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By Leslie Adkins

As we drove along, I looked around at all of the signs of nature, smelling the forest around us. As we crossed into the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge we heard, “Have your cameras ready,” from our publisher and driver on this weekend visit, Robert Boswell, who also was calling out camera settings for us to figure out.

Then we headed toward the Bateman information center which is where everyone should begin their visit to this wonderful piece of American earth.

Let’s get straight on where we are. It can be a little confusing. The Refuge is actually located on Assateague Island. Both Chincoteague and Asasateague are barrier islands on the east coast of Virginia, connected only by a short bridge.

The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most visited national parks. It is also home to the famous Chincoteague wild ponies. On this day, we were off to explore and take pictures to share with our website viewers.

As we entered through the main door of the information center, I knew that I had a story to write. I went to the main desk and talked to Bertie McNally, a long-time park ranger for the Refuge. Bertie is probably the face seen by more info seekers than any other, she is always at the desk.

Bertie gave me some information on the eagles at the Refuge that had created so much excitement this summer in 2008 because their nest and just hatched eaglets could be seen on a live cam. The cam drew a constant audience.

We also talked to Diane Wien, a volunteer at the main desk, and with Kate and Tom who were among the visitors enjoying the eaglets on the cam.

I took some notes and jotted down a few quotes for my story. On the cam were two baby eaglets huddled together in the nest, one larger than the other, the larger first-hatched. Soon the parent eagles dropped in for a landing, their beaks carrying fresh fish for their little ones. The fish was fed to their babies in small pieces. It was a little dramatic because the camera is just focused on the nest, so you can’t see them flying in, just swoop, and they’re there. After finishing feeding, the grown eagles dove out of the nest.

After watching the eagles on the camera for a short time, we left to explore the wildlife along Beach Road. As soon as we were on the trail, we saw activity.

The first action for our cameras was a few of the ponies from the southern herd that were grazing on the grass. They were hard to bring close enough with our standard 105-mm. lens. But with our Canon 100 to 400-mm. lens, the ponies came alive, full frame, as if they were right next to us. These ponies, which tens of thousand of visitors come to see, were dining on new shoots of grass that had popped up.

As we came upon Black Duck Trail, which is a biking and walking trail that runs between the Loop and Beach Road, we were surprised to find five northern herd ponies outside of the fenced boundaries. They sensed no threat and actually let us photograph them easily and up close. We caught several clear shots. A week after our visit, Chincoteague firemen and volunteers repaired the fences which had allowed the ponies to escape.

We left the ponies to keep on our schedule. Along the rest of the Loop we saw various shore birds. Mr. Boswell said that many of the photographs in the Wild Pony Tales gallery had been taken along this 3 ½ mile stretch. We also looked in the tree tops for the eagle nest which we had been told was on the Loop, but did not find it.

People say, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’ That is also true for spending a day working on a story and taking pictures. We eventually took a break to relax and admire the ocean at the beach, which at this time of year has a few walkers but no swimmers.

Our little break included finding shells and scaring seagulls. We also took some photos of the native sandpipers. After this, we ruefully ended our break. Everybody left with clear thoughts and their own personal treasures.

After our break, we circled back through the park. We soon saw a snapping turtle on the side of the trail, and stopped to take pictures.

“On your bellies. Get in close”, said Mr. Boswell as we took pictures. The turtle, age unknown, which turned out to be a snapper, sat as hard as stone as we took photographs. We got some excellent head-on close-ups. We soon left him, or her, behind.

We rode in silence until there was commotion on the side of the road. We pulled onto the curb wondering what was going on. When we looked, we were bewildered to see a skimmer, a bird native to the beach area, in a creek, perched bravely on a log. He could not keep his balance, and fell into the water. He was not bothered; he just preened his feathers aloofly.

As we passed by Black Duck Trail, the ponies were still grazing. There was a new guest this time; a beautiful blue heron. Some people may think that shots will come again, but this shot was once in a lifetime.

We soon had to leave to get everyone home. It was mostly quiet until we stopped to eat at McDonald’s. I ordered a double cheeseburger with a medium order of fries. Despite my carefulness, I managed to spill Coke on everyone. It took us a while to get the mess cleaned up. We all ate our meal while chatting excitedly about the day. It was sad to have to end such a wonderful day, but nothing lasts forever. It was a short, quiet drive from Chincoteague to Greenbackville. When we got to my house, everyone said his or her short, sorrowful goodbyes.

