Sand crabs

A few more Kauai pictures today, taken on a somewhat overcast day when I noticed movement on the sand as I watched the ocean from our second-story lanai. I parked myself on the ground not too far from one of the freshly-dug holes that dotted the beach, and luckily the rain held off long enough for me to photograph some sand crabs—all I had to do was to stay still and wait for them to emerge:



As you can see, the sand on Kauai is much coarser than what those of us who grew up visiting Atlantic-facing beaches are used to, and as a result the crabs have adapted to the point where their coloring camouflages them almost perfectly:



With the crab in the above image edged a bit further out of its hole, you can see that one claw is significantly larger than the other; I presume the smaller one is a regrowth in process:



A look at the back of a crab as it makes its way back down into its burrow:



A wider shot to help provide a sense of how well the crabs blend into the landscape unless you get pretty close to them:



And one last shot of a crab in all its glory: