Piping Plovers at Sunrise! Wow, it appears to have been more than a year since I last posted a blog. In September we finally made a getaway! It was more of an 'Ultimate Homeschool Field Trip" for our son as we took advantage of homeschool rates at Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown Settlement Living Museum and The Revolutionary War Museum at Yorktown. Oh and we stopped at the Mariners Museum in New Port News, which turned out to be our son's favorite experience of the whole trip! At the last minute I decided to do two overnights on Assateague Island National Seashore for our anniversary. For this blog I am going to concentrate on the wonders of Assateague Island. I really wanted to be able to vlog the experience but didn't dare due to the requirement for YouTubers to have permits. I did not have time since permits have to be made at least two weeks in advance. In many cases I have heard of lots of other You Tubers waiting longer than that or not even getting a response to be able to get a permit from other National Parks. It is incredibly frustrating. It was nice to not worry about getting the perfect footage though and just photograph the scenery and wildlife. I don't think my husband really wanted to go. He kept telling me that a coworker used to camp there with his grandparents and never saw a horse. Note I was horse crazy even as a kid, but I was also interested in some of the other wildlife here. Assateague Island is known for its wild horses and is mentioned in the famous children's book Misty of Chincoteague. As soon as we entered the park we were greeted by a band of wild horses right there on the road! Being it was autumn and we had spent the day at the Mariners Museum and visiting a friend of my husband, the sun was just setting as we arrived! It was a scramble to find and set up our campsite on the beach, but man the views behind us were colorful! I could hardly wait to see the sunrise! That night we made a big mistake by not inflating our sleeping pads and just sleeping on the sand. It was much harder than it initially felt and made for a rough night. Luckily I rose to make a trip to the outhouse at the perfect time! Some bits of color were just beginning to paint the sky. I quietly told the guys I was getting up to photograph the sunrise and to my surprise our son jumped right up and came out with me. Hubby followed shortly there after. I had so much fun shooting the colors and waves as the sun rose. Our son watched the sand crabs and raced to and from the waves. He even collected shells to help me form a heart on the beach to photograph! Then I noticed some small shorebirds coming over to feed as the sun rose higher in the sky. This was my first time seeing and photographing Piping Plovers! These quick little birds are protected and what a pleasure it was to observe them! They are featured in the photo above. Click on photos to view larger. Then it was time for a quick breakfast. As I went to the car to arrange some gear before checking in and exploring I saw and photographed a little beach bunny hanging out by the out house and showers. My son had told me he had seen one while we were setting up the night before. Kind of funny I photograph in the backyard quite frequently and hundreds of miles away here is one on a beach. Another camper had also seen a fox on the beach a few nights before, but we did not have that pleasure. There was still lots of time before the camping office would open so we started exploring the island. There are a few different ecological areas on the island each with its own short trail. They were the story of the forest trail, the salt marsh and the Dunes area. I think we started at the forest area which had some small freshwater pools that the horses are known to drink from. Sadly we only ever so the horses right next to the roadways and not from any trails. Eventually the trails would end at the bay. We saw both Snowy and Great Egrets. After the Forest Trail we checked in to the campground and got maps as we had arrived after hours. The staff was real nice. From parking area I could see some birds in treetops with funny long beaks. I took a few snapshots and later identified them as Juvenile White Ibises. After the camping office we wandered the marsh trail. I told my son to be on the look out for turtles as there may be some different varieties from home. Well, he found a baby bottle, a plastic starfish and lots of trash. All I can say is do better people leave no trace! As we got closer to the bay more minnows and crabs could be seen in the water. Once at the end of the boardwalk we wandered along the shore of the bay, where we found of cluster of sea gulls and what I think were Royal Terns. The brochures said they were known to have Forsters Terns however in comparing my photos to my bird id book they are closer in appearance to a Royal Tern. They were kind of fun to photograph! We moved on when kiddo and the hubby got bored. Then further down along the boardwalk I finally spotted them, the Diamondback Terrapins and they were beautiful! I had never seen this type of turtle before. They looked to have mottled silvery blue skin with diamond shapes on their shells, not to mention their barnacle hitch hikers. There were three of them basking in the sun along the shoreline. One larger off more by itself and two smaller terrapins setting closer together. After a bit fourth one swam and almost seemed to ask if it could join them but he was not welcomed and a few moments later swam away. We saw an osprey fly over and a Little Blue Heron hunting in the distance. Then we made a visit to the visitor center to pick up JR Ranger Booklet and take advantage of the picnic area for lunch. We made a quick trip to Ocean City for groceries and hiked the Dunes Trail when we returned. The sandy trail was very hard on my hips and didn't produce any wildlife. We drove back towards the campsite and found the horses along the road and near the our site's parking area. We chatted with rangers and made sure to keep our 40 feet away from the horses. I should have changed to a shorter lens but I did get some intimate facial portraits of the horses. We returned to our campsite to rest and encourage the boy to fill out his Jr. Ranger Booklet. My husband disappeared for a while and when he returned I suggested walking the beach to photograph shore birds. We saw Brown Pelicans in flight and flocks of Piping Plovers. I probably gave someone a chuckle as I got down on my hands and knees to photograph and observe the behavior of the plovers. They were kind of mesmerizing as they chased and ran from the waves seeking its tasty deposits. My son appeared to be mimicking the birds as he to chased the waves and ran as they came crashing down. We walked down to where people had driven on to the beach with special permits before walking back to our site. It was getting dark when we got back to camp. We drove out to a picnic area too tired to lug the food to our campsite. We had wished that we had brought our kayaks the whole trip, but being hurricane season had opted not too. I saw rentals advertised but in our exploration learned that in September they were disappointingly only available weekends. While I made dinner my husbands buddy texted that we should hit the road asap, Tropical Storm Ophelia was due to hit the coast of Virginia and Maryland hard. Perhaps we had made the right decision about bringing the kayaks after all. After dinner we cleaned up. Everything not essential to sleeping was packed in the car and we headed to bed. We made sure to pump up our sleeping pads and tried to sleep. The boys seemed to sleep okay but stress, my abdominal pain and the wind kept me up most of the night. At 4am I desperately needed the bathroom. I was laying oceanside where the wind was beating down hard on the doors. No way I could get out of the tent without waking anyone. The wind grew worse and worse as I waited and tried to change our planned route. Finally I looked at my phone to determine when the full storm would hit. I didn't have much luck so I reached for my husbands phone to check the radar. The light woke my husband and determined we would immediately pack and leave. No one else appeared up or concerned. It took a while to take down the tent in the wind, but thankfully our son cooperated and had no issues helping to pack up at 5 am. Color was entering the sky for sunrise as we drove off and my heart ached to capture it one last time, but there was a lead foot on the gas pedal. The weather was beautiful the whole way back to New Yuck, but his buddy and the news proved we had made the right decision. Tensions had been high this part of trip. Both my husband and son's sleeping pads failed to hold air all night. If anyone knows of any reasonably priced sleeping pads that are both comfortable and long lasting drop us a line! Hope you enjoy the photos! |
Julie MetottNature Photographer, wife, mother, lover of outdoor adventure! Archives
November 2022
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