Two Gulls at Chincoteague

There were lots of gulls at Chincoteague. There were tracks all over the beach when we walked there the first afternoon. The wind was cold - not conducive for a long photo session so I focused on one gull that stood surveillance at the water’s edge. Maybe he was watching me - ready to fly away if I took a step closer. I used the zoom on my camera and he continued to pose for the few minutes I tolerated the cold.

The more interesting event happened the next morning. It was still cold. We noticed a gull carrying something swooping down onto a sand bank. We pulled to the side of the rode and I took a series of pictures sitting in the car with the window rolled down!  The gull had caught a crab. The crab was still trying to escape when it was first thrown to the sand bank. But the gull proceeded to eat his catch soon enough. The crab was brunch for the gull!

Chincoteague Sunset…and Sunrise

We arrived at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge at mid-afternoon and decided that we would make the effort to photograph the sunset….and then get up early enough the following morning to photography sunrise.

Here are two sunset pictures - taken about 15 minutes apart. I liked the burned in color.

In between, some birds flew to their evening roosts.

And thus the day slid to evening.

The next morning we were early enough to catch the reds of sunrise.

The lighthouse was still bright over the treetops.

The light turned toward orange,

And then a minute later - faded. A cloud bank must have blocked the sun!

We continued to the shore and saw the thin line of color just over the sea. The cloud layer above was very thick!