Day 28, Sat. April 39, 2016 at Chincoteague Island.

Day 28, Sat. April 39, 2016 at Chincoteague Island.

The opportunity to see the horses of Assateague Island do not come often. That is, to see them up so close that you could almost touch them.So we did take that opportunity when the NWR  offered the chance to take a bus out to where they roam and see them as close. The “service road” runs into the middle of the Island. That road is seven miles from the public areas and where the horses are free to roam with no interference from vehicles. (You are allowed to walk there) NOTE: the Island is pronounced 'SHIN-KO-TEEK'

THis is where we are on the East Coast ...north of Norfolk
and south of Cape May, NJ. (See the compass?)

The bus that tookus to the 'hnterland' to see
the wild horses of Assateague.

We did sign up for that bus  ride ($12.00 ea. was well worth the price) and departed the Visitor Center at 10:00 AM sharp. ‘Affable’ Steve was our guide and narrator and was entertaining as well as helpful in knowing what is what on the Island and wth the horses. (He admitted he does have trouble with  “there’s a horse at 1:00”,  when he meant to say “11:00 o’clock”. I asked him if he was ever in the Navy and he said yes, but he does know “port” from “starboard”.) 

The trees from the 'Noreaster' and Hurricane show damage
to thousands of acres.

Continuous damage along this 'service road' for miles

The trees that they lost this year is astronomical from a ‘Noreaster' storm and a Hurricane (Juaquin) earlier. The photos show some the damage to the pine trees. Pine Beetle destruction also is getting many of the trees, so they are in a great need of restoration here. (See yesterday’s post for beach erosion and run off) 

I will merely show photos of the horses and the trees and a few birds as we did more searching later in the day.

There are two foals in ths photo. Can you find them?

When they saw the bus, they hustled right over.

They are free to roam the Island with some boundaries
so they don't go to Maryland!

They came as close as the bus.

The horses, in July, swim across the narrow channel to Chincoteague and the ponies are sold at auction. Many of them these days bring as much as $30,000  each, in recent years. One of the ladies on the bus belonged to the Women’s League in NJ,  bought one last year and then returned it to the Island in order to preserve the the lineage of the horse on the island. That one went for $25,000.

A Tri Colored Heron.

A Tri Colored Heron with two Snowy Egrets

This Common Tren stayed on the bridge railing as we passed.

The birding was good today and we did see a few on the bus  even though we did get off the bus (30 people) only once. We now are at 128 birds and saw three new species today.  (INDIGO BUNTING (by the visitor center), A BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERON (on the bus ride) , and a LEAST TERN.)

One final note. The erosion has created a project that will build permanent barriers. These below are oyster blocks that will be doused with "oyster splat" that are oyster seeds when they start to grow. This in turn will build a bed of oysters (non commercial) and hence a wall or barrier to keep the inundation from  the dikes.

These are the oyster "blocks" that will be sunk in the water
 to start the oyster beds. Then the "splat" will be poured over them
 to start the oysters.  This will in time (3 years) start to build
the oyster bed barrier for the dikes.

The dark blocks that you see in the line beyond the boat
are the oyster blocks that have already been sunk in the water.
This is the start of the oyster beds.

Tomorrow we will take the 70 mile ride to the north end of Assateague Island where the Maryland herd of horses live.(Assateague is divided at the Virginia and Maryland line).

Rain is expected but the sun came out today and fooled the weather forecasts.  Who knows?

Day 27 Friday April 29, 2016, At Chincoteague Island VA

Assateague Channel where the horses swim across in July
with the ponies that are sold at Auction. The local
Fire Department maintains all services with that Auction $.

Day 27 Friday April 29, 2016, At Chincoteague Island VA

Yes , we are camping at the Island made famous partly by the book “MIsty of Chincoteague”.  Although the ponies are popular , the wildlife is abundant and the birding was excellent as we continue to wait for the warblers to arrive. I think they are two weeks away and should just make that window when we stay at Cape May  (NJ) in two weeks..

Speaking of "Misty" we should report that it has been two "misty" days in a row here.

