I had a free day and hadn't taken pictures in forever and decided I was
going somewhere today. I decided on the eastern shore and headed out
about 6:30 this morning. It was cloudy this morning and windy...and the
wind got worse as the day went on, but the clouds did finally turn to
sun after lunch.
I stopped at the first island of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel. It
was deserted. The restaurant/gift shop is closed until the summer for
renovations(the pier is still open), so there were no travelers there.
Despite the clouds and wind, I was pleased to find a Long Tailed Duck
and get some pictures of it as well. There were a few Cormorants, and
lots of gulls hiding on the ocean side away from the 40mph winds.
I left there and went by the visitors center and down to the boat ramp
at Wise Point. Not much except for some Mergansers and Northern
Shovelers in the little inlet on the left on the way to the ramp. FYI,
the visitor center is on 10-2 hours for the winter. I stopped there for
a few minutes and was treated to several hundred Snow Geese flying
over. The formations were neat to see.
From there, I went to Magotha Road, Oyster, and by the landfill. I saw
a Kingfisher at the Oyster boat ramps, and two red-Tail hawks out on the
road. I headed back out to 13 and back toward home. I went to Cape
Charles and on the way to the beach, caught a glimpse of something at an
empty building off the main road. It truned out to be a Cooper's Hawk
who was very photo-friendly and let me get within 30 feet or so to get
some decent pictures. The high winds and waves made looking for
anything in the water pointless, so I moved on to Kiptopeke. The
sheltered waters there provided quite a few more photo-ops as I got some
nice pictures of a Common Loon diving and more Mergansers.
From there, I headed back to Wise point since the sun was out and got
some decent pics of the Shovelers.
Despite the dark start to the day, it turned out well and I enjoyed myself.
Pictures are loaded at:
http://public.fotki.com/bhouston/miscellaneous/nature_pics/20091228-eastern-shore/
As always, comments and questions are welcomed.
Barbara
