Assateague Island Waterfowl Week

The wildlife refuge sponsors a Waterfowl Week from 21-29 November. There are some unusual guided tours and other events. The winter migration will be in full swing then, but it has already begun.

I'm not a birder, but the refuge is noticeably busy with birds already. The snow geese have been here for a week or maybe longer.

Most birds seem to get along alright, with minor exceptions. This blue heron stood on the edge of the road on the Wildlife Loop for a long time.

Then he ghosted over to a small pool already inhabited by an egret. For a while they stalked together.

Then the heron became a stinker, chasing off the egret.

Who then lunched on her own.

And, to finish up, wishing to leave no thoughtless idiocy unmentioned, I wonder where they hang the "Open Gate" sign? It's probably as confusing as this one... Makes me wonder why there is no "Service Road sign" sign.

It's a slippery slope when you start to label the world. What do you do about the Arabic version of "Closed Gate" (البوابة المغلقة), or the one for Belarus  (закрытых варотах), or Thai (ประตูปิด). The refuge gets visitors from all over the world, you know. Maybe others are confused about what a "Closed Gate" looks like, too.

Assateague asses and other wildlife

Your tax dollars at work department

I have always enjoyed seeing my tax dollars at work. It gives me great pleasure to see people pissing away money on stuff I wouldn't dream of doing. It warms the cockles of my heart to see the US government handing out OUR MONEY with one hand and taking it in on the other. Here, at the entrance to Assateague Island and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, the irony level was amazingly high for the last few days.

So, what did they spend OUR MONEY on? Yon sandy brown covered up hole in the ground now contains a new water pipe and a broadband cable that stretch all the way to park headquarters. Plus, for added benefit (and perhaps greener grass), money was spent on several truckloads of topsoil to put OVER THE DAMN SAND that is all that is naturally there. Of course, in some areas of the island there is also some pine duff and some slimy stuff on the bottoms of ponds. But anywhere you dig you get SAND. So why did we put expensive topsoil on top of the sand?

"Suffering" in retirement

All those planning retirement, beware! It seems poor in spirit and very unsporting, taking advantage of old people, but it goes on. Early on in our retirement we learned, painfully, that when HR says you will have the "same" health coverage you always had, they DO NOT mean it. What they failed to tell us was that, while it was the SAME coverage, it COSTS A HELL OF A LOT MORE. In fact, it eats up a huge portion of their pension check. To me, that makes it NOT THE SAME! Well, we dealt with that and moved on.


Recently we moved from our New Jersey residence down to Chincoteague, Va. In the last few posts you can see part of the why. It is beautiful. When we reported our move, however, we were told that the (health) plan would change. It was reported that the changes would be minor ("VIRTUALLY THE SAME"), and a report was promised. Since the report had not come, Esther inquired. Well, the changes ARE NOT MINOR. We are going from copay to deductible and 85% coverage for doctor visits. That also is NOT THE SAME to me. So Esther asked for a list of coverage in various areas and eventually got the assurance that it would come in the package to be mailed. Then she was told that it would take 48 hours to act on, followed by 10 days to get the package. I wish I had been on the phone, because I really care about ponies. I wanted to ask whether they would feed the ponies while the freaking PONY EXPRESS was delivering their package! Down in Chincoteague we take care of our ponies and want everyone elsewhere to do that, too.

Thanks for participating in this RANT. Warning: there may be more.

And, a bit of the wildlife loop

We were finally able to walk out on Assateague. For a change, we tried out the Assateague Wildlife Loop. Some of the other areas were closed due to hunting. This loop is about 3 miles, ranging around a huge, shallow, fresh-water pond designed to support wildfowl migrations. This time of year it is just starting to get busy. Later on there is a wildfowl week, when migrations are in full swing. Here are a few sights from today.

I'm not sure why, but there were a lot of large insects around, like this grasshopper. It seemed a bit cool for them to be so energetic, but grasshoppers hopped, crickets jumped, and dragon flies flitted around.