Today was good birding and if you look out our front door (we have two doors of course!), you can see the Island about 1,000 yards across the marsh. The Assateague Lighthouse is in full view as well. A good view helps make for pretty fine camping, I’d say. (I’ll photograph that tomorrow)

The lighthouse is an old one for sure. 

A view on a cloudy day, of the Assateague Lighthouse.

The entry just next to our campground is across a short causeway. It is the Bay that the ponies swim across
in July for the Auction.

So, that is where we started today with hopes for some good shorebird counts. The Island is both a NWR AND a National Park called Assateague National Seashore .It is a collaboration between the two agencies. The National Park Service holds 448 acres in the NWR, and cooperates with parking, facilities and maintenance. One of the features (and we will see more of this) is the completely “green” facilities  in each of the buildings including “dry toilets” that save about 40,000 gallons of water per year. Good stuff!

The Beach Visitor Center has been moved three times
due to erosion and wind.

The crews have been working since February to restore the
 road to the Search and Rescue station (defunct)  from
the Hurricane Juaquin that covered the road and moved
the dunes over the old road.

The Main Visitor Center is the Admonistration Building
 as well as an Educational center.

A stop at both centers for visitors is advised and we did. It helps to get information that is useful for a person’s style of visit. For instance we talked with the manager (who has been there 27 years) about bird movement and possibilities. She was a wealth of information about the season, climate change (they see the effect), bird count changes, and what is there at present and what will still come.

There are many trails and we did take one to the Lighthouse at least for photos. Other than that there are trails with one large one that is used only for non-licensed vehicles until 3:00 PM when autos can travel that Loop. We did that and were able to add to the day’s count with 9 new species. The loop surrounded a very large pool (combination of water and reeds and marsh) where hundreds of birds were feeding on at the shallow water found there.  There are besides the ubiquitous Egrets, many Dunlin, Sanderling, Skimmers, Sandpipers, Godwits, Ibis,  a few Plovers, Heron and a Yellow Billed cuckoo for extra measure. 44 birds in all and a count that is now at 125 species. Watching hundreds of bird fly in “formation” and quickly change direction and stay in “formation” is one of natures great shows.

Short Billed Dowitchers and a Red Knot in the center

Mostly Snowy Egrets that were plentiful.

A close up of a Forster's Tern

The results of the Hurricane force winds were clearly seen in
many parts of the Refuge.

A Fish Crow is separated from a Common Crows by the voice
which is a "geer" call. 

A group of Marbled Godwits resting up for the rest of the
trip "up north"

In order to clean up the logs and debris , some scraps are left
to rot naturally in the soil.

Before the gates opened at 3:00PM for autos into the Loop, we did a short trip into Chincoteague for a “tourist” time in some stores and of course the “ISLAND CREAMERY”, for one or two of their fabulous 50 flavors of homemade ice cream. Jim was a glutton and had two flavors under his hot fudge (Coffee and Cherry Jubilee) while Ruth settled for a cone of Mint Chocolate. It took Jim a while to down that huge, two dip sundae. These were very large scoops.

We returned to the Loop and finished the day with more birds. No Eagles although there is one on the Island as well as no Osprey  today, either.

Tomorrow we will take the NWR’s “Bus Trek”  that will get to the “hinterland” on the long service road  that leads into the “horse and pony” country. More birds are likely. Enjoy the photos  posted today.

Day 26 Thursday 4-28-16 At Chincoteague Island,VA

There are just three birding sites left to visit and camp, and about three weeks to do it. The month of May is just around the corner and we are now in Virginia , albeit for just 4 days. This is the Island of Chincoteague, the Island of the legendary “ponies of Chincoteague” or for those of you who may have had read “Misty of Chincoteague” with your children…the same place. It was ironic that as we were one mile from the campsite that the draw bridge to the Island started flashing the red light …”Stop” …and we were first to stop for the draw bridge to open for a boat to pass under.

But let’s go back to the stop at the strawberry market  where they were picking strawberries early this morning after a fresh rain last night. Fortunately that rain stopped about 4 AM and has not started again, but it looks like a rainy weekend here on the East Coast of Virginia

Gullifer's Market  with fresh Strawberries.

