VA Chincoteague: Woodland Trail

 #35  VA Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge - Woodland Trail:  2 mi

I wanted to express just how big these Delmarva Fox Squirrels are in the maritime forests of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. They were fat. They were 4 pounds easily. They hung in a gang of four. They chased me. Excuse my sketch if it seems cartoonish, but this big one had a reddish belly, stained from mucking in tannin mud. If there are any readers of this blog who also enjoy the Doc Martin series, you may recall the episode about the ranger who lives out on the moors and his giant imaginary squirrel, Anthony.  The writer of that episode must have been to Chincoteague. 

Towards an overlook

I've been around Delmarva Fox Squirrels before on the Eastern Shore but this gang of four (maybe a mom and three young?) took control of the Woodland Trail just when it splits to make a two-mile loop. I had a clue to expect them when I met a fellow hiker coming the opposite direction.  I saw his binoculars and asked him what birds were out this early afternoon. "I don't know about this side of the trail but I'm going to check out the other side now." Funny, I thought. Why is he doubling back on a loop trail? Then hilarity ensured.

Eastern Candle Wax Lichen on Loblolly

I love trees and I love even more forest communities that adapt to certain conditions, so a nice stroll through a maritime forest on the Atlantic Coast is a beautiful reason to slow down and take a close look at trees and their lichen assemblies. While composing a photo of Eastern Candle Wax Lichen on a Loblolly Pine I got yelled at the first time. Big ole' Momma DFS was across the trail scolding me for going near her yummy lichen garden. She had a mouthful of the stuff. So I moved on.

Black Willow, Salix nigra

Amanita sp.

Just a few yards up the trail was a garden of large Amanita mushrooms growing in pine needle duff. I stepped gingerly off the trail to snap a picture of two especially large ones. Two giant steps back to the trail and there she was - Momma DFS. Clearly these were her mushrooms since a very fat grey DFS was above me munching on an enormous chunk of white mushroom flesh. She sat in the middle of the trail up on her hind legs making herself look big as a mean tomcat. I got it. Her mushrooms. Keep moving. 

Water Oak, Quercus nigra

I walked a few yards more to a section where Water Oaks stood like sentries on the trail across from each other. I snapped their picture and picked up a few stubby little acorns to examine. She followed me up the trail. Let me guess...her acorns. She scolded again and I dropped the nuts and moved on.

Water Oak, opposite sentry

She followed me out to the start of a boardwalk with her large offspring behind and above her. They were very skittish, moving through the tree leaves and pine needles, and scrambling along limbs as they followed to learn the art of human shaming. She came straight up the path, mid-trail, scolding me to keep going. I went out to the overlook where, during pony round up season in July, the island's wild herd is gathered on these marsh grass pastures for their annual pony penning.  Eight wild ponies were working their way across the marsh so I sat and watched a while. 

Chincoteague Wild Ponies

Guess who was waiting for me to return to the path? There she was sitting on the last plank of the boardwalk, red-stained belly and loud mouth. I decided to make a run for it and jogged loudly on the wooden deck. She took of and ran back down the trail with her fat young'uns above her in the trees.  She ran left, I ran right. I could hear her scolding loudly through the woods as I slowed to a walk so I kept up my pace until well out of earshot. The trail winds around the edge of the marsh and soon intersects with a side trail that leads to Tom's Cove and an excellent distance view of Wallops Island (NASA). This time I shared the trail with a young Great Blue Heron who seemed unfazed at my joining him for late lunch. I sat on a bench of sand, snacked and drank some water, and watched him hunt for Fiddler Crabs and minnows.  

Great Blue Heron

Dwarf Saltwort, Salicornia bigelovii

I admired the beds of Saltwort but admittedly checked over my shoulder before I snapped a fleshy stem off to give it a squeeze. The oils from this salt-tolerant plant have been used in cooking for thousands of years and some cooks even today prefer its safflower oil flavor for frying shellfish and fish. The wild ponies love it and in the days of turning out livestock to graze on the marshes it was a favorite of cattle as well. I popped it into  my mouth. She didn't see that did she? The squirrel? Did she see me eat that? 

Maritime forest

Forested hummocks atop old dunes

On my way out to complete the Woodland Trail I met up with a birder and his wife. He was adjusting a camera lens and she was giggling.  "We got chased by a giant squirrel!" she laughed. He laughed with her. "I almost dropped my camera as we high-tailed it through the section just after the boardwalk overlook!" (They had been coming around the loop opposite to the direction I walked it) I shared my experience of the fierce red-bellied mom and we all laughed. "But she's a great mother," said the woman. "Guarding all the food, ALL the food, for her giant babies!" 