I know I was thinking how super it was to live close to such a wonderful part of our country and be able to write about my discoveries in the Refuge that I could share with viewers to our website, some even in foreign countries as well as all over the U.S.

The writer is an 9th grade student from Arcadia High School in Accomack County. She and the photographer are regular staff members of www.wildponytales.info. (Both moved on to the 9th grade for the 2008-09 school year.)

For Refuge Biologists, a Loggerhead Nest
Is Worth Many Moments of Joy

By Zack Hoverson, Misty Thornton and Robert Boswell

From a distance it looked like another dead turtle.
But wait.

This one was moving. With its head and flippers in action, it was headed toward the sea.

This was enough to bring Joelle Buffer, a senior biologist at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, to a state of full alert. “My emotions went from ‘bummed out’ to ecstatic in a 10th of a second,” she said. For the next 20 minutes Joelle watched what turned out to be a mother loggerhead crawl across the sand until she was safely in the water. “It was just me and the turtle and a beautiful sunrise on the beach.”

Joelle, who moved to her Assateague assignment recently, was on routine patrol on July 3 as part of her job with the Refuge. She had driven south along Assateague Beach to the area known as Tom’s Cove Hook. As was soon discovered, this loggerhead mom had left a full nest of eggs burrowed in the sand. Having survived the usual predators so far, thanks to the efforts of the Refuge biologists and staff, the hatchlings were due to dig out of the sand and head for the Atlantic anytime after September 2.

What got Joelle and her colleagues who came to help so excited was the rarity of this nest discovery. There were no nests found in 2007, seven in 2006 of which all but one was washed out by tropical storm Ernesto, and only two hatched in 2005. And as luck would have it, tropical storm Hanna was on the way, putting the nest in further danger. But this time the nest survived and the wait for signs of hatchlings continued.

Joelle has been a wildlife biologist for 30 years, the last 12 with the San
Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Before that position she was employed by three other U.S. agencies, working with bighorn sheep, elephant seals, endangered butterflies and green iguanas in Central America. After all this, Joelle said watching that female loggerhead return to the ocean is one of her top five wildlife encounters.

“One of the things that attracted me about this job was the chance to work with sea turtles,” Joelle said. “I knew that Chincoteague is on the northern end of the loggerhead’s range and my chances of finding a nest my first year were small. So I feel very lucky.” She said one of her co-workers who has been at the Refuge for 20 years has never seen a live adult turtle on the beach.
The loggerhead is not likely to be mistaken for any other turtle. With a red-brown shell, they grow to an average size of 4 feet long, with an average weight of 250 pounds. They take 30 years to reach sexual maturity and live around 60 years. There is a good chance the nest Joelle found may hold more than 100 eggs.

Just after discovering the nest, “savoring every minute” of that beautiful early July morning, she called a co-worker to share her excitement. Then the work began.

Measurements were taken of the crawl track. The body pit where the turtle had laid as she dug her nest was studied to find the location of the “nesting chamber.” Biological Technician Eva Savage carefully dug in the sand, lifting out one handful at a time, finally reaching the top layer of eggs to confirm there was a nest. The sand was quickly replaced and within 20 minutes more measurements and photos were taken and a protective screen was placed over the nest to deter predators.

The eggs and hatchings have plenty to worry about. There are raccoons, red foxes and then ghost crabs that can feel the vibrations of the hatchlings through the sand and dig their way to them.

But it isn’t only these natural predators the biologists have to protect against. Beginning September 1, the Toms Cove Hook part of the beach reopened to visitors, including off-road four-wheelers. The Refuge staff hopes visitors will pay attention to the protective zone they have built around the nest. The nest is located about 200 feet above the high tide line. A 20-foot wide corridor of black silt fence has been erected, with signs posted that read, “Area Closed. Important Turtle Nesting Site.” Visitors are asked not to drive or walk between the turtle nest and the ocean, and to steer clear of this protective zone.

Refuge staff will visit the site daily to check for signs of hatching. “In our area,” said Wildlife Biologist Amanda Daisy, baby turtles tend to ‘trickle’ out of the nest a few at the time over a period of several days or weeks. They don’t pop out of the sand all at once like you see on TV.”

