As we were leaving Sandy Beach, we discovered a gull eating a crab.
Or, uh, attempting to eat a crab.
He finally got hold of it.
And as we watched, he ran, then flew. . .
And dropped the crab. I think they do this to break into the shell.
I don’t think the crab will be attempting to escape after that tumble.
Not sure what kind of flower this is, the guys found it while hiking near sandy Beach in Acadia National Park.
I explored the water’s edge while waiting for them. Snails, weird water bugs, starfish, and all sorts of nearly hidden creatures.
When we found this little fellow we did not know what it was either.
But we found out later, while on the lobster boat, that it’s a Toad Crab.
He must have been a baby. Such a tiny guy!
So unusual looking!
Just having some fun in the garden with the macro lens. The roses may not look too impressive, until you see. . .
. . .how flipping tiny they are.
After the bad luck on the whale boat the day before, we hesitantly boarded the lobster boat. Although, we figured lobsters should be pretty easy to find.
Because they have a teaching license they are able to keep various catches to share with passengers, but all catches are eventually released.
The captain snagged a buoy.
Once the captain could, he would grab hold of the rope attached to the buoy. . .
. . .and, place the rope on the pulley to help pull up the trap.
Each trap was like a little mystery, waiting to see what might be inside. There were lobsters, but also, crabs and starfish would come along.
I think I see lobsters!
I don’t think he likes it much. While the lobster wiggles, the measuring thing (technical term) is placed in the eye groove and run to the divot where the tail starts.
Each lobster would be measured. Only lobsters falling in a certain range are allowed to be kept.
Each tail is checked for eggs. If there are eggs attached to the tail, the lobster is a female and thrown back.
The gulls anxiously waited for the small lobsters to be thrown back.
And they fought for lunch.
Crabs would get thrown back too, but not until we got a lesson.
Our guide told us interesting tidbits about lobsters and even passed one around for us to hold. Yep, I held a lobster. . .and a starfish.
The captain has been getting gulls to eat from his hand. But not on this day, the gulls preferred to eat what was tossed.
Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back here and sign Mr Linky. Don't forget to visit each other. :)
Travel Scrabble helps Haden and I make it through many hours of riding.
And my sweet little Blackberry (with crappy camera!) helps me stay in touch with everyone across the miles.