Notes:

Delmarva Fox Squirrel are a species of concern, suffering drastic declines in populations when much of the Eastern Shore was logged over for cedar, oak, pine, and cypress. Their coats are quite variable and can be red, black, or white, though they tend towards grey. In some protected landscapes, populations are stable and may be recovering, thus they have been de-listed from the Endangered Species List (USFWS)

https://www.chesapeakebay.net/discover/field-guide/entry/delmarva-fox-squirrel

P.S. When I loaded my shots of the red-bellied female DFS into my iNaturalist observations, it identified her as an American Robin. LOL! 

VA Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge at Tom's Cove

 #34 2022 52-Hike Challenge:  Tom's Cove and Around the Hook - 6 mi.

After attending the second attempt and successful launch of Antares from NASA's Wallops Island I headed out to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS) and Assateague Island National Seashore (NPS) to watch the sun come up. Sanderlings skittered along the edge of the wash as the tide began to turn. Though there are no designated trails on the long slip of sand and foredune, a ranger said that the walk down to the old U.S. Coast Guard Station on "The Hook" would be a great way to spend the rest of the morning. He was right.

Post-launch sunrise

It took nearly two hours to make the distance from the NPS Visitors Center to the curve of the hook, an arc of sand spit that wraps its way around Tom's Cove. On the way to the Coast Guard Station I followed Brown Pelican pelican tracks, had a nice visit with a Ghost Crab, and generally dawdled my way along the back bay beach (which made this more of a walk that a hike). I had dressed for an early morning launch - long pants, sweatshirt, boots - but by 9am I was starting to sweat as I rounded the hook under a full sun with no chance of shade. I shed my boots and sweatshirt. Whew. Getting warmer...

  

A small section of the longest barrier island chain in the world!

Ghost Crab, Ocypode quadrata - showing off his feathery legs

I encountered a few more Ghost Crabs sunning on the damp sand. Each one seemed interested in me as I bent down to observe their feathery legs that enables them to absorb moisture from the sand to wet their gills rather than returning to the water. One brave little crab thumped his claw on the ground when I got too close. "That's close enough, human!"  

Constant companions were the many Brown Pelicans who would allow me to walk within fifty yards or so then take off in a great wave of heavy flapping, gliding, circling. They would land again several hundred yards ahead only to repeat the process all the way to the end of the inside of the hook. The hook is growing by the year, wheeling around like pelicans until one day it will swing in on itself and capture a bit of the cove as an interior lagoon. All the barrier islands on the Mid-Atlantic are steadily moving west making this landscape one of the most dynamic in our region. Numerous storm surges and rising sea levels are increasing the rate of westward migration and moves massive amounts of near-shore sand currents that reshape and expand the spit landward.

Brown Pelican tracks

Tom's Cove on the inside of the hook

I sat on the pier of the old Coast Guard Station's boat house and had a snack, watching a group of clam diggers work their way around the point into the cove. I could hear the thunk- ka- thunk of quahogs tumbling from net bags into the open outboards. I roamed around the station grounds, but not for too long as the saltwater mosquitos were still hard at work in the sheltered shrubby areas. I followed a wild pony trail out to the narrow isthmus that separated the cove narrowly from the ocean and began my trek back. 

USGC Station House 150 

Watchtower

Through the front door window

Through the broken window of the workshop

By noon I was finishing my hike and within sight of the parking area, but there was one more stop to make. I visited a small, developing dune to see what plant communities had established on a small hill of quartzite sand. In a scruff of beach grass were several small stands of Seaside Goldenrod, just single stems and tough-as-nails leaves running up thick green stalks. All were in full bloom and sending seed to the wind.  A tiny Yellow-Rumped Warbler hopped and skittered around the little dune. Its dull fall plumage blended in perfectly with the tan sand and brown grass. It's little "butter-butt" yellow patch matched the deep yellow of the blossoms.

Seaside Goldenrod, Solidago sempervirens

 

Wild pony tracks

I walked through an old overwash where a piece of oyster bar lay cemented to what had once been the bottom of a shallow bay. There are over 2,000 barrier islands worldwide and over 300 of them front the Atlantic coast from Long Island to Georgia. Here was a chunk of oyster bar that may have been the root of the dune that formed one of them. Breakers spilled over some shallow sand bars a hundred yards out from the beach. I stood for a few minutes more, looking left at the cove and right to the sea separated by this sliver of sand. My muscles started to stiffen and the sun, now harsh and hot, made me think about all the cold water in the cooler in the truck. I lurched towards the parking lot.

Exposed oyster bar in an overwash

Atlantic Beach

Notes: 

"Rescuing Memories of Former Assateague Coastguards," NPS Assateague Island National Seashore:  https://www.nps.gov/asis/learn/historyculture/rescuing-memories-of-former-assateague-coast-guardsmen.htm

The geology of barrier islands: http://www.virginiaplaces.org/geology/barrier.html