Both my husband and I took the day off from work to go crabbing – I was looking for an excuse to play *hooky* and he offered. It was a beautiful day today – hot, but without the humidity that has been so oppressive all week. Our usual spot to crab is from a little bridge over the Swimming River in Red Bank – further down the river past the railroad bridge you see in the pic this river becomes the Navesink, five miles or so downriver is Sandy Hook Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Crabbing requires little investment or preparation, but is a very repetitive pastime. We set up twenty or so traps across the span of the bridge, excepting the middle part of the bridge where our trap lines would interfere with the boat channel below. I watched and took pictures at this point, rather than handle the bait (fish or raw chicken) – left that yuckiness to my DH and his brother. The rest is easy – check the trap every so often, lifting it from the bottom hand-over-hand, and seeing what you’ve caught. There is a 4 1/2-inch minimum size, measured point to point across the back and we throw back any females we catch.

The majority of what we caught today were too small to keep, and these little ones usually fall out of the trap as you pull it out of the water. The keepers present somewhat of a challenge to me, as they often just won’t be flipped into the bushel basket like a cooperative crab ought to. Instead, they find something to hold onto and won’t let go. Shaking the whole trap works, but then you have a crab running around your Teva-sandaled feet. My husband just catches them under his shoe, but he wears steel-toed boots. Crabs can pinch painfully, even drawing blood, and the claws should definitely be avoided!

Here my husband is demonstrating to me the proper technique for holding a crab by the base of one of its swimming appendages called “swimmerets” or “paddles” located at the rear of the shell. My husband tells me the big, snapping male blue claws aren’t able to reach around and nip a finger this way. Once you have a hold of them and are sure the size is big enough and that it’s a male you can then flip it into the basket. Adding a crab into the bushel causes the others to scurry around threateningly – that snapping, lunging mass is no place for your hand! You have to keep the basket in the shade and the crabs moist with a wet towel, but they’ll live with proper ventilation for a few hours until you get them home to the pot.

We ended the day with 50 or so keepers for my husband’s mom and terrific sunburns. My shoulders and the backs of my knees are red like a lobster – sleeping should be interesting for the next few nights.

If you’ve followed the comments on my bad photo post, you might’ve noted that Pam from Tortoise Trail did a little work on the photos. I thought it might be interesting to share the results of her *playing* – hope you don’t mind, Pam!

It feels a bit like cheating to post the same photos twice, but I think you’ll agree that these images are hardly the same. I’m amazed with what photo-processing software can accomplish. I routinely use a basic processing program that is free with my ISP to crop and brighten some of my photos, but I had considered these photos beyond my skills for repair. I also use PhotoShop once in a blue moon to play around with and soften a pic, but that program is so very complicated; learning to use it seems daunting. Being a lover of books, I would really appreciate it if someone out there could suggest a practical guide to improving digital pics – let me know if there is a book that has been helpful to you.

Pam also made a guess at the last (and worst) bird photo. She guessed Seaside Sparrow, but I think it’s a Salt Marsh Sharp-Tailed Sparrow. Patrick is that right?

I haven’t blogged much about birds lately, partly because most of my attempts at photos to accompany an idea for a post don’t turn out well. So, for your amusement, I’ll share some – from bad to worse to really terrible.

Chickadee with young red maple leaves; too dark

Fledgling house wren, too dark again

Great egrets. Lovely birds, busy photo

Just yuck.

Close-up (!) view of a Chestnut-sided warbler butt

Is there even a bird in this pic? Kudos to you if you find it!

Horrible pic of a nice marsh bird. Any guesses? The lores will give it away, I’m sure!

Hal Borland says the bumblebee is “an exponent of the easy life and an example of moderation in most matters” – they are somewhat social, occasionally will collect honey to store in waxen jugs, and are generally even-tempered and not likely to sting. Being long-tongued bees they are able to pollinate clover and alfalfa and will often nest nearby or in old field-mouse dens. In my yard they favor the swamp milkweed (pictured above), bee balm, and later in the season the Joe Pye Weed. Last summer a bumblebee colony was very active beneath one of the pieces of slate near the entrance to the pond – I often sat nearby and watched their comings and goings. On very hot days, groups of bumblebees were found at the various entrance tunnels fanning their wings to keep the colony below cool. Early in the evening today many were napping. Hanging upside down beneath a milkweed blossom or under the big leaves of a pokeweed plant.

Red Bank has one of the biggest fireworks displays in NJ and it draws nearly 200,000 people to this one-mile square town. Traffic and parking are hellish, but the last few years we’ve been lucky enough to be invited to a party on the river to enjoy the show. The masses of people are centered in two parks on the river, boats come from everywhere for a close-up view, and the people who live in nearby towns (like us) hope to know someone or come up with a creative solution to seeing the fireworks while avoiding the crowds. We’ve seen them from just about every vantage point along the river, but this house has a terrific view and an even nicer party, plus at least 200 or so others to mingle with.

I brought along my camera hoping to get a few pics of the show, but discovered how difficult it would be without a tripod. I have one, but wasn’t about to lug it along. Anyway, the sunset pics turned out okay for my first attempt.

We spent today trying to stay cool and decided to try some crabbing from one of the bridges over the river. Neither my husband or I really like to eat crab, but my mother-in-law loves it, so we go for her. It was fun and there was a nice breeze by the water most of the afternoon. For every nice-sized crab we caught, we must have thrown back at least 20 little ones. We also caught a Spider Crab, which neither of us had ever seen before – according to what I found online, they’re pretty common “walking-crabs” who are cousins of the Alaskan King Crab. Ugly things, but very docile compared to the blue claws! We were caught in a terrific thunderstorm which made me glad I didn’t bring along my camera.

There were a lot of birds distracting me from the crab traps – laughing gulls, egrets, terns, cormorants, and even a few black-crowned night herons along the banks of the river. Surprised to have not seen any Osprey, but for some reason there aren’t any nesting platforms along this stretch of river. As we were leaving with the tide going out, chimney swifts were chattering overhead and thunderclouds were threatening again. A nice way to spend the 4th!