It’s day two and we arrived at Middle Caye in Glovers Reef Atoll.  Surprisingly for waking up at 5 am, I’m still energetic about everything we are doing. Sadly my camera broke today, so I will be using others’ photos or mooching off their camera.

To get to Glovers Reef we took a bus to Belize City and then a 3 hour boat ride.  On the bus, I saw another Great Heron in a marshy area of the savannah. It was bobbing around and moving in circles, but I wasn’t able to view it for long enough to see what exactly it was trying to do.  Also as soon as we hit water, I noticed dozens of Brown Pelicans pitched on the dock or wading in water looking for fish.

Once we got to Glovers I suddenly realized that crustaceans, and specifically crabs, are everywhere and it would not be too difficult to find them.  There is literally a trail called hermit crab trail where land hermit crabs just wonder around.  The largest I encountered was around the size of a softball and the smallest was smaller than a quarter.  My encounters of them have usually consisted of me noticing them and the crabs scurrying into the bushes.  The smallest one I saw was a pale color which confirms what I have heard that juveniles are light while adults are red.

When we went snorkeling on a patch reef I found a Spiny Spotted Lobster.  It was in the middle of a patch reef hidden beneath a covering.  I was able to see it from a hole above and below.  Since they are usually nocturnal it was not really doing anything, only slightly moving with my movements.

The night belonged to the Blue Land Crabs. They are surprisingly large and not too afraid of humans.  The crabs came out of the underbrush.  I made a friend with one and named him crabby (not very original). He started walking towards me and when I walked towards him he jut continued.  It looked as if it wanted to figure out what I was.  After 5 minutes it finally scurried away.  I am currently in the mini library here and I fully expect to see more on my walk back to my room. I am excited to see what other creatures I can find in the next few days!