A Dunlin and two Short-billed Dowitchers, all in breeding plumage, wait for Horseshoe Crabs to lay eggs. Horseshoe Crabs are prehistoric arthropods more closely related to scorpions than crabs. Each female crab can lay multiple egg clusters per season totaling tens of thousands of eggs. When the crabs come ashore, the birds congregate to feed on the newly laid eggs. The second image shows two Horseshoe Crabs near where the birds wait. Only a small fraction of the tens of thousands of eggs laid by each female survives, some lost to the whims of the sea, many gobbled up by hungry shorebirds.