Gotcha

There was a confronting scene on the shores of North Creek, Ballina, today. A Sacred Kingfisher captured a Soldier Crab, and carried it off to work out what to do with it. 

The first extra shows a close-up of a Soldier Crab. Not the same one; there was a vast army of them on the sand flats at low tide. 

Since there were so many crabs (extra 2, which shows just a small platoon of the massive army), and they appeared so easy to catch, I wondered why there was not a huge flock of kingfishers preying on them. Maybe they are not good eating! 

Extra 3 is another view of the Sacred Kingfisher. Wikipedia says that the name 'sacred' refers to a tradition among some Pacific Island peoples that the birds have religious significance.