If all the precautions work, any time now, there could be action coming from the nest. The eggs usually hatch at night, making a bee-line for the water. According to the biologists, the hatchlings move instinctively toward the brightest spot on the horizon, because in nature moonlight reflecting off the water is the direction of the sea. The black silt fence forms a light barrier, hopefully blocking light from vehicle or flashlights which could disorient the hatchlings.

The biologists have some suggestions for the public that may help protect sea turtles. First, report any crawl marks to Refuge or Park Service staff. Then be sure not to walk on the marks and if a live turtle is spotted, watch it from a distance, turning off lights. Also, pick up trash, especially balloons or plastic, from the beach and don’t litter.

“With patience and some luck,” said Joelle, the number of live hatchlings will be counted as they emerge and go into the sea.” If this event takes place as it is supposed to any day now, it will bring back memories for Susan Fair, Refuge secretary. She and her daughters were part of an all-night beach watch when the last turtles hatched in 2005.
“My daughters were there, too, to help the turtles into the water and it is amazing to think that maybe the turtles they helped into the water came from one that I helped many years ago, said Mrs. Fair.

This story has appeared in the Piping Plover, published by the Chincoteague Natural History Association, the Chincoteague Beacon and the Eastern Shore News. Writers Misty and Zack are 9th graders in Accomack County schools and live near Chincoteague. Boswell is a retired newspaper editor and journalism teacher and is the publisher of Wild Pony Tales.

Loggerhead Eggs Fail to Survive Storms

With the loggerhead eggs within a week or so of hatching, biologists at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge made a grim discovery.

The turtle nest in the sand of Tom’s Cove Hook did not survive the September 2008 nor’easter that roared up the coast and other storms that sent waves crashing ashore.
As a result the rare turtle nest was flooded for an extended period. Senior Biologist Joelle Buffa said “The eggs can take a certain amount of flooding, but when we dug into the egg chamber it was completely saturated with water.”

Joelle said she and her co-workers excavated the entire nest chamber to see if any of the hatchlings survived. “I must sadly report that all 166 eggs, quite a large clutch, were dead. Most of the eggs had small baby turtles in them, so if the storm had held off for another week or so, we likely would have had a nice turtle hatch.”

Joelle had discovered the nest July 3 on a routine patrol of the area. She had watched the mother loggerhead amble out into the sea after laying her eggs and the nest had been marked off by poles and protected from predators with fencing on top.

Loggerheads grow to an average weight of 200 pounds and live around 60 years. No nests were found in 2007. In 2006 seven nests were found but all but one was washed out by tropical storm Ernesto. In 2005 eggs in two nests did hatch.

By Wilma Young

Deer?

“Don’t those little deer ever get any bigger?”
No. Those little deer-like animals are really Asian elk known as sikas.

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The sikas range over the entire refuge but a snail group is frequently seen near the administration building hoping for a treat from a visitor.

How can you be sure it’s a sika and not a white tailed deer? The trade mark of the sika is the bright white shield on its rump… a powder-puff behind. The white-tailed deer has a brown tail with a white underside, this he raises like a flag when alarmed.

Next question: where did the sikas cone from? They came from Asia originally. On this coast we have Clemment Henry of Cambridge, Maryland to thank tor the sikas’ introduction to the Eastern Shore. He brought a few here in the early nineteen hundreds and apparently kept then as pets. They multiplied and in 1916 he released some of then on Janes Island, establishing a population in Dorchester County.

In 1920 Dr. Charles Law of Berlin, Maryland bought five of the snail elk from “a man in Cambridge” according to the record. We’re guessing that the man was Clemment Henry. During the period of Law’s ownership three young were born and one of the original males died. A boy scout troop was said to have released some here in the nineteen twenties. That story had not been confirmed until 1992, at which tine Larry Points, Chief of Interpretation at Assateague National Seashore, interviewed an 82 year old man who had been in that boy scout troop in Ocean City, Maryland.

Owen Mumford on September 30th, 1992, told Larry Points that his scout leader, a Methodist minister whom he calls “Preacher Truitt” went “somewhere in Delaware” to acquire some sikas. He recalls that Truitt went to Wilmington or Dover, but it may well have been to Cambridge or Berlin, Maryland.

