After having my Ghost Crab sighting at Playalinda Beach, I’ve been keeping a closer eye out for different crabs when visiting Merritt Island.
I hit the jackpot along Eddy Creek when I came across hundreds of little Fiddler Crabs. There were so many, it was actually hard to focus in on just one or two with my long lens to get decent photos.
I have found out since my crab encounter that (1) males are the ones with the large claws, and (2) there are three different types of Fiddler Crabs in Florida:
- Sand fiddlers, which are usually yellowish white in color but males may have a purplish violet patch.
- Mud fiddlers, which are usually brown, sometimes whitening to pale gray but can often display blue to blue-green.
- Red-jointed or brackish water Fiddlers, which are are chestnut brown and become gray in front with red spots.
I found this information about Fiddler Crabs at the Friends of Barefoot Beach Preserve website, in their Fiddler-Crab guide section. There’s good information there about how important Fiddler Crabs are to marsh and sand beaches in Florida.
