Howdee all,
I am submitting this for Bird Photography Weekly…There will be birds in this post..I promise!
Wow…This was some party! Horseshoe crabs like I have never seen before…doing their thing..laying eggs.
Slaughter beach, DE
Horseshoe Crab Mating Ritual
“Each spring during the high tides of the new and full moons, thousands of horseshoe crabs descend on the Delaware Bay shoreline to spawn.
Males, two-thirds the size of their mates, cluster along the water's edge as the females arrive. With glove-like claws on its first pair of legs, the male hangs on to the female's shell and is pulled up the beach to the high tide line.
The female pauses every few feet to dig a hole and deposit as many as 20,000 pearly green, birdshot-sized eggs. The male then fertilizes the eggs as he is pulled over the nest. After the spawning is complete, the crabs leave and the waves wash sand over the nest.” click here to learn more and here
Birdies are here to feast on these eggs!
majority of these are semi-palmated sanpipers
Check out the video..you can get a better idea of how many Horseshoe there were.
There were hundreds of Ruddy Turnstones
Least Sandpipers
Short-billed Dowitchers
This photo is great for size comparison …click on the photo.
“Rufa red knots need about two weeks at Delaware Bay to recover from the long flight from South America and to store nutrients for the onward flight to their Arctic breeding grounds”
“horseshoe crabs were heavily overharvested as bait for the conch and eel fisheries, and this had a disastrous impact on red knots, which were unable to refuel properly”
You can help the plight of the red knot by Donating to
Delmarva Ornithological Society
If you are ever in Delaware this time of year…You must see this Amazing Eggstravaganza!
Check out more great birdie shots at
