5/12/07 We Join a Bird Watcher's Walk

When we stopped at the Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center yesterday we learned that there was going to be a guided bird walk around one of the ponds today. This is a once a year event! So we got up early and joined in. Here are some birds we that have never seen before....
This is an American Avocet. This bird sweeps his up-curved bill back and forth through the water to catch his food.

A Glossy Ibis

and a White Ibis.

This afternoon and tonight we are staying at Ocean Waves Campground in the little town of Waves. It's time to empty the RV's waste tanks and refill the fresh water storage tank. We will also be able to hook up to electric power so that we can use our Direct TV satellite system from home to relax and watch TV.

5/11/07 Cape Hatteras

We stayed at the Oregon Inlet campground in Cape Hatteras National Seashore last night. After breakfast we went over to the nearby Bodie Island Lighthouse. There was a field full of beautiful little blue flowers next to the lighthouse. That's our motorhome in the parking lot.


Here's a closeup of the flowers. There are a few white ones in the center of the picture.


We then drove a few miles south to the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge. In the Spring and Fall this is a great place to see migrating birds that are traveling north or south along the coast. We took a short hike on the nature trail and saw a number of snapping turtles in a small pond and....

a small lizard and....

a Great Egret and....


a Tricolored Heron.


A few miles south there is a boat launch access for Pamlico Sound. We got out our inflatable boat and rowed around for a few hours. There are a number of small low islands and the water is only 1-2 feet deep in the area. We came across some pilings from an old bridge. The bird below is a Least Tern.


Here's a shot of Pamlico Sound. It's a huge body of water.


While we were passing one of the islands, a black snake swam by. He or she was about 3 feet long and only the head was above the water.

5/10/07 On to the Outer Banks

Another foggy day at Assateague! Late last night or early this morning some new campers took the campsite across from ours. After breakfast they left their food on the picnic table, which turned out to be a bonanza for the local birds. These are probably Boattail Grackles, as we saw a number of them on the beach yesterday. Oh well, people have to learn somehow! We didn't stay to see the excitement when the campers returned, since we wanted to get to North Carolina's Outer Banks today.

We headed on south to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. This is a 17 mile long bridge that goes from the southern tip of the DelMarVa Peninsula across the Chesapeake Bay to Virginia Beach. There are two one mile long tunnels along the length of the bridge to allow ocean going ships to pass by. Unfortunately it was still foggy, so we couldn't see much of the Bay.

The two tunnels are the most exciting part of the drive. They have only one lane in each direction and the lanes seem really narrow when driving through with the motorhome. It's really a thrill when a tractor/trailer or bus goes by in the opposite direction.

We were amazed to find that the fog was behind us when we came up out of the second tunnel. That's Virginia Beach in the distance. It was a beautiful sunny day for the rest of the drive down to the Outer Banks.

5/9/07 At Assateague Island National Seashore

We woke up this morning to a foggy day. Our campsite is just over the dune from the beach and we can hear the surf. This is the same campsite we had on our first trip with the motorhome back in 2004, a very happy thought! The picture was taken from the top of the dune.


We took a long walk on the beach before lunch. The beach goes on for about 30 miles from where we are to the southern end of the island. There are no roads south of the campground until you get to the very southern end. We probably walked about 2-3 miles before turning back. That's Jon in the picture.


We saw a number of shore birds on our walk. We had our bird book with us and identified this one as a Willet. Don't remember seeing these on the beaches near home in New Jersey.


The surf was pretty wild that day and the fog kept us from seeing very far out to sea or along the beach. On the way back the fog made it hard for us to find the place where we had come over the dune from the campground.


After lunch we went over to the west side of the island, only about a mile away from the beach. We were surprised to find a beautiful clear day there. We came across a wild pony who was scratching an itch on a convenient fence post.


We went back to the east side of the island and took the 3/4 mile nature hike on the dune trail. A little way in we came across a crumbling asphalt road that went on as far as we could see. There was an interpretive sign nearby that said that the road had been installed by developers back in the 1950's. Before they really got started on construction a storm came thorough that flooded the island, causing them to abandon their plans. Shortly afterward the island was designated as a National Seashore.


At many places along the trail we noticed small cone shaped depressions in the sand, as well as squiggly lines. We came to another interpretive sign that said that the depressions were made by ant lions, insect larvae that burrow in the sand and catch other insects (usually ants) that slide into their pits. The squiggly lines are also made by the ant lions. To read more about ant lions, try this link: http://www.archbold-station.org/discoveringflscrub/unit2/unit2antlion.html


The setting sun peeked through a gap in the fog for a few minutes and an amazing bow appeared just over the dune to the east. It wasn't a rainbow, because it wasn't raining and the bow had no rainbow of colors. We looked on the internet when we got home and found that it was a fogbow, something we that had never seen before!

5/8/07 Off to Assateague Island National Seashore

Off on our first travel adventure of the year! We headed down the Garden State Parkway to catch the 4:30PM ferry from Cape May to Lewes, Delaware. Our destination for today is Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland.


We passed by a beautiful sailboat with Cape May Lighthouse in the background.


The ferry terminal at Lewes, Delaware (no, that's not our motorhome in the picture).


We drove down the coast through Rehoboth Beach and Ocean City to Assateague. The Assateague "wild" ponies often can be seen grazing along the side of the roads in the National Seashore. This one was just before we got to the campground.