Some birds and crustaceans on north beach

On Friday I took a few minutes off to check out north beach. I think this is the first time I have been there during the day.

north beach with dead palm tree trunk with roots

There were bristle-thighed curlews and Pacific golden plovers on the beach

2 bristle-thighed curlews & 3 Pacific golden plovers
Numenius tahitiensis & Pluvialis fulva, respectively

and in the air.

bristle-thighed curlews in flight
Numenius tahitiensis

There are hermit crabs in all of the shells in this photo. They were all munching on this seed from Neisosperma oppositifolia (no common name), but when my shadow passed over them, they all synchronously dropped off the seed and retracted into their respective shells.

dinner interrupted -- hermit crabs around a Neisosperma oppositifolia seed

I wasn't fast enough with my camera to catch this crab before it mostly disappeared into the drain. You can still see some of the crab's legs dangling from the hole. The drain is a remnant of construction done when the atoll was occupied by the military during WWII.

crab legs dangling from drain hole