Wildlife...

After Wilma, I got to see the hermit crabs go shell-shopping. It was fascinating to watch them cruise over the drifts of sea detritus washed onshore, in search of the perfect new home. Clearly "a man's home is his castle" doesn't apply just to homo sapiens if the care these hermit crabs put into shell selection was any measure.

Storms are Big Events in the life of the island inhabitants. Two days ago, it rained for the first time since I've been here. I was on my way out to clean the composting toilets, and decided rain could be a good thing. I like getting wet. Moreover, at that time of the day they are brutally hot. You're guaranteed to lose 5 lbs, get heat stroke, or both. Of course it would be even worse later in the day... So I sauntered out into the brisk rain, taking care not to move too rapidly. I wanted to enjoy the wet. When I arrived at the loos and went round to access the cleaning supplies, I was greeted by an unusual sight. Hundreds of hermit crabs, of every conceivable description all hanging out in the drifts of sea grape leaves. I looked a bit further, and they were festooning the branches of the sea grape. As I stood there admiring the staggering variety of shells, and sizes--everything from a half-inch shell to one the size of a softball, MORE of them appeared. Finally there were so many I called Logan, one of the SOAR counselors, who was camping for R&R over to admire them.

I've had this theory that the island is really ruled by the hermit crabs, and we're tolerated. The first time I came camping, the island was covered with people tracks when I went to sleep. When I woke up early the next morning, all the footprints had been covered over by hermit crab tracks. That took a LOT of hermit crabs, moving round all night. So far they haven't carried anyone off--that we know of.

Thirty minutes after it started, the rain had stopped, the loos were clean, I didn't have heat stroke, --but I was nearly dry again. The hermit crabs were nowhere to be seen. For a desert island, this place has an amazing variety of wildlife, all well adapted to capitalize on available resources. Utterly fascinating.