The egrets seemed kind of jumpy, flying from place to place

just to go fishing all over again.

There was even a cast of vultures. Yep, "cast" is one of the collective names for vultures. It is used in the same way as "murder" of crows.

A wee bit of Chincoteague drama

Today dawned gorgeous for a change. The dismal rain seems to be over for now. Sun on water, the Assateague lighthouse, and the wildlife reign again. At about 7:30AM a heron landed on the dock, then, under seagull supervision, jumped in the water to go fishing.

Like most Chincoteague visitors he came up with a blue crab. I find them painful to eat, but the heron didn't!

He flew up to the dock to finish his meal, with the suffering seagull right behind.

Then they both decided to take in the warm sun in a very picturesque setting, while I began to stalk them.

I was able to get halfway up the dock without disturbing them.

By then some other contributors had gathered. I believe these little guys were the shotgun subjects of the Chincoteaguers skiffs the other day.

As I turned to go back inside my main subject decided he wasn't "heron" about it anymore and left. The set of the wings is just plain beautiful.

Chincoteague Fall

While upstate New York is already in winter, we are trapped in a rainy, cold fall down in Chincoteague. The rain has been almost constant for the last few days, and will continue for at least a day more. Glad we finished cleaning and treating the decks.

More interestingly, we are afloat from a really high fall tide at the same time. We are fourth in from the right and we can usually see marsh grass right in front. Today it's under water.

There is also marsh grass looking out to Assateague (where the little ponies live). Yesterday a couple of 'Teaguers were out in a skiff right here, motoring around and shooting clapper rails in the water with shotguns. It was really loud and way the hell too close to us. Apparently they are that tasty (the clapper rails, not the Chincoteaguers).

When the water gets to the bottom of the dock beams we start to get water in the bottom level of our place. So far that has not happened.

Even the little causeway out to Piney Island was inundated.

The beach had problems with over-wash, thanks to a strong North wind. Icky!

The best laid plans of the US Park Service laid to waste. Yesterday they had equipment in the same place pushing back the sand from the over-wash. Today the sand is back. For years they spent their fall seasons building up the dunes to about 15 feet, after the Nor'easters came through and flattened them. The Park Service IS capable of learning, because no one does that anymore.

The Google Maps My Location Scam - continued

You may remember the Google Maps My Location scam post earlier this year. Google Maps had implemented a new feature that purportedly showed your current location on a map. It used wireless routers and other items to help locate you on a map. It just plain did not work for me at the time. It put me in Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago and moved around among them. It finally settled on Austin, Texas.

Well, we just sold our house in New Jersey (and brought along our wireless router to use down here in Chincoteague, Va.) I just set the router up last night on a new cable modem. This morning I decided to try My Location again. It put me smack dab in our old house in New Jersey. I just love it when raw HUMAN assumptions screw up the use of technology. Someone clearly decided that wireless routers do not move, so why use their IP addresses EACH TIME to find their location. And so it goes...

Found these today

Normally we see little jellies, 1" or 2" in diameter. They aren't there all the time.

These guys were all over today. Some of them approached 1 1/2 feet across. Some had short tentacles, too. The tentacles were maybe 1 foot long. In 20-odd years at Chincoteague, this is the first time we've seen any this big.

North today

We walked to the North today after our morning chores. The day was beautiful - around 70, breezy, sunny enough to get a burn. We even saw people swimming. They told us the water was about the same as late June/early July.

The beach was just loaded with these little guys. They are beautifully camouflaged, but always give themselves away by scurrying off sideways. This guy was about 1/2 inch across the body. He was lucky not to share the fate of the blue crab seen below.

This blue crab was gobbled up in a matter of seconds by a gull. Snip, snip, off with the legs until only the center remained. Then a few pecks to get at the meat.

The fall is a beautiful time down here. It mixes the dry, sere grasses and dead pines with a glorious blue sky.

Even the reeds and grasses look good as they fade to brown.

