When we visited Chincoteague last Christmas season, we
drove out in the rain towards the ocean on Assateague Island. Rain on the ocean is often beautiful. As we drove back towards Chincoteague, the
sun came out; blue skies showed through the thunderheads, and at a pond-side
marsh we saw a tree illuminated by sunbeam, completely covered with white egrets. Though we visit Assateague often
enough I had never seen such a large group of egrets, and I had seldom seen egrets
in trees. We discovered that a flock of
egrets is called a congregation or a colony of egrets.
We often stay at an inn on the tidal Eel Creek on Chincoteague
Island. A
great marsh with brackish pools lies beyond the creek. Large glass doors look
out from the living room onto the creek and marsh. Two rusty trailers sit to
the west of the inn’s wooden landing, and two lonely trees stand in front of
the trailers. In the mornings, as the
sun comes up, we often hear the dawn squawk at the inn – several species of
birds give voice at once to the rising sun.
Then the dawn parade starts.
Varieties of geese and ducks swim grandly west on the creek in formation
or not. Solitary heron and egrets fly
with great slow heavy wing strokes to the ponds on the marsh. The fishing day has begun.
The morning after we arrived in Chincoteague a few weeks
ago, I slept till nine. Ox, a
sensible tourist, woke just before dawn.
He looked out our living room doors and saw the two trees covered with
egrets facing east. Each tree had, what
he described as a priest egret at the very top.
As the sun rose the priest egrets, and seconds later the rest of the
congregations, gracefully flew east to fishing spots on the creek. Ox reported that the moment felt like a
well-practiced sacred ritual.
The next morning as Ox slept, I looked out the doors
before dawn. Again the trees were
covered with egrets, this time facing west.
At the top of each tree was a priest egret. The world was hushed. As the sun rose, the priests flew west and
out of sight, followed by the congregations.
The dawn squawk sounded. The
directions the egret congregations flew likely had to do with the tidal
currents in Eel Creek and the fish.
Ox decided that we should once again take Captain Dan’s
boat tour around Chincoteague Island. When
we had done this before we’d learned a great deal about the island history and
wildlife. On our first trip we saw three
bald eagles and a variety of birds as well as the famous wild Chincoteague
ponies. [I am not overwhelmed by the
wild ponies as they are vaccinated every spring, fed when forage is sparse, and
rounded up a couple of times of year.] Captain
Dan is a 3rd or 4th generation Chincoteague fisher. He knows the history and wildlife of the
island and of Assateague well.
This trip, the highlight was a sighting of about
five pods of dolphins. I have seen many
dolphins before, but only on PBS. These
dolphins came into view as we came to the channel that led to the sea. The five pods of dolphins ranged from
five members to two. In each pod as one dolphin rose to the surface the next dolphin dove, weaving a wonderful tapestry of motion. The graceful arcs
and rhythms of the dolphins left me speechless and awestruck.
OH MY!
