How may crabs around this plant?
Natures Little Eight-legged Excavators
In Nature there is an abundance of creatures that tunnel into and live underground. We are all familiar with some of these creatures, such as the gopher, mole, and of course worms. These creatures and many other soil organisms have important jobs in the soils in which they live. One of their most important jobs is to burrow, burrow, and burrow; those of you trying to keep a nice lawn or garden are probably familiar with this behavior of these little creatures. But in their natural settings, away from manicured lawns, they have important environmental jobs. All the burrowing brings soil from deep-down, back up to the surface. These deep soils have many nutrients that are beneficial to plant growth. The burrows allow air to travel down underground where oxygen mixes with the soil and becomes available to plants for their growth. Also, these burrows increase water absorption by the soils, which is, as you might guess, also beneficial to plant growth. And for those of you that don’t like gophers and moles, remember, they are eaten by owls, foxes, snakes, and many other creatures.
In Nature there is an abundance of creatures that tunnel into and live underground. We are all familiar with some of these creatures, such as the gopher, mole, and of course worms. These creatures and many other soil organisms have important jobs in the soils in which they live. One of their most important jobs is to burrow, burrow, and burrow; those of you trying to keep a nice lawn or garden are probably familiar with this behavior of these little creatures. But in their natural settings, away from manicured lawns, they have important environmental jobs. All the burrowing brings soil from deep-down, back up to the surface. These deep soils have many nutrients that are beneficial to plant growth. The burrows allow air to travel down underground where oxygen mixes with the soil and becomes available to plants for their growth. Also, these burrows increase water absorption by the soils, which is, as you might guess, also beneficial to plant growth. And for those of you that don’t like gophers and moles, remember, they are eaten by owls, foxes, snakes, and many other creatures.
Here in Tenacatita, and many other coastal areas, land crabs have the same jobs as gophers and moles. Land crabs live underground and are excellent excavators not only in sand, but also in dense soils. They are everywhere, and you can’t walk around without stirring-up numerous crabs that go scurrying away holding their pinchers straight up in their funny little defense postures. The other morning, I came up from walking the beach to find dozens and dozens of crabs all around the house; I was being invaded. I got to the house and turned a corner to find a line of 20 crabs along a low rock wall of the house; all equally spaced, holding their pinchers up towards me; running in unison along the wall, over the steps, and into the garden – it was hilarious!
Watching them excavate, I am impressed by their skillful abilities: using their body and claws as bulldozers they push a load of sand up to the surface, where they use their large clawed appendages to push the sand away from the hole into a mound in front of their hole. Yea, I know it sounds low tech, but come see how efficient they are at burrowing and you too will be amazed. Like gophers, crabs are eaten by many creatures, for example, today I saw a Great-tailed Grackle catching a small crab; and like gophers, they are a nuisance in my garden; I can see them now on top of my plants eating the leaves, they especially like my newly planted cactus. Plus, they burrow in my garden under my plants and when I water the water disappears down this never ending hole. They are also burrowing under the house – I wonder what they are doing under there? I should mentioned that it is not just one, two, or three crabs in the garden, but rather there is an never ending supply of them everywhere. All I can say is, you got to love them!
Near Drowning
On a recent hot afternoon, I went to Tenacatita beach to cool off with some boogie boarding; I’m not good at it, but I have fun. This day the water was unusually rough, with large crashing waves coming in one after another, and there was a strong under tow. I decided not to use my board, instead, I went in up to my waist and got beat up and pushed around by the large surges of water that came in with every wave. Of course there were those strong swimmers that were way out riding the waves before they crashed. I got out, sat at Fiesta Mexicana had a beer and did some people watching. It was Sunday, so it was busy with lots of people up and down the beach in front of all the restaurants. I was enjoying the views when suddenly three men came running as fast as they could up the beach yelling for a barca (fishing boat). Right behind the men came running several women, hollering something unintelligible, and waving their arms wildly. I looked down the beach in the direction they had come and I saw a large group of agitated people standing at the water’s edge, staring and pointing out into the ocean. I looked in the direction they pointed and I could see out beyond the breakers a head bobbing in the ocean. I was freaked out!