Unfairly accused of wasting my retirement on men's butts yesterday, today I choose to show Esther''s butt as she wings away down the beach. No caber here!

Snow Hill Celtic Festival

A fine fall Sunday afternoon it was. We drove about 1/2 hour up north to Snow Hill, then onward to Furnace Town. Furnace Town is a historical site with an old iron smelting furnace. This weekend it hosted the annual Celtic Festival. Apparently there are many local folk descended from Irish, Welsh, and Scots immigrants.

We were greeted by this fellow piping a greeting to all comers.

There was a set of craft booths displaying jewelry and Celtic gifts. They were accompanied by this booth making available kilts, sporrans, and kilt pins (at $150, they were moving a bit slowly).

A variety of Gaelic edibles were there. This was kind of homespun fare.

We tried a meat pie, a pastie, and a bit of colcannon. Colcannon is basically mashed potatoes with a bit of green stuff in it. Our had cabbage. Lunch was accompanied by a heather ale and a draft Harp.

The day was really about the exhibits and activities, though. The historical site is about iron and the surrounding activities. It is located where water power could add value by helping to blast air through the furnace. The furnace is a huge brick structure with a ramp to take visitors up to the top.

At the top you can see tubes used to blast in air. There is a mirror to show the center of the furnace. Not much there but cinders, though.

Next to the furnace was an exhibit of how the site prepared charcoal. A central green trunk was surrounded by a stack of small wood to form a chimney. Then more wood was packed in all around before piling on dirt and leaves. The dirt and leaves sealed off the wood after it was successfully lit. (Charcoal is made in an air-poor environment.)

The festival activities were continuous on several small stages and areas. They included a little that was not very Celtic in origin and a lot that was. A group of medieval martial artists was demonstrating how to brawl in armor. Nobody got hurt.

Apparently some guys get two sticks, while others get a shield and one stick. This guys liked to fight from the ground for some reason. Go figure...

There was a full complement of junior high school girls dancing Irish jigs and step dances. Can't get too excited about toe dancing or dancing with heavy shoes, though.

The music was pretty good. These guys were from the Ocean City Pipers. We enjoyed them quite a bit.

This little girl (12) sang Amazing Grace in Scots Gaelic. Then she sang some other ditties, forgetting the words to several of them. Maybe she forgot some of the first song, too, but we couldn't tell (it was in Gaelic; are you paying attention here?)

Some of the more unusual activities were more interesting to me. This guy in the skirt was showing off his smart sheep dog (Border Collie, I guess). The dog was really obedient and moved the sheep around effortlessly. It was fun to watch.

Did I mention this was Southern Baptist country? As we were walking around we were talking to a dude just by chance. As we got done he handed me this. Just in case I was forgetting one of them, I guess. Hmmmm, which one?

For me, the best was the last. There was a display of Scottish "heavy" events. I hated to crop this down. It doesn't do justice to how low he was squatting with that giant rock.

This dude was the announcer. Here he was busy throwing a 50-odd pound weight up in the air, then getting the hell out of the way before it came down. Apparently if you are under 40 years old you throw this weight around. If you are older you get the 42 pound weight to throw. This also showed us that these cheaters wear shorts under their kilts.

This stuff could be construed as farm-oriented. The next one certainly was. A bag weighing 20-30 pounds gets stabbed with a pitchfork. The pitchfork MUST have 3 tines only. The dude then takes a couple swings for momentum and throws the bag way the hell up in the air (like throwing a hay bale into a barn window?)

That left only the caber toss.We hadn't realized this is an accuracy game, not brute force. You have to get the caber's bottom end to go over the top, making it land as close as possible to your 12 o'clock after the toss. There are a bunch of ways to judge misfires and close calls. Come to find out, you can actually throw it in any direction. It just depends on which way you get comfortable with the tree. You have a judge that has to get directly behind you to judge your throw. How in the hell did they get started throwing a 20 foot tree around?