A few more photos from our trip to Chincoteague last week. The island is famous for its wild ponies, and the children’s book “Misty of Chincoteague” made it the destination of choice for pre-teen girls everywhere.
Wild ponies aren’t necessarily going to indulge the whimsy of passing tourists, so you have to watch carefully as you drive around the island. And by the way, the island is Assateague, the barrier island to the east, which is where they live. Why are they called the Chincoteague ponies? Long story, and that’s not why we’re here.
Returning from that digression, because the wild stock is somewhat shy local businesses have paddocks where the young ones can go pat the ponies. Here’s the one next to the hotel we stayed at (the Refuge Inn, highly recommended). One was sleeping, the other taking a dirt bath.
There was one spot out on Assateague where we could see them every day.
Besides ponies, it’s a bird-watcher’s paradise as best I can tell. I’ve never seen so many snowy egrets, for one. The gulls are a little different than the ones up here in the northeast. They have black heads, and are seemingly more intelligent.
We watched these humans get into their kayaks and paddle out…
…not very far from a couple of playful dolphins.
Near the nature center we walked on a boardwalk that crossed some tidal flats. I saw out of the corner of my eye lots of movement — it looked like very large, shiny bugs scuttling across the flats.
They were actually fiddler crabs. Here are two a little closer.
On our anniversary we went to the lighthouse. This opheodrys aestivus was on the rope fence around the grounds.
Dolphins not too far from New Jersey. I didn’t realize they swam that far north.
We’d seen them even farther north earlier in the week from the ferry, just off Cape May. I hadn’t realized either.