Bits and Pieces

Just bits and pieces of odds and ends today...
  There was a round-up of the ponies Friday and Saturday on the Virginia end of Assateague.  They got their third doses of the new equine pythiosis ("swamp cancer") medication, in hopes that it proves to be a potent vaccination for all equines around the world. I haven't gotten a report regarding the northern herds, but it seems that we have lost a foal - Kimball's Rainbow Delight was spotted with a chestnut - possibly palomino - foal on May 19th.  Other than the original sighting and photo, there have been no others.  Rainy came in with her herd, but without a foal yesterday afternoon for the round-up.  Everyone else in the southern herds were in great shape.  DSC Photography was in "Facebook Jail" yesterday because they were apparently reported as "spammers" to FB, and they weren't been able to up-load new photos of the round-ups and the ponies in the pens, or on their way out yesterday.  They were back up and posting again at midnight.  (Thankfully!)

Distant (and only) photo of Kimball's Rainbow Delight and foal

(taken May 19)

  Now I need to grouse....   I just spent the afternoon looking at images placed on the Fine Art America website under two categories - one, just the word Chincoteague; and two, just the word Assateague.  Now, the words "Chincoteague ponies" are used pretty mush to describe any pony born on Assateague Island - ponies run wild in both states, Maryland and Virginia, on Assateague.  People also call the ponies born there "Assateague ponies."   Ponies born in Virginia are given vaccinations, have blood tests drawn, and are micro-chipped; and there is a specific registry for them - the Chincoteague Pony National Registry.  This is not done for the ponies in Maryland.  They receive no veterinary care, but are assigned an alpha-numeric ID number and are named by the highest bidder in on-line, and, occasionally, public bids. There is a difference between the ponies owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company in Virginia, and the ponies that roam free with no care and are over-seen by the National Park Service in Maryland.
  The people who post photos on the Fine Art America page apparently don't do their "homework."  And one of the photos was down-right frightening to me...  The photo was titled "I Am Wild" and it showed a young woman, sitting with her legs curled to one side, with her hip less than 6 inches away from the hind feet of a wild pony asleep on Assateague National Seashore in Maryland.  The girl is smiling prettily for the camera as she sits beside the hooves of a chestnut stallion named Corky.  What a complete and total idiot!!!  People are supposed to give the ponies a buffer zone of 50 to 120 feet.  She could have been kicked, trampled and/or bitten.  Then (I'm certain) it would have been the pony's fault, according to her, her friends and family.
   Other people assign their own personally-decided names on the ponies.  I was amazed to see, under the Assateague heading, a photo of Surfer's Riptide, dated 2012, where he was named "Slash the Pony" by the photographer.  There are multiple shots of Stevenson's Dakota Sky under the title of "Pony with the Copper Mane"...  Some ponies that have passed away in Maryland are listed with the names of Savannah and Squire, but none of the ponies there were named those names.  One of the ones that made my jaw drop was a hugely muscled palomino with a large white blaze, that a single photographer had posted as "Portrait" and "Big Red" (?) , and described the palomino is a wild Assateague Island pony.  That pony (or horse) is standing among a large growth of bamboo, which doesn't grow on Assateague, and I can definitely say that it never was a wild pony on Assateague.
   There were two other things that drew my ire...  Photos labeled as being taken on "Chincoteague Beach," and pictures and drawings of the Assateague Lighthouse that are also labeled as "Chincoteague."  First, there hasn't been a beach on Chincoteague since the early 1970s, when the south end of the island was developed.  And secondly, the Assateague Lighthouse is solidly built on Assateague Island, and always has been.  It is not on Chincoteague, but can be viewed from Chincoteague.
   Maybe people are confused because the Virginia end of Assateague is both the Assateague National Seashore and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.  The Assateague National Seashore is run by the National Park Service; the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is run by the National Fish and Wildlife Service.  They are two intertwined entities.
   But Assateague and Chincoteague are not the same islands.  Assateague is the very long green and orange island at the top of the map below.  Chincoteague is the small tan blob close to Assateague, and the right side of the map.  North is to the left...

Thanks for letting me vent my spleen..... 

