Nature Study: Animal Tracks, Sea Gulls, & Fiddler Crabs

My family took a short vacation to Skidaway Island State Park in Georgia this week. We camped and hiked at the state park, visited the nature center, observed birds with some binoculars, explored Savannah, and also took a couple of trips over to Tybee Island Beach. One of the ideas suggested for this week's Outdoor Hour Nature Study Challenge was to search for animal tracks, so we decided a nature trail at the Skidaway Island State Park would be a great place to look!



The path was mostly sandy, although parts were also covered with boardwalks and bridges. The trees overhead were absolutely covered in Spanish Moss!

The first signs of animal life that we found along the trail were some holes in the ground, with piles of sand standing nearby.



Further investigation showed us that the holes belonged to crabs! Fiddler crabs!


You can tell they are Fiddler crabs because the males have one very large claw which they hold somewhat like a fiddle.


Here's a Fiddler Crab coming out of his den.


Next we came upon some tracks on the path. Maybe these are dog tracks? We did see several dogs go by. We were amazed at how deep the claws sunk into the sand!




This photo appears to have one track (the bigger one) facing left, and a smaller track facing right.






At one place, we were able to get off the trail and explore the wet sandy beach a bit closer! We found lots of snails and crabs here! We also saw some ducks across the river.

Here's a crab leg we found as we headed back to the main path.


Later that afternoon, we headed over to Tybee Island Beach. We searched for tracks there too.


Can you guess what types of tracks these are (photo above and below)?



Have you made your guess?


If you guessed Sea Gull tracks, you're correct!

There were sea gulls everywhere! They moved as a huge flock, from place to place along the beach.

Here are some other tracks we found on the beach at Tybee Island.

It appears to me that this photo has tracks from two different type of animals on it.



It was also suggested that we study one or more mammals this week. We looked up some information about raccoons, hoping to see one while camping. We didn't see a live raccoon on this trip, but found one on display at the nature center at Skidaway Island State Park.



Oh, I almost forgot to mention this part! Although we didn't see the guilty critter who did this, we suspect it was a raccoon who tried to get into our small canvas cooler in the middle of the night one night. He knocked the cooler onto the ground and put three small teeth marks into the side. He was not successful in getting in to the cooler this time.

I do recall watching a raccoon open a cooler when I was a child. My family had already gotten into the tent for the night, when I heard a noise and peeked out. There was a raccoon, up on our picnic table, opening our cooler! He simply turned the locking mechanism and opened our cooler, with no more effort than a human! On another trip, I remember turning around just in time to see a raccoon stealing a hot steak off of a lit grill! Raccoons must be pretty clever!