Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Dunes, Forest, and Marsh


Assateague is such a diverse place! The dune area is, obviously, very sandy and beachy. It is hot, desolate, and scrubby. When you get away from the crowds, it feels like you are treking alone across the desert. Even the ponies don't seem to stop here very often -- they use it as a "highway" on the way to somewhere else.


The forest area is just that -- typical forest with pine and deciduous trees and a bit of poison ivy growing almost everywhere. Oddly, there are Prickly Pear cactus just at the edge of the forest area, and the cactus is now in bloom. Each bloom comes with its own contingent of ants for some reason. Maybe cacti are like peonies?


Lastly is the marsh area. There are lots of birds, fish, and grasses here. Very lovely, and my favorite spot. A great bird watching spot. I met some people who were crabbing yesterday, but they said all the crabs were too small to keep. You can sometimes see some crab claws left on the walks by birds who don't need to throw the small ones back.


On the downside, I have fed some fauna -- no, not deer or ponies. Mosquitos! Ticks are also quite bad here, but I do several tick checks a day (and have found some before they began their dinner). Regular old house flies are also a nuisance -- for the first time in years, I bought a fly swatter. I now have little fly corpses littering my floor. But it feels really good to whack 'em!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, what you need is one of those electronic fly swatters. You aim, push the button and no matter how hard you hit them, they are dead! Batteries not included on purchase, of course. But they do work!
What state are you in anyway?
And it is a good thing that you finally showed up on here. I was getting worried about you!
Karen