11/05/99 Wildlife Viewing On Assateague Island:
Yesterday I headed south on route 50 from Cambridge and picked up the signs to Assateague Island just short of Ocean City, MD (typical seashore tourist trap). A 0.25 mile bridge spans Sinepuxant Bay, connecting the 50 mile long barrier island to the mainland.
The Maryland State Park, closed for the winter, is on the other side of the bridge with signs pointing to Assateague Island National Seashore, which is open with $10 tent sites with no water and with chemical toilets because they've turned the water off for the season.
Halfway across the bridge in the afternoon you're likely to see horses grazing in the marshland and as soon as you get to the other side of the bridge there will be horse shit everywhere. Horses and deer will be found grazing along the side of the roads also so you don't have to go far to find them.
I've heard/read two accounts on how the horses (pony size) got here. One story says they swam ashore from a wrecked Spanish ship in the 1500's. The other says farmers brought them over in the 1700's for grazing and to avoid taxes. In any case they've adapted very well and number in the 170's.
My campsite was tucked away amongst closely bunched chaparral type vegatation with a 15-20 foot sand dune separating me from the Atlantic Ocean.
Shortly after setting up camp I took a walk along the boardwalk up and over the sand dune and immediately saw 15-20 dolphins or porpoises stretched out over 0.25 miles a couple of hundred feet off shore and heading south along the coast.
My only experience with dolphins was with Flipper on TV and he was gray. These were black or nearly so. What's the difference between dolphins and porpoises?
In Maine this past summer, I had different sightings of what I assumed to be porpoises. They always appeared to be alone, were smaller than the ones I saw here, they only seemed to surface once (because they were feeding?), and I only saw them because each tine they surfaced right where I happened to be looking. They blended right in with the water.
The ones here were much larger than the ones in Maine, surfaced continuously (because they were traveling?), sometimes splashing, and of course there were a whole bunch of them. (11/8: These were probably bottlenosed dolphins which migrate past this part of this coast. Most have already migrated south by this time of the year (wouldn't you?) but some are still moving as late as December).
This is my first time camping on sand. The first thing I did after setting up the tent in a stiff wind was to tie the tent to the picnic table. I already lost a good tarp to wind this week and don't want the tent to go sailing across the Atlantic when the stakes pull up.
I only have 9" tent stakes and the recommendation is 15" in sand, preferably made out of wood. Pie plates have been suggested. You stick a cord through one, tie a stick to prevent it coming out and bury it a foot or so in the sand and attach it where you normally have your tent stakes.
Switching to daylight savings time has really screwed me up because it almost dark at 5pm. I'm starting to have supper around 4:30 so I can eat while it's still light out and before it starts getting cold. When it gets dark, my body starts to shut down and wants to go to bed. I have to start making some adjustments for that.
I took my morning walk a little earlier this morning at 6:30am. As soon as I came out of my little campsite thicket I saw a doe lying under a bush out of the wind. I ducked back into the tent to get the camera and she was awake when I looked again. I was able to get a picture off at about 50 feet with her looking at me.
5 minutes later I saw another doe and a couple of minutes later a young buck with at least 4 points.
A little farther on I glanced across some marsh to a small cove and saw 7 blue herons all scrunched up, sound asleep. There may have been more but my view was limited and I couldn't walk through the marsh because of the water.
Next I saw something about 150 yards ahead along the side of the road. My first thought was it was a large Labrador dog. Then it moved and I didn't know what it was. It was too large for a dog, too small for a horse and too heavy to be a white tail deer.
It was dark brown in color, had the chest and neck of an elk and the head and antlers of a mountain goat. When I got within 50 yards of it, it saw me and took off across the road and I saw it also had a big white butt. It didn't run like a horse, or leap like a deer. It hopped like a four legged kangaroo on a pogo stick, all legs off the ground at the same time.
Whaddya mean, what have I been smoking? When I gave that description to a park ranger he laughed and said it was a Sika deer imported from Japan before the island became part of the National Sea Shore system and is a member of the elk family. This is rutting season and you're supposed to hear the males bugle for quite a distance but I didn't hear them. There's a whole herd of them on the island. None of the literature I've seen mentions them, maybe because they're not native. Whew! I <was> starting to look around for something to smoke. And I got a picture of it to back up my claim. Check out the Photographs section under Maryland (Assateague).
I was walking along another marsh, this one with channels through it when I saw a large white snowy egret. I thought egrets were a smaller, daintier bird of similar shape. I also saw several other wading birds in that family group.
The tide was out and I saw another doe, this one with a half grown fawn, on a small island. They saw me and went bounding off into the marsh.
All that in a 4 mile morning walk.
A little later I was in the truck and saw the same doe and fawn or another along the side of the road. They showed no fear and I could see the fawn still had white spots on its coat. I shot a picture through the rolled down passenger window.
They passed behind me and up ahead I saw a Sika buck cross the road into the underbrush. While I was looking for it in the brush it appeared behind me and escorted the doe and fawn into the woods. The doe and fawn looked like white tails (to me) but there's no mistaking the buck for what it is.
