Best Crab Spawn in Years

CMBO's Peak of the Red Knots field trip encountered Larry Niles, Mandy Dey, Clive Minton and the rest of the international shorebird team at Cook's Beach just as they were about to attempt a catch. Soon the cannon net boomed and birds were being processed and released.

Crab spawning has been excellent and egg densities are the highest they have been in years, though Larry and Clive caution that a lot of that has to do with the excellent, stable weather pattern that had been holding through the past several days, rather than an increase in crab numbers. Crab eggs were readily visible laying on the surface of the sand at Cook's Beach, and some of the Red Knots looked positively huge, an impression that was borne out by the weights of the knots caught this morning, some of which exceeded 200 grams.