YUM. Strawberries fresh from the field.

The drive to this Island  brought us into Virginia Beach and just outside Norfolk where the long and beautiful Chesapeake Bay Bridge/tunnel is located. The road from North Carolina,  (615) is a very winding , two lane with NO shoulders at all, (sort of like those Kentucky coal mining area roads if you have ever travelled them) with many trucks hauling gravel from a huge gravel pit on that road. The speed limit is posted at 55 only a few times and at 35 and 45 the rest of the way. The curves (some) are posted at 25 mph and that is how they should be travelled. This continued all the way into Virginia Beach, about 30 miles that seems much longer. Ruth guessed that we had travelled 80 miles, I can see why. It was slow and “wine-dee”.

We stopped briefly to pick up some food goods, and continued to the bridge on General Booth Highway. Who was General Booth? Hmm I’ll have look that one up. HA. Easy one. General William Booth founder of the Salvation Army and great evangelist and preacher. Anyway, that road took us along the Navy’s Oceana Air Station, and their Amphibious Base on the shores at Virginia beach. In 2009 both Fort Story (Army) and the Amphib. Base were merged into one unit called Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek Fort Story. They combine operations and missions. When we were in Morehead city last week we visited Radio Island, and  we now know that it is a part of this joint operations.

A painting on the wall of a building (see the corner)  in Virginia Beach
which includes a very famous warship. Can you
name it or ID  it by it's number  #65 (CVN)?

Entry to tunnel number one on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The road is now two lane and the road narrower.

The general look of the roadway on the bridge.

We did approach the Chesapeake  Bay bridge but ’twas amazing how wide it is.(Pulling a trailer has its trepidation) Two lanes that were actually about two to three feet wider than highway 615 was earlier in the day. It was not very good visibility as the fog and light mist limited that. The two tunnels , however, were two lanes with one lane going each way.  IT took a few seconds f adjustment to get the ”feel” after all that width. Each tunnel is one mile long , going down 1/2 mile and of course coming up 1/2 mile.

At the north end of the bridge is a small natural Island that has been reserved for wildlife and along the shore we could see the ubiquitous “Do not walk on beach” signs put there by the Fish and Wildlife Service, for the nesting bird protection. (Likely Snowy Plovers and others). The road on the north side of the bridge became a very smooth blacktop road with wide shoulders and although there were some traffic lights, we moved along nicely, usually, at 55 mph.

I talked Ruth into trying our first stop at a “Bojangles” fast food restaurant. We had seen them but never stopped in. Ruth said the chicken and biscuits were better than she had at KFC. I had the Cajun Club Chicken and it was very tasty and but not as ‘hot’ as I imagined.  We felt that we would come back again.We were looking for  “Chick Fila” but found none. 

So, that led us to the last turn at VA 175 as we headed for Wallops Island NASA Center and beyond that Chincoteague Island and the drawbridge. (Story on Wallops Island later the week) 

The drawbridge goes up! Note we did stop
when the light went red!

The boat goes under 

The bridge starts down.

Almost ready to go. The gates go up but the light is still red!

We set up camp, and as the temps began to plunge into the 50’s (It is 51F at this writing at 9:30 PM,) we turned on the heat for awhile. Supper was ‘subdued’ (less calories) as we had just eaten at 1:30, so I  had some of the chicken pot pie leftovers from “Pungo Bar and Grill”  the night before, and Ruth settled for even less. We both had one of the Sweet Potato pies that we were given at Bojangles. (Meal Deal).

As the rest of  the week is supposed to be rainy, we will probably restrict our birding to the truck by the side of the road. It is just  1/2 mile to Assateague island (just looking outside our trailer window .) 

  More  Blog tomorrow and I hope you are all well whereever you are reading from, in the world. Feel free to make a comment in the comment portion of the Blog.