If I had been a couple of minutes later I might have gotten a picture of all 3 of then together… or I might not have seen any of them. I'm satisfied.
11/06/99 Paddling Assateague Island:
When I awoke yesterday morning, the tent wasn't flapping in a strong wind as usual. Instead of my morning walk I grabbed a quick breakfast and headed for a bay side put in. With all the wildlife I had been seeing on the island, I figured poking around in the marshes on the bay side would reveal a lot more early in the morning.
The tide was out which would probably be a good thing for wading birds but there were only a few inches of water at the put in for me. I launched anyway thinking if I could get out of the channels into the bay I would be OK, even if I had to wait a few hours for the tide to come back in.
I maneuvered out through the channel, scraping bottom, poling along, sometimes backing up seeking another inch of water in another direction. Eventually I made it out into Sinepuxant Bay and found almost a foot of water to paddle in. Wow!
Waterfowl season with shotguns in Maryland begins after Thanksgiving. It's now bow hunting season and I was warned about a number of duck blinds a little farther south on the island. If I ventured into their area I'd probably come back looking like a porcupine or a pin cushion. I suppose they use some sort of fishing reel set up attached to the arrows so they can be retrieved. They must be pretty good to lure the birds in close enough to get a shot. And then they have that gusting wind to contend with. I don't know if they had to retrieve downed birds or what.
The bay is a couple miles wide at this point and I had a 5 knot wind blowing directly in my face. This is where I wanted it, on this my first paddle after the hernia operation 3 weeks ago. I planned on paddling against the light wind on the way out with a nice easy stroke and without putting any real effort into it. Hopefully I'd have the wind at my back on the way in.
One island was about 0.25 miles out and another a mile or so beyond that. I kept watching the water as I headed for the nearer island expecting it to start getting deeper but it remained 1-1.5 foot all the way. I assumed it was because I was nearing that island and swung around it and paddled towards the far island.
Halfway to this island and the water's still at the same level and there's nothing to indicate it will get any deeper. I'm getting nervous because I don't know whether the tide's moving in or out and I've been stranded without water before. That can range from inconvenient and embarrassing to definitely Not Fun! So, since I had also felt a minor twinge, I headed back in.
I figured I'd give it another shot the next day and spent the rest of the day just wandering around, exploring nature trails and such. Three different half mile nature trails show life through dunes, marshes and forest life one the island.
Wildlife keep appearing where ever I go. I saw a flock of 20 snow geese fly overhead, a couple more snowy egrets and of course more deer and horses.
Last night and this morning (Sunday) was windier than ever. It was definitely 20+ knots out of the northwest. No sea kayaking today. Only the maniacs would be out in that wind.
The park offers free crabbing, clamming and surf fishing. The crabs are moving into deeper and warmer water so they're scarce. I didn't feel like wading and buying a rake for Quohog clams that are too big and tough. So I bought some mullet and threw them out into the waves. In the end, the gulls got most of the bait when I threw it out into the water after a couple of hours of my usual luck.
There appear to be a lot of hard core surf fishermen around here. You see a lot of trucks, jeeps and SUV's with 4 or 5 rod holders attached to front or rear bumpers
Maryland is the one that allows free surf casting. They also allow free oysters and clams for personal use. Crabs licenses can be had for $10 and local Walmart and bait & tackle shops sell the gear.
Both deer and horses wander through the campgrounds at will. Anytime you return to the campsite, there may be tracks showing someone was investigating your gear while you were gone.
Driving into the park at dusk I passed 3 different does along the side of the road, each with a fawn as well as several deer by themselves. Earlier I got a picture of a young Sika buck with little horns.
A little later I saw a big Sika buck cross the road. I grabbed the camera and walked up to where he had entered the woods and there he was, peeking out at me from across a little clearing. The sun was directly in my eyes and as I stood there with my hand shielding my eyes, the buck kept moving his head up and down and sideways like an ol' hooty owl trying for a better view of me because I wasn't moving. He kept inching his way towards me but then something spooked him and he was gone.
Sika does are smaller than white tails, have smaller ears, a darker color, seem less skittish, and have a white butt while the white tail doe has... duh, a white tail, at least the underside is white and she raises it like a white flag when running.
I'm in less of a hurry than in the past. I take my time on the walks, looking up trails, behind frontline trees into clearings and meadows. Often you see something else staring back at you. Hopefully nothing big and hairy.
The tides seemed kinda strange. The other day around 6:30am it seemed to be close to low tide. My last day, a couple of days later, it seemed almost at high tide??? I dunno! Something to keep an eye on.
Today, before driving up to Westmoreland State Park on the Potomac River, I made a detour to the James River Plantations. There are half a dozen plantations from the 1700's located in and around Charles City on route 5 between Richmond and Williamsburg. I stopped at a couple just to see what they were like. I couldn't take a tour because I was strapped for time and still had a fair distance to go.
They were much like you'd see in the movies, some with long tree lined drives between cotton fields with big stone gates. Some of them were right on the James River. That would be an interesting paddle.