Down at Rio del Mar State Beach yesterday morning, there were hundreds of crabs, largest about palm-sized, washed up on the beach, stranded on their backs when the tide went out. Some of them were still struggling to right themselves; some had died or given up. Oddly, the gulls weren't swooping in for the crab feed. Maybe they'd already eaten their fill before we came? So, one by one, Margee and I used our toes to turn them over, so they could scoot back to the sea. We didn't notice that they actually did that, but at least they didn't look so helpless.
There was also a bonanza of sand dollars (mostly dead) on the beach, including lots and lots of tiny ones -- sand nickels and dimes? I've collected a few of these before, but they're so delicate, they don't last. I wonder if there is a way to preserve them? I can imagine them adorning my greeting cards or becoming jewelry.
It's still amazing to me how much the beaches change day to day, week to week. In the spring the caves at Davenport were wide open, you could stand up in them, then last month they were all filled with sand. Pescadero Beach rocks were covered with anemones and multicolored starfish last year, then the next time I went, the beach was almost sand-less with rounded ping pong ball sized rocks and no starfish to be seen. The Beach at the Santa Cruz Wharf was rotten with seaweed the week before Fourth of July. Almost no seaweed a couple of weeks later.
I'm beginning to think I need to move to a beachside community!
