Virginia wildlife

Fun at Virginia Beach beaches

/ Roadtirement / Leave a comment

Sometimes the weather conditions can be a little rough for enjoying the boardwalk and beaches at Virginia Beach. However the city has added features to the beach scene that provide families the opportunity to use the beach even on cool and blustery days.

A unique beach park and playground

A unique beach park and playground

A imaginative park design

A imaginative park design

There have been many additions to the beach since our last visit. The Grommet Island park and playground has really nice  playground equipment with some whimsical features. Our granddaughter enjoyed playing in this park when we went to the beach during a recent trip to visit our family.

A blustery day

A blustery day

A few folks enjoying the boardwalk

A few folks enjoying the boardwalk

We liked seeing the pelicans flying overhead

 

Chincoteague Island

/ Roadtirement / Leave a comment

Chincoteague Island on Virginia’s eastern shore is a unique dab of land that features a large National Wildlife Refuge, some pretty beaches, and is known for the herd of wild ponies that roams the open spaces.

There are lots of “touristy” type things to do, including a lot of tour boats that will take you out and around the island. Most of these are pontoon boats with a capacity of six passengers. We decided to not take one of these tours but to just drive to the beaches and drive around the Wildlife Refuge.

We parked on the beach lot accessible through the Wildlife Refuge. The beach is really worth the drive: the parking is close to the beach, the sands are clean and it is a great place to grab a bite of lunch.

IMG_3336 (2)

Our National Parks Service Senior Pass saved us the $8 entrance fee to the National Wildlife Refuge. (Seniors 62 and older can get this pass here: NPS lifetime Senior Pass website)

IMG_3345 (2)Our drive around the “Wildlife Loop” did allow us to see two of the wild ponies. They were about 400 yards away from the road, so the picture is not the best quality. We did see them, though, which is alleged to be usually pretty iffy. Other than the two ponies and some white egrets we did not see any other wildlife during our drive.

Our home base on Chincoteague Island was an RV park named Tom’s Cove Park. The park was large, with over 900 spaces. It was a decent park albeit a bit pricy. (We were at a $51 a night spot that included cable and free WiFi)

A close encounter of the buzzard kind

/ Roadtirement / 2 Comments

On our way to Chincoteague Island the other day we had an interesting wildlife viewing. We were on Highway 13 heading north out of Cape Charles, Virginia on the Delmarva Penninsula.

I noticed a buzzard (actually the correct name is turkey vulture) soaring over the road. He was big like the one in the picture below that I took some time ago. As he started down over the road I could tell he was heading to the ditch on the right side.

These guys have a 5 to 6 foot wingspan

These guys have a 5 to 6 foot wingspan

The next thing I know his buddy buzzard took off from the ditch right in front of our motorhome! Whack! The next thing I see is the tail of this huge bird getting hit by the top edge of our vehicle’s hood. Sher let out a screech as the loud sound of the impact startled her to say the least. It sure scared me as well. Mr. Buzzard flew off to the left after he tried to clean the front of our hood with his tail feathers.

After our next stop we checked and luckily there was no damage to the front of the motorhome. However I know that somewhere on Hghway 13 there is a big buzzard with a sore butt.