Tonight we took Hazel to the little portion of beach behind our street, (picture our building on a narrow spit of land, on one side is the famous Coney Island amusement park and boardwalk, this is the other,)

It is surprisingly healthy, I have seen hermit crabs, periwinkles, fish, and a good assortment of sea birds.

Best, best of all-- horseshoe crabs come there to mate! They come in the dark of the moon, to the sand where they were hatched. Then they lay their eggs in the sand just before the full moon. When the full moon and the high tide come together, the eggs are carried out to sea.

This system has been working just fine for about 200 million years. No need for tinkering or improvement,

And I saw them--- right at the end of my city street. Mike and I counted 5 of them, early arrivals, the males perhaps. They were big as dinner plates.

We both love horseshoe crabs, so we were pretty thrilled. Soon the females will arrive and lay about 64,000 eggs each.

Son has invited his girl to a viewing when the moon is dark.

Anyway, all that is hard to get a picture of. So here are Mr and Mrs swan. Same beach. They were not pleased to see Hazel. She was too ignorant to fear them.