Island beach wear. Crab style.

There's a dusting of snow on the lawn and shrubbery, and it's raining. And I'm thinking of summer. I've been keeping at the job of sorting all those stashed photos, and I've finally -- finally! -- finished culling and re-filing all the ones from our vacation in Campbell River.

I had blogged about many of them while we were there, but stacks got left for "later". Well, it's later, now.

I noticed, as we walked and stumbled across beaches all along that stretch of coast, how many different colours of crabs there were. They were mostly crabs that are common enough here at home, but ours dress in drab, camouflage coats. Not these!

Shore crab, orange-yellow molt.

Cream with green spots

Green with blue-black insert.

One white pincer, one brown. Black tips. I think it's a Red Rock crab.

Small Dungeness crab. Half and half, green and red.

On a bed of rich seaweeds, a cherry red Red Rock Crab molt.

A green shore crab, with yellow side patches.

White with green pincers and toes.

A purple shore crab molt, wearing orange and salmon pink  with cream polka dots.

I love this one; a green shore crab, in white, with bright eyes and a smile.

Brown and red, cuddling up to a cling fish in a similar pattern.

Yellow and green.

This little crab must have been ashamed of his boring all-green carapace, so he's covered with stuck-on sand grains. It looked really strange to see one patch of sand scuttling along on grey legs, while the rest lay there, doing what sand does.

If this snow/rain continues, I'll have more critters tomorrow.