Walking the Wrack Lines

Since we moved to Delmarva we've been exploring beaches.  We got lucky and moved to an area close to several non-touristy beaches such as Bowers, Big Stone, Slaughter, and Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.  

We check the tide charts and try to head out at or near low tide making sure to consciously note whether the stretch of beach we are on will still be there if the tide is rolling back in. We often walk for miles.  Our longest walk so far this year has been just over nine miles out and back.  

Its been sad but interesting and even amazing to watch the tremendous beach erosion and how the beach-side residents and state employees try to maintain the properties and beach access.  It looks like they are losing, frankly.  These beaches we walk are mostly in the Delaware Bay tucked just inside from the Atlantic Ocean but the ocean is relentless and the bay is bigger than it looks on most maps. There is the daily sea rise that is seemingly transparent but then there are the low pressure systems and when combined with strong onshore winds it can exacerbate high tides or even seem to dismiss a low tide.  There doesn't have to be a huge storm it seems, to pull huge chunks of the beach away.  I was unaware of that until moving here.  We used to live on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland, and had a 30 foot Bayliner in the Magothy River, and before that, we had the boat in the Anchorage Marina in Baltimore. We were out in the boat a lot. But like many pleasure boaters and with working full time we didn't delve all that deeply into NOAA issues.  Not that I am now, but I'm ticking my toes in the water, so to speak, just a tad bit more as I learn about our area.  

I've found some really interesting things on the beaches.  Near Ocean City a year ago I found a small, dead seahorse, frozen solid, lost in the detritus of the wrack line. 

Another time, just recently on Slaughter Beach, we found a juvenile snow goose alone on the beach.  It looked like it was shivering.  It would flap it's wings but couldn't seem to take off.  We'd seen huge flocks of them moving across the Delaware Bay and in the surrounding farm fields and wetlands.  A state employee with a big earth mover working the lost beach issue told us it had been shot.  We hadn't noticed the small greenish spot just behind the left wing.  It's hunting season for them and the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge allows hunting.  The gentleman was nice.  He said the snow geese are tough and sometimes they can recover after having been shot.  As I said, he was being nice.  We'd been contemplating whether we should try to pick it up and take it to some wildlife rehabilitation place.  We had very little cell phone coverage on Slaughter Beach so we couldn't find a number to call.  Of course, learning it'd been shot kind of changed our assessment of whether anyone would help.  

You just never know what views or adventure awaits you when walking on the beach, especially one that is not groomed for sunbathing tourists.  We find different things everyday, washed ashore, both manmade and nature's goods.  The sky is different each time with the coloration changing with clouds or fog and lighting.  Birds and other critters vary with the time of day and season and our luck.  The breeze is always different as are the waves and the sounds.  The view is always spectacular.  

I love taking in the air, breathing deeply and feeling happy and content to have the opportunity to be there.