Near Drowning
On a recent hot afternoon, I went to Tenacatita beach to cool off with some boogie boarding; I’m not good at it, but I have fun. This day the water was unusually rough, with large crashing waves coming in one after another, and there was a strong under tow. I decided not to use my board, instead, I went in up to my waist and got beat up and pushed around by the large surges of water that came in with every wave. Of course there were those strong swimmers that were way out riding the waves before they crashed. I got out, sat at Fiesta Mexicana had a beer and did some people watching. It was Sunday, so it was busy with lots of people up and down the beach in front of all the restaurants. I was enjoying the views when suddenly three men came running as fast as they could up the beach yelling for a barca (fishing boat). Right behind the men came running several women, hollering something unintelligible, and waving their arms wildly. I looked down the beach in the direction they had come and I saw a large group of agitated people standing at the water’s edge, staring and pointing out into the ocean. I looked in the direction they pointed and I could see out beyond the breakers a head bobbing in the ocean. I was freaked out!
Suddenly, from among the large group of people down the beach, like superman, an over-weight, middle-aged man ran through the throng of people with his boogie board under his arm and crashed through the giant surf, jumped on his board and paddled furiously towards the drowning man. Middle-aged man was strong; he had powerful strokes as he rode his boogie board across the top of the waves, never once wavering in his determination to rescue the man that was steadily being carried further up the beach and further out by the strong current. As I continued to watch this drama, mesmerized by the danger, a young slender, but muscular man close to my end of the beach ran into the water with his boogie board and repeatedly tried to crash his way through the waves, but was repeatedly washed back by the giant surf; he quickly gave up exhausted and defeated. I continued to watch as my fear increased for the drowning man who by now had traveled at least 200-300 yards up the beach from where he had been washed out. He was now nearly in front of me moving fast to the north and further out with the current, but I could see he was floating on his back and seemed to be calm. As I watched, his rescuer, middle-aged man, continued to paddle strongly and did not seem at all tired and though he was still a ways off from the helpless man, he was getting closer.
Loud voices distracted my attention to the beach where the three men were now running back the other way, but this time carrying a kayak; the women were right behind. The guys put the kayak in the water and one of the men jumped in and did an incredibly skillful launch to get through the surf and waves, and was soon on his way towards the drowning man that continued to drift with the current. It was not long after that middle-aged guy reached the floating man who immediately grabbed the boogie board and was held there by his savior. A few minutes later the kayak reached them and the hapless man was hoisted onto the kayak and taken back to shore. They had to maneuver to the far north end of the beach in order to pull out of the water; in the crowds of people, I never did see the saved man. Meanwhile, middle-aged man rode his boogie board through the big waves back to shore where he was greeted to a chorus of cheers and claps. Obviously, the guy who nearly drowned knew what to do to stay alive until he was rescued. I am totally amazed at the bravery of the people that risk their lives to save someone else, even someone they don’t know. This will always be a mystery of life to me. Oh, let’s also chalk one up for the middle-aged guy!
Stuck Again
Once again visitors to this beach tried to drive on the sand and got stuck, even with their 4-wheel drive vehicle. One of the ladies walked into Tenacatita for help and came back with a guy in a 2-wheel drive Toyota, which also got stuck, surprise!? Finally a big 4x4 came along and pulled them both out of the sand. Meanwhile, the rest of the family enjoyed the day on the beach; I provided the ladies with the chairs, and a shovel for the guys. I’ve seen this happen here several times and each time amazingly everyone takes it in stride; wives don’t get upset, children just hang out and play, teenagers listen to their I-pods and play with their cell phones; and of course the buys are busy digging out the car. Hay no problema aqui, there’s no problem here, it’s just a family outing where we decided to get our car stuck in the sand.
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