Dy 25  Wed. April 27, 2016 At Sandy Point campground, NC

Sometimes when we are on birding trips and, we have been on many of them, we often go back to the same area a second day. This is mostly to attempt to find different birds, as there is no way they can all be seen on the same day. It just doesn’t work like that. So today was one of those days. We returned to the two main roads in Mackay NWR and stayed a bit longer in the wooded portions and less in the open marsh areas.

The result of the “second chance” was very good as we finally saw the KING RAIL,  a very elusive and furtive bird, which even the Rail “counters” often don’t see. We were returning from the end of the road , and I saw a bird a long way off in the road. Binoculars brought it into view and the “chicken like” stature of the bird led us to believe it was a Rail. We were able to get closer to  confirm the identification, as it headed toward the edge of the grass and a canal. Then it flew across the canal and disappeared in the reeds. What a thrill that was. Ruth and I gave each other  a “high five” in our excitement.

A great close up of  Double Crested Cormorant.

There are those geese in the Safflower again.

A better photo of the Blue Grosbeak

Brown Thrasher 

Orchard Oriole, (We saw two of them.)

The Bluebird was very drab we thought.

The Wood Duck (male) on the Nesting Box

t was less than 5 minutes later when we spotted a bird on top of a Wood Duck nesting box. (The NWR has more than 200 of them here along many of the marsh edges.) There is a canal at that point, where they can go into the water immediately. We knew that getting too close would spook the bird, so we drove very slow and stopped three or four times. Taking photos even at that distance was minimal. We did get a “representative “ shot and immediately the male flew and was followed by the female who was in the box. Another thrill. Wood ducks are very furtive , but also spook easily when movement is too close. That is why they choose small shallow ponds amid the trees and woods, which are usually away from movement of people, vehicles and other interference.

Ruth and I purchased  many years ago, a National Wildlife refuge stamp book. At each of the centers for the Wildlife Refuges we get it stamped with Refuge’s stamp. Today we did get Mackay NWR stamp. WE have visited more than 100 NWR and have the stamps for most of them.

The story that I promised the people on Face Book, happened last night. It is meant to be as an observation and not “snooping” on folks. It was entertaining and I would easily have talked to the folks about it. (They left today)  Ruth and I were eating supper, but Ruth could not see that family from her vantage point, but I could. I narrated this to her.   A car pulled up a few 100 feet from our site, and a woman (30),  her “mother” and a small child got out and pulled all the equipment out of the trunk of the car. They spread out on the ground,  two big tent like structures. The grandmother sat in a chair and we imagined that she was the “child sitter” . The younger woman proceeded to spread out the tent and look for the rods that hold this modern tent together. It was evident that she had either put this tent up once maybe, or never at all. IT was slow and she walked around it a lot. Ruth commented that “Maybe she should read the directions”.  About then …Yes , she did find the directions in the red bag, and stood to read them. It took a few minutes. She began to find the rods, put them together and began inserting them in the proper sleeves.. The grandmother came by to check everyone in a while.  She did not assist.We wondered if there was no man involved here? The young woman persisted and not long after that she had some tent above the ground. I commented , that I wondered if they were waiting for a male member of the family to arrive? Soon I told Ruth that the tent was taking shape and in a few more minutes it was all up and she had competed the assembly of the tent. Then the other tent was assembled (smaller) in a few minutes. That one had been put up before I am sure. A few minutes after that was competed, the husband showed up and walked around to check everything out.  Just like a man. (Of course he was probably at work, or delayed just enough for her to complete the job.) I was sorry they just stayed one night as I did want to congratulate her.  (End of story)

One of the short trails we took today.
It is around a small lake. I am sure there are
Cottonmouth snakes there.

The road that leads into the marsh. Good birding along these woods.

Our lunch spot for the past two days. A Common Yellowthroat
makes its nest here and sang all during lunchtime.

One of the many historical markers seen in NC.

Our evening meal was here at this establishment.
It was noisy, and smoky but had very good food.
Be thankful for smokless restaurants.

Tomorrow we head for Chincoteague Island and Assateague Island. Camping on the former and visiting the latter.  They are only a few hours from here. Maybe you have read the book “Misty of Chincoteague”? It is about a girl and the horses there.