They had about a dozen sikas, Mr. Mumford recalls. He believes there were 10 females and two males. These animals were taken by the scouts to the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland and confined under the old pier. The scouts charged the public to look at the sikas…25 cents for adults and 15 cents for children. That summer the scouts raised $700 showing the sikas and took a trip on the proceeds. Business apparently slacked off but the expense of feeding the animals continued so the leader and some of the boys in the troop, including Owen Mumford, took the sikas to Assateague Island and released them “on some flat lands”. Larry Points suggests that this may have been at “Fox Levels”. Mr. Mumford was between 10 and 14 at the time so the release must have been between 1920 and 1924. Later on “a man from Berlin” released more. Mr. Mumford believes seven to nine animals were released then and he also believes it was for the purpose of hunting them.

They are exotics, not native to the area, and so they have no natural enemies; no predators who fancy young elk. The wolves and cougars are long since gone from this area.

The herd on James Island suffered from over population, their numbers exceeding the food supply of the island habitat. A die-off occured in 1957 with 161 sikas dying in just one winter.

We have no exact census of the sikas at Chincoteague National Wildlife efuge, but the estimate is slightly less than one thousand.

The white tails are largely browsing animals, eating tender shoots of trees and shrubs. Sikas are both grazers and browsers.

In Japan sikas were once hunted for their antlers. The hunt was so extensive that the sikas neared extinction. Today the Japanese protect them as a national treasure. In Russia the population was once so large that the government considered re-establishing the wolf population to keep the sikas in check.

In some countries sikas are raised domestically for their antlers. The velvet, which is the soft furry skin on the growing antlers is scraped off and ground up to make a tonic. Ten injections are given the patient as a general stimulant.

You may encounter sikas in petting zoos around this country.

What sounds do they make? They’re quiet animals most of the time.
During mating they make a bugling sound but a whistling sound is used as an alarm signal.

Here in the refuge they usually feed at night tine, spending their days loafing in the greenbrier thickets. The few around headquarters seem to feed during the day but that’s because they’ve grown accustomed to begging from visitors. They are so appealing that even the most blase’ visitor is tempted to feed them. Please don’t give in to temptation.

There’s a considerable size difference too – sikas are two or two and a half feet at the shoulder, weighing about 60 to 80 pounds – little guys. The white tails may reach three and a half feet at the shoulder and in some areas may weigh as much as 250 pounds. The white tails on the refuge may reach only 140 pounds because their food supply is sparse here on a barrier island.

The antlers are decidedly different as well: the sikas’ slanting backward while the white tails’ antlers have a forward beam.The coloring is also distinctive as the sikas are dark brown with lighter spots on either side of their back bones and these spots may remain throughout the animal’s life. Their winter coat is darker, white tail deer are spotted when young but as adults are tan or reddish brown in summer, grey brown in winter. They’re decorated with white on the belly and throat and have nose bands and eye rings of white as well as white linings in their ears.

About the writer:

Wilma Young served as a senior volunteer at several national parks, coming to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge three times.

Her last stay at the Chincoteague refuge was just before her 80th birthday in 1997-98. On this third stay she served as an environmental education teacher for the Chincoteague Natural History Association. As a volunteer in her first two summers, along with the various duties she was given, Wilma found time to write. She spent hours reading about Chincoteague history and conducting research in the libraries. Some of her articles later found their way onto the Refuge web site, some were published in our local newspapers and some were used as trail guides for other volunteers. Today, at the age of 89, Wilma is as intensly interested in protecting our planet as she ever was. She can talk non-stop about the ways we humans have found to cause harm to our environment. She is passionate about things most people never take the time to learn. Years ago she wrote a story for her granddaughter, explaining why she often wasn’t home. “Every living thing depends on other living things and although we know a lot of the connections, we don’t know them all.” In explaining her work with the Refuge to her granddaughter, Wilma wrote, “…I help report the numbers on the goose collars…I answer questions our visitors have about all the wild creatures…I notify the biologists of any reports of unusual sightings of sick animal or creatures caught in nets…sometimes I pick up trash on the beach…I wander the trails, answering more quesitons…and best of all I look up a lot of stuff then write about it to help people understand how much we all need each other.” It is hard to find the words to describe this caring, kind and concerned grandmother. But her precise and accurate writing speaks for itself. We are pleased to publish her work in Wild Pony Tales. — Robert Boswell, publisher.