Assateague National Park

May 10, 2016 by dawnkinster 10 Comments

We left beautiful Virginia Beach this morning as the rain began to fall. I felt sad to be leaving the ocean, but excited for the next adventure…

A cold, rainy run. But the dog doesn’t mind.

…because next on our list of places to explore was Assateague National Park! It’s on a thin strip of land, one of the outer bank islands, and it spans both Virginia and Maryland. It’s where the famous wild horses live.

There’s some youngsters in the herd!

I’ve seen photos Robin, from “breezes at dawn” has taken of the wild horses and I wanted to see them for myself. We visited the southern entrance to the park, in Virginia, and found a herd of them far off in the middle of a marsh.

Way back there is a mom and her little one.

Even after walking way back to an observation platform they were still a long way off, so these images are cropped. A lot. Still, it was very very cool to actually see them.

Robin sent me information about visiting at the northern entrance to the park, in Maryland, but by the time we got up there it was raining harder. Rain and cold temperatures made me decide that what I had seen was enough for this trip, though talking to Robin on the phone makes me want to come back and explore the Maryland end of the park.

We also stopped by the lighthouse. It’s beautiful, back in the woods and on the edge of the marsh…

Would have been fun to climb.

…such a lovely walk back to see it. You can climb the 175 stairs, but it’s only open on weekends right now. Later in the season it will be open all week.

Then we headed out to the beach where I saw several birds that I could not identify.

I have an idea what these are…can anyone confirm?

I told my husband I had to try to get pictures, knowing that some of you would be able to identify them for me.

What are these largish dark birds?

And even though most of these are not great shots, and they’ve been cropped to within an inch of being illegible…I hope you know what all these birds are!

I think there are a couple different kinds of birds here, none of which I recognize.

And as we walked through the forest opening up to the marshes, a huge flock of these swooped overhead:

They are medium sized, white (I think) with hooked beaks. What are they?

Here’s a better shot from directly underneath:

Does this help identify the bird?

We didn’t get up close to much of the wildlife, but we had a great time. It was so nice to be back in nature after spending two days in Virginia Beach and Norfolk with it’s crowds of people.

I did get pretty close to this clump of probable seagulls. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a bird with a mouth that is so red!

What you talkin about lady?

I can’t pronounce the name of this park, but I definitely recommend you all to visit! I hope to be back again someday soon myself! Thank you, Robin, for sparking my interest in this amazing place!

Shining example of a lighthouse.