip back over.

As I was taking pictures, I heard some very faint clicking sounds. And then noticed that there was some very small movement. A leg moved. And then another. It was still alive!!! Oh… what to do?! So I flipped it over with my foot… and it started to move! And VERY slowly, worked its way back towards the water.

I felt pretty good knowing that I had helped a crab get back to the water. And since it worked for one, I took some time and flipped over a couple dozen of them!!! My good deed for the day. And just for reference… these horseshoe crabs are HUGE… so here’s one of the crabs and my gym shoe.

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