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Visiting Chincoteague
Despite being a diehard Marguerite Henry fan as a child, and revisiting the books and movie with my daughters as an adult, I’ve never been to Chincoteague. Till last week, that is. We stopped on our way back north from a vacation further south, spending a night in “America’s happiest seaside town.”
While there, we had an absolutely stellar experience touring the waters around Chincoteague and Assateague by boat. Our guide, a lifelong Chincoteague resident, shared a wealth of knowledge and keen observation that gave us a sense of the local and natural history of the place, the ponies, the diverse coastal birds and other wildlife, and the way the community has evolved into a primarily tourist economy. These pictures capture only a small part of what we were able to observe.
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Backyard Drama
What a story I witnessed this week as I rose from working at the kitchen table and glanced out the window.
A Cooper’s hawk was wrestling a starling to the death. By the time I looked out, the starling was motionless as the hawk pressed down with its talons, patiently squeezing out its life. Eventually it started plucking out beaksfull of feathers in preparation for its meal.
But as I turned away, I heard the starling start screeching. Looking out, I was astonished to see it fighting back against the startled hawk. This is an unfocused picture, but it gives the general sense of it:
Even more shockingly, after a few moments, the Cooper actually gave up and flew into a tree. The starling flew into a different tree. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mound of reddish fur in the back corner of the yard: a fox, watching curiously. It came out across the lawn and investigated the scene of struggle.
It probably saved the starling’s life, attracted by the uproar and appearing at just that moment. I’m not sure whether the bird will survive whatever wounds it sustained, but the sight of such a remarkable string of events was an amazing gift.
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Lucy
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Bear country
Our friendly neighborhood bear made another visit yesterday in the early morning. This time, he left tracks so we could reconstruct his vandalism. He bent the feeder pole to the ground and ate a seed cake along with all the black oil sunflower seeds, then walked around to the front of the house where he actually stood up and leaned with his paws against the front of the house while he removed the nut feeder. He apparently examined the Christmas wreath on the front door as well, judging from the huge paw prints next to it. Then he shambled up to a neighbor’s feeder and gave it the same treatment.
Wouldn’t you know? The one morning I let the dog out and then go back to bed for awhile, to rest up for the Thanksgiving preparations. Wouldn’t that have been amazing to see!
Here’s hoping he goes into hibernation soon. He totally mangled our nut feeder and generally has dietary requirements far beyond our bird-feeding budget!
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Deer season
The deer were everywhere in the nature preserve where the girls and I took our walk yesterday…
Inquisitive, but not especially easy to spook. It’s bow season right now, and I know some hunters who would have been glad to see them. No hunting in the preserve, though. I think the deer must know.
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Nighttime Visitor
We had a visitor in our suburban yard the other night. Though we slept through it all, a bear is surely the one who bent our bird feeder pole to the ground, ripped off the suet cage, and feasted on sunflower seeds and suet.
We left it in disarray for the day and the following night, despite the disorientation of the offended birds. It’s back up now and we’ve had no return visits. Hopefully the culprit will be in hibernation before too long!
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Muted colors of late fall
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Chipmunk
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Fawn in the ferns
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Bean there, done that
This little rabbit loves to hide out in our beans. They are a perfect cover, and the fence that we erected to keep him and his kin out is in all probability a nice protection against the neighborhood foxes and cats.
As far as I can tell he’s not actually eating beans or bean plants, but rather weeds. We saw him on Sunday for the first time, and I suggested that my daughter catch him in her butterfly net.
We let him go outside the fence, and he hid in a hole in the wall. But he may already be outgrowing that mode of escape.
I need to get some finer mesh fencing for that half of the garden — like what’s around the lower half to keep out the woodchuck I observed lifting cucumber vines in both paws and chomping down with relish. But meantime, this is a cute little garden ornament, and as far as I can tell he’s not doing much if any harm. At least, not yet.
