Monday, October 13, 2008

A Short Hike in Back Bay Wildlife Refuge

With the winds calm today, I decided to hike in Back Bay again, taking a slightly different route to look for wildlife. Essentially, I took the hike that I did about two weeks ago when I found the cottonmouth.

On the two mile drive to the refuge parking lot, I noted that it was just before sunrise, so I stopped the car and walked to the beach at Little Island City Park. It was a beautiful early morning on the beach:


I saw and heard numerous small birds along my 2.5 mile hike, but could identify only a few of them (red wing black bird, catbird, mockingbird). I also saw a tree frog, a couple of cottontails, and at several points I saw the snouts of turtles sticking just above the water's surface like periscopes. But the larger birds and mammals that I had hoped to find were conspicuous by their absence.

Without the winds of the past three days, the bay was so calm that it appeared like a mirror:

It only takes a slight elevation gain to produce considerable biodiversity in a marsh:

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