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?

Insult to injury department

Over at the beach the irony continued. The umpty-ump ton tractor was dumping sand right next to the "Sensitive Area - Please Keep Off Fragile Dunes" sign. My gut instinct (and my gut is of considerable size) told me that running tractors over the sand might be more harmful than me stepping on them. But wait, you say, there is NO DUNE there.

Well, imagine that, the sensitive dunes right at this spot and all up and down the whole damn island have been regularly stomped by Nor'easters and washed away into the swamp. So, please keep your feet off the damn dunes, already! You don't want to get in the way of the tractors, do you? And by the way, keep your pants on; nudity is prohibited here.

Peaceful nature department

Today we walked on the nature trail for a change. Not too much to report over there, except for mosquitoes and a couple of small creatures. There were dozens of these little toads, about a 1/2 inch long.

Sorry for the bad picture, but they were very wiggly and would not stand still for long enough to get a good macro shot. Also, if I had stayed still any longer I would have been carried away by the mosquitoes.

We also saw a lot more of the endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel than we had ever seen before. Apparently they live in only 4 or 5 counties in Maryland and some other spots like this where they were transported.

These guys were quite big and meaty, and very healthy looking. They stood still for a bit, as long as they were 20-30 feet away from us. If we got much closer they were off into the bushes or up a tree like this one.