Chincoteague Island and National Wildlife Refuge

This past weekend, hubby and I celebrated our twentieth anniversary again Costa Rica was the real 20th celebration. So, this was just an extra overnight trip thrown in closer to the actual day. Chincoteague was my choice, I love going there to see the birds and the ponies.


                                       Click on picture for a larger image

 

Semipalmated Plovers

The Dunlins have a patch of black on their bellies.

Black Bellied Plover and maybe a Dowitcher

Chincoteague NWR consist of 14,000 acres of beach, dunes, wetlands and marshes. The Chincoteague refuge was originally started to provide habitat for the migratory birds. More than 320 species of birds are known to occur on the refuge. The refuge has also been designated as an Important Bird Area and was at time one of Audubon's top ten birding hot spots. The refuge management plans have restored threatened species such as the Delmarva Fox squirrel, Bald Eagle and the Piping Plovers.

                                          Egret and a Little Blue Heron

The Tri-Colored Heron

We saw Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets and the Cattle Egrets.

 Legend has it that the ponies are descendants of survivors of a Spanish galleon that sunk on its way to Mexico. The ponies live in a feral condition on the island and excess numbers are rounded up once a year in July and auction off by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Dept. The Chincoteague ponies were made famous by Marguerite Henry's children's novel Misty of Chincoteague. I know it was one of my favorite books. The real Misty was born in 1946 and her descendants still part of the herd.

It is cool to see the horses and ponies walking around the refuge

My favorite pony

                                           Chincoteague sunset

This is my entry for That's my world , thanks to the hosting group of That's my World.
Also my entry for this weeks Watery Wednesday thanks to 2sweetnsaxy for hosting this watery meme and my entry for Outdoor Wednesday thanks to Susan of A Sountern Daydreamer.
To see more entries click on my links. Also, thanks for stopping by to see my post.