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It’s the biggest concentration in the world, according to Matt Pelligrine, a naturalist at Cape May Point State Park.
Each female crab lays thousands of tiny green eggs in the sand, and following the crabs are vast flocks of small shorebirds and seagulls feasting on the eggs, Pellegrine said.
It happens every May and lasts into June, sometimes early July.
Huge female crabs drag one or more males ashore to “nest.” The eggs incubate in the sand and hatch the next full moon — one month later — if they don’t get eaten by birds.
Birds fly four days nonstop to the Delaware Bay to feast on horseshoe crab eggs, Pelligrine said.
Then they fly nonstop to the Bay of Fundy in Canada, feast again and spread out across the Arctic to nest.
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