I Caught One!

  Early this morning, I headed to the pier.  Knowing that a lot of chores awaited my attention, the hike would have to be cut short but the water called.  Near the pier on the mudflats, four rails were busy scooping up bull minnows that were trapped in the tide pools.  The birds hardly noticed my presence and kept on fishing even though I was a mere few feet from them.  

  One young bird was having a particularly tough time catching his fill of bull minnows.  Time after time, he would plunge his bill into the shallow water and come up empty.  The minnows would scatter in the now muddy water and escape being eaten.  After several tries without catching anything, the bird tried a new tactic. He forewent the minnows and went after the fiddler crabs.  The small crabs had buried themselves in the soft mud as protection against the cool night.  Our friendly rail had success in catching its meal with the first attempt.  The tiny crab was not giving up its fight.  It wriggled enough that the rail dropped it twice before snatching the crab and running to the harder mud near the marsh.  There, the bird could drop the crab and stab it. Once it was dead, the rail could pull it apart and devour it.

  Of the four birds that were working the mudflats, only the one was interested in the fiddler crabs.  The other three feasted upon fat bull minnows.  Perhaps the young bird needed a bit more tutoring on the fine art of spearfishing or perhaps it had a taste for crab.  He was pretty excited when he caught that first one!