When visitors hear about ghost crabs for the first time, many think they are snipes. But here on the Outer Banks, ghost crabs are very real, (even if they sometimes are as elusive as mythical snipes)
When you go to the beach, you’ll see evidence of them all around, they live in the holes in the sand that speckle the beach. They almost never come out during day, but sometimes you will see them on overcast days.
If you really want to see one, you should walk the beach after sunset or right as it’s setting, and bring a flashlight. Suddenly, you’ll see a patch of sand move, but it’s not sand, it’s a sand colored ghost crab. Their almost perfect camouflage is how they earned that name.
Sometimes you can even find them under your house. Look for holes with little slash marks around them. These are the marks of ghost crabs legs.
Going out at night with a flashlight looking for ghost crabs is called “ghost crabbing”. It’s more fun to do it in groups, and don’t forget the camera!
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