nic at night

We spent Memorial Day weekend down in Chincoteague, VA, which was dinkier than I'd imagined. I think I'd imagined a place of Block Island size/style, and it was smaller and more of a fishing village.

The refuge itself was great, with several trails through the salt marshes and along the dunes and beach. Saturday morning I woke up early, because of the laughing gulls, and decided to head over before people started swarming the beaches. I did a bit more than an hour of riding. My bike computer's still out of commission, so I don't know the mileage; from the map and how long it took given that it was pretty much entirely flat, I'd say it was about 12 miles. It was lovely to be out at 6:30am, and funny to see quite a few people out in front of their houses setting up for the day's yard sales. I was the only bike on the road, and the only people driving into the refuge were fishermen in trucks. On the trail, I did see a couple of hikers and another cyclist or two, but I mostly had the place to myself. There were birds everywhere, and that early in the morning there were also mammals -- I saw loads of rabbits, one of the little brown deer they have there, and half a dozen whitetails fighting on the path (I chose a different route rather than ride through a bunch of frisky young deer). That morning I also saw quite a bit of pony poop, but no actual ponies. I did ride down the trail that connects the marsh loops to the beach, but that was pretty gravelly and I decided to skip it in the future.

Sunday morning I slept in later, and went out around 8:30am. I again rode for an hour or so, and that morning I did two loops around the main marsh (called the Wildlife Loop, it's a paved three mile road that encircles the area where most of the birds can be regularly seen). There were lots of people out on the road that morning, and I got to use my martian bell and train some kids in how to move to the side. I didn't see as many animals, but did see the more common birds. This trip was more of a bike ride and less of a bird-watching excursion; I zoomed along the side of the marsh with the wind at my back and got a good workout coming up the other edge. It was a lot like riding on Hain's Point, actually, when there's a good breeze coming off the river. This ride was about 10 miles, and just about an hour -- I made it back up to the motel with just about 15 minutes to get my free breakfast.

Finally, on Monday I had breakfast first and then did another loop, just down to the marsh and then once around and back. On this ride, I discovered that there were telescopes on the lookout platform, so I spent quite a bit of time off my bike and looking at birds with them. There was a kid there who'd ridden up on his bike as well, and I told him the names of many of the birds, which he then described to his parents in Russian. It was nice to talk to a kid interested in birds, as it made me feel that I had knowledge I could share, in contrast to when I talk to older bird-watchers and I'm the complete novice. I did also go back with Dana later in the morning, before we left the island, to show him the telescopes and identify a few of the birds we weren't sure about.

It was a good feeling to be out on the bike every day, although I could feel my shoulder tightening up over the weekend. I'm looking forward to getting out on the trails at home again this summer.