You Look Like People Who Know What They Are Doing
April 25, 2025 — Day 20
Pokomoke River State Park: Shad Landing, Snow Hill, Maryland
Paul woke up with his right knee hurting even more than yesterday. He was in a real funk about it. There were fun things to do and his knee was not cooperating! There was biking with Susan to do. And kayaking to do! But that knee was really insisting on not being pushed. Making lemonade from lemons we decided to drive to the Chincoteague Wildlife Refuge and bird watch. After all, it’s migration season and we’re here for birds, did we really NEED an excuse to go birdwatching? We took the back roads to see parts of the DelMarVa peninsula that we’ve not seen before and found this cool, but dilapidated building.
Soon we were on the bridge to the touristy town of Chincoteague, VA. Paul gets to rant, again, about those stupid billboards. This is the introduction to the town, do you really want to see this? It’s not one or two, it’s like 40 of them. Their only “good” is they can be perches for birds, otherwise they obstruct a beautiful view.
Once in town, the kitsch is expected and actually appreciated. Sort of. It’s beachside community kitsch complete with a mini golf course that has giraffes. (susan here: We’ve been here 3 times and I’m still confused as to why a giraffe, and not wild ponies, is appropriate here but there you go. No explaining some thing you run across!)
Soon we were leaving the town, going across another bridge into the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge which is very different from the ride into town. The views are great wherever you look. We have kayaked in this very spot a few years back.
Susan thought she’d forgotten her “America the Beautiful, Senior version” pass so Paul got his out. We like to joke and call it the “Geezer Pass.” For $80 lifetime you get free admission to an incredible amount of places (and even some state campgrounds give you discounts). This time the guard kiosk wasn’t staffed. You were supposed to stop in at the Visitor Center and self pay. We don’t get it, this place had a lot of car traffic, we suspect that lot of people didn’t pay.
(susan here: Now, I’m going to have something potentially inflammatory to say here. The other times we’ve been here at this time of year there were lots of rangers, more than enough to staff the place. Never saw a sign they were short-staffed. One can only conclude that current times have unnecessarily cut staff. Thing is? These national parks and refuges take in many times more money than it costs to run. It’s like cutting your nose off to spite your face. It’s a foolhardy cut if you ask me.)
We stopped in to get our collector’s edition passport book stamped. The rangers there told us that this was not the National Seashore rather it was the Fish and Wildlife station. But joy! They but they had stamps also! They wanted to make sure we understood because some people only want National stamps, how weird. The Visitor Center was really nice and had several rooms of exhibits, much nicer that the National Seashore Visitor Center which is mostly gift shop.
The Wildlife Loop was closed to cars until 3pm. We really want to come back with bikes!
We found out that the Rangers control the water level in the Wildlife Refuge.
Time to Pull the Plug
To prepare for the hundreds of thousands of migrating shorebirds that visit Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge each spring, staff slowly decrease the water level in certain wetlands. By May, when the greatest number of birds arrives, large areas of wet mud provide a welcoming buffet.
To ensure a place at the table for everyone, including later arrivals, refuge staff continue to lower the water throughout the migration season- gradually increasing the area of exposed mud and thus the size of the table.
Sign in the Visitor Center
On the way to the National Seashore Visitors’ Center at we found several Great Egrets.
This population seems to have territories of about 20-30 yards. They hung out in the trees or wading in the ditch.
Nearer to the Tom’s Cove Visitors Center we came across several hundred white birds that were quite a distance away. We stopped and got all the birding gear out. Susan made the ID, they were White Ibis. We watched them for a while and then suddenly for reasons unknown to humans, they all took off flying towards us. There was water behind us and we thought they might be going there, right over our heads! How fun! We were looking forwards to a flyover. Birders know to look up but to also close your mouth. Then the landed right in front of us!
What a treat. Now we could really watch them and get some great photos. Check out this sequence of one of them getting a snack. Poor crab. (Paul here: I bet it was yummy yummy crab!)
Around this time a car pulled up and the passenger said, “You look like people who know what they’re doing, are those White Ibis?” They come here a lot and had never seen so many. Sadly, they left their birding gear at home! (susan here: she said she’d been coming here for 30 years and never got to see White Ibis. Which I find odd as they’re all over Chincoteague all year round. Perhaps she meant a big flock like that but that’s not how it read. Anyway I offered to let her look in my scope so she could see one up close. She declined.)
We made it to the Tom’s Cover Visitor Center to find a small mystery. The ranger made sure that we were stamping the Virginia Assateague Island National Seashore, I asked, Chincoteague, right? No, we were in the Assateauge Island National Seashore, and Chicoteague NWR must be inside that. This is only interesting to map geeks, ham radio operators and people with park “passport” books. Paul brought his ham gear just in case we got bored looking at birds. (Note, we didn’t.) Here’s a list of birds observed in the park in the last 4 days—84 different birds! (we’ll wait while you check our counts.)
Outside the Visitor Center we watched an American Oystercatcher watching us.
We met another birder. He made us look like noobs. He could easily ID shore birds, and help us spot the Least Tern, a bird we’ve surely seen before but never made a good ID. We had a life bird! (susan here: Terns and Gulls are exasperating. A lot of them look nearly identical. Making matters worse some of them have different plumage each year for a few years. It’s annoyingly complicated!)
Then he pulled out his camera with a lens and a lens hood as long as an arm. Then he had a parabolic dish for long distance audio capture!
Paul’s camera battery died soon after this. In his hurry to pack he grabbed his camera bag, but the charger and 2 batteries were left behind. Fortunately the camera also charges via USB and he had one battery in the camera itself.
By now it was after 3pm and we could drive the wildlife loop! There are wooded sections and marshy sections, and it’s all beautiful.
We came across an egret in a ditch but Paul saw something else, “Stop!” he said and she did.
Annoyed, Susan said, “It’s just a red-winged black bird.” Paul was thinking she’s a moron. That’s not a red winged blackbird! It isn’t black it’s dappled brown! We’re going back and forth and Paul looks out the window not using the binoculars and realizes that there are two birds there. He points out the brown one to Susan who was on it. One of us is reading off “diagnostics,” things like beak color and shape, eye ring or not, bands of color etc while the other is on the phone look for the bird. It was a Northern Waterthrush, another life bird for us!
Next up we found a Tri Colored Heron. We’d seen here back in 2019 but we still sat and watched it for a while.
In the next section Paul missed two obvious birds, but Susan spotted them from her side of the Jeep, one was a Green Heron, which we’d first seen in Vermont. Even though these are not life birds they are still fun to watch. And just as we were about to drive off an Eastern Kingbird landed.
The woods are nice but birding in the woods is impossible from a car, so we just admired the scenery. Back to the marshes we found this pair of ducks. Trust us, they’re there.
Susan was insisting they were Blue Winged Teals but Paul wasn’t convinced. “The head spot is all wrong!” insisted Paul. A pair of birders got of of their car behind us. Paul went and asked. “Blue Winged Teal?” Paul told them that he needed a better answer since that meant Susan was right!
We headed into town to a Taco place we’ve eaten at several times before. The menu is a bit limited now, when they open up years ago it had a huge menu, but at least they are still here. Sadly, the indoor dining area is now closed. We were a bit wind blown and wanted to sit inside. They have a screen porch but the winds were fierce. They had a sheltered area by the side of the building that was pleasant enough however it was still a bit windy for us.
After yummy food from the taqueria we were back on the road heading home. Chincoteague is a favorite spot for us even if we only visit it a day at a time. The views are always great here.
Except for the you know what’s!
Life Birds: 3 (Blue Winged Teal, Northern Waterthrush, Least Tern)