{"id":5635,"date":"2010-03-29T00:54:16","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T05:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5635"},"modified":"2010-03-29T08:11:18","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T13:11:18","slug":"spring-fling-for-fiddlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=5635","title":{"rendered":"Spring Fling for Fiddlers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fiddlers<\/a><\/p>\n

Closeup of a Male Fiddler Crab in Full Display<\/em><\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite a temporary\u00c2\u00a0slump in temperatures, spring remains in the air of Outer Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0With a little midday sunshine, minds, hearts and antics\u00c2\u00a0of all Nature’s critters soon turn to love; that\u00c2\u00a0is,\u00c2\u00a0once they shake off the yawns of winter slumber.\u00c2\u00a0 Waking first along beaches and salt marshes of Wellfleet Bay are the comical, ever-ready\u00c2\u00a0cleanup crew: fiddler crabs.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re most amusing when coping with temperatures in the low- to\u00c2\u00a0mid-forties.\u00c2\u00a0 They stumble along\u00c2\u00a0with an uneasy balance as though a bit tipsy and, sure enough, they trip over on their backs, stagger to their feet again\u00c2\u00a0and struggle onward.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Spring Fling for Fiddlers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As we\u00c2\u00a0walked the shoreline of Paine Hollow this afternoon searching for a stranded dolphin that Sue Wieber Nourse had spotted from across the creek in Indian Neck, we saw fiddler crabs digging out with the receding tide.\u00c2\u00a0 While not yet in full mating display with males waving their enormous fiddles to entice passing females,\u00c2\u00a0male fiddler crabs poked their large claws out of their burrows, seemingly hoping to attract someone special.\u00c2\u00a0 After shooting a “my fiddle’s bigger than your fiddle” contest, Don Lewis caught a more pleasing encounter\u00c2\u00a0of a nubile female crab\u00c2\u00a0responding to\u00c2\u00a0the hopeful wave of a\u00c2\u00a0large male\u00c2\u00a0fiddle.<\/p>\n

\"fiddlers<\/a><\/p>\n

Right Clawed Male Fiddler Crab<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While a more amourous\u00c2\u00a0engagement may be expected later in the season as things both literally and figuratively warm up, this time the twosome strolled into the afternoon sun together as the female seemingly dosey doed (do-si-do’ed) under his large fiddle, and the two of them danced off into the marsh.<\/p>\n

\"fiddlers<\/a><\/p>\n

Female Fiddler Crab<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With a few more degrees of temperature and a little more sunlight, fiddler armies will soon be on the march at each low tide, gleening whatever organic residue they can acquire from the inter-tidal beach.\u00c2\u00a0 And before you know it, we’ll be watching the “Big Wave” sweep across the salt marsh as fiddles large and white sway in the rhythmic cadence of summer love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Closeup of a Male Fiddler Crab in Full Display\u00c2\u00a0 Despite a temporary\u00c2\u00a0slump in temperatures, spring remains in the air of Outer Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0With a little midday sunshine, minds, hearts and antics\u00c2\u00a0of all Nature’s critters soon turn to love; that\u00c2\u00a0is,\u00c2\u00a0once they shake off the yawns of winter slumber.\u00c2\u00a0 Waking first along beaches and salt marshes of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5635"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5658,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5635\/revisions\/5658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}