It was a lovely day, but still early enough that there weren't crowds of other people out taking advantage of the loveliness. We had lunch on the beach, and watched little birds run across the sand.
Assateague Island, Maryland side
|
It was a lovely day, but still early enough that there weren't crowds of other people out taking advantage of the loveliness. We had lunch on the beach, and watched little birds run across the sand. |
| There were also lots of the famous Chincoteague ponies out (although there's actually a fence between the Maryland and Virginia sides of the island to keep the ponies from crossing over, so the ones we saw had almost certainly never been to Chincoteage.) According to the signs and guidebooks, while legend has it that the ponies are escapees from a Spanish gallion, the are probably actually the descendents of livestock that the locals kept on the islands to avoid having to pay taxes on them. |  |
 |
Don't pet the ponies! They might bite your arm off! We didn't stop at the welcome and info center until we were on our way out, where they had large signs posted telling us the ponies were wild, and we should keep our distance, even if they tried to approach us, to avoid getting hurt. The ponies we actually met were extremely friendly. |
 |
Besides the ponies, there were a lot of small deer. Very cute and not particularly afraid of people, though they didn't want us to get any closer than a good five or ten foot safety margin. |  |
 |
This young pony looked awfully funny, but perhaps he'll grow into himself later. |  |
Birds, this way! (this was painted on the sidewalk)
|
The highlight of the day is something I haven't got a picture of; we were walking from dune to dune and looked down, and there were the bleached bones of a sea turtle in the sand, with a skull a good 9 inches long (ie, slightly longer than my handspan.) There were also some interesting flipper-bones, and flat ribs of perhaps 20 inches. We didn't see a shell, but who knows what might have been there if we'd dug down far enough... |
In this location Carmen Sandiego would probably steal: the poines
