Magnus to Mass., with Jamestown Jaunt, Day 17

Friday, August 22

Second day at Country Oaks, with breakfast and a long day trip to Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. Excellent, all! 

Breakfast at Mia’s Café was really good. A little slow, but worth it. I had Huevos Ranchero, which was two fried eggs atop salsa verde and fried potatoes with toasted corn tortillas at the sides. All very good. I also ate a good number of Ed’s leftover fried potatoes.  I could have had double the amount and still enjoyed it, but the amount I had was really just right.

Then back to camp for a short dog walk and on to the NWR.  Such a big, beautiful place with towers and a rather long “wildlife” drive—all of the avian sort—and marshes. Avocets, Glossy Ibis, White Ibis; Dowitchers (don’t ask me which one. I cannot tell a Short-billed Dowitcher from a Long-billed Dowitcher, and never will be able to.)  There were also lots of osprey, sanderlings, herons, egrets, gulls (Laughing, Ring-billed, and Herring) and a couple of big, brownish ducks which I hoped I could identify later.  And a mute swan or two.  And terns, at least three different species. And Black Skimmers. Given time and familiarity, I imagine a person could have seen at least ten other species, maybe more.

Un-identifiable ducks

Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibis

Mute Swan

White Ibis

  I adored the place. My idea of a bucket list dream trip would include going back there with time to walk the whole trail. Maybe repeatedly, at different times of the year. The pamphlet said that Snow Geese congregated there at certain times of the year, too.

But we drove it, so my viewing was tempered by time and the presence of non-birdwatchers (Ed and Molly), both very patient but bored out of their respective skulls.  Heavy sigh. 

On the way back from the refuge, we stopped at Atlantic City just to see a part of our nation’s history. It was old and big-city sort of dirty, but you could tell they’d made an effort at restoring the boardwalk. We didn’t go inside a casino, of course, but we did get stuck in the parking lot of one. We were just trying to get through, but the road routed us to the drop-off parking area where there were oodles of people and valets unloading their luggage. When we finally squeezed out of there, we turned into the first public parking lot we could find and paid $2 for an hour of walking around. 

 

It wasn’t horrible, but no place I’d want to spend any time on.

When we returned to the RV Park, it appeared they were having a party night. Lots of cars were packed into the extra parking; there was a food truck of some sort by the office; and a long line of people arrayed their golf carts to circle around the campground. They were all playing the same radio station (?) on their phones, loudly. 

 

They weren’t rowdy or anything, just having a parade. But since I chose not to join in, I finally was driven indoors to get away from the noise.