Assateague Island, Maryland - Photos

Mammals of Assateague Island - Photos

Bottlenose dolphin

Eastern cottontail

Sika deer

Harp seal

Virginia opossum

Raccoon

River otter

Delmarva fox squirrel

Assateague ponies playing at sunset - Happy and Bodacious Bob

What Lives On Assateague Island? - The Mammals

Lots and lots of creatures live on Assateague Island, and/or in and on the surrounding waters. Despite the often harsh conditions that occur in a coastal environment, a wide variety of animal species have managed to find a niche on, or around, Assateague, which stretches from southern Maryland to northern Virginia in the Atlantic Ocean.  Each of the island's different ecological zones provide habitat for a multitude of animals; these include birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates.  Today, I'll write about the mammals - those air-breathing, warm-blooded creatures like us, who walk upon the ground or swim in the ocean.
   More than twenty-five types of mammals live in or around the island of Assateague; the most well-known are the wild ponies.  They are descendants of feral horses and ponies; the first-known being the blinded Spanish pit ponies that were ship-wrecked on the island from the galleon La Galga, and were noted in a report to Spain by the Spanish ambassador.  The people of coastal Maryland and Virginia were taxed upon ownership of livestock, and they allowed their stock to run free on Assateague to avoid payment of said taxes, and, so, the "wild ponies" of Assateague came about.  The 80-plus ponies living on the Maryland end of Virginia receive only contraceptive darts for care; the ponies in Virginia belong to the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, and are kept on Assateague via a contract with the US government.  The ponies feed primarily on salt-marsh cord grass, but also consume beach grass, greenbriar, bayberry, poison ivy, and many other types of vegetation that are not in the usual horse's diet.
   Other large mammals also roam the parks (the Assateague National Seashore and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge) grazing and browsing on low-lying vegetation.  They are the indigenous Virginia White-tailed deer, and the non-native Sika deer, a miniature type of Asian elk, who were introduced to Assateague in the 1920s.  On-going research is evaluating the ecological effects of Sika deer on both native vegetation communities and their effect upon other wildlife, including the native white-tailed deer.
   The other other mammals range in size from small rodents, to bats, to furry critters, to large marine mammals - including the bottlenose dolphin and several species of whale that feed in the island's offshore waters.  Besides the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, the Atlantic white-sided dolphin, and the common dolphin are frequently seen around the island - in the ocean and in the channels and bays.
Whale sightings include the fin whale, humpback whale, pilot whale, sperm whale and right whale. Seals are occasionally seen resting on Assateague Island, also; usually sighted are the harp seal, harbor seal, and, rarely, the hooded seal.
   Red foxes build dens in sand dunes and roam the island hunting for mice, birds, insects, and berries. Opossums  and raccoons provide the important environmental service of waste removal, feeding on the island's carrion, as well as insects, larvae, berries and small rodents.  The only marsupial in North America, the opossum give birth to premature young which complete their development in a pouch on the outside of the mother's body.
   Rodents such as the meadow jumping mouse and meadow vole live in grasses bordering both salt- and freshwater wetlands.  They feed on seeds, wetland plants, and in the case of the jumping mouse, insects.  Though seldom seen, both river otters and muskrat make their home in the island's marshes and adjacent waterways.
 A listing of mammals on and around Assateague Island:
Chincoteague/Assateague ponies
Red fox
Whales - fin, humpback, pilot, right, and sperm
White-tailed deer
Bats - little brown, red, and silver-haired
Delmarva fox squirrel
Raccoon
Eastern cottontail rabbit
Dolphins - Atlantic bottlenose, Atlantic white-sided, and common
Sika deer (miniature Asian elk)
Mice - house, meadow jumping, and white-footed
River otter
Rats - Norway and rice
Least shrew
Muskrat
Virginia opossum
Meadow jumping vole
Seals - harbor, harp, and hooded

Dappled Horses

I have always loved horses with dapples whether they are the traditional dappled grays of the old-fashioned rocking horse, or dapples on solid color horses.  But what causes dapples?  First, it's based on genetics, but nutrition and grooming also have a hand it in.
   Dappling is the existence of irregular spots on the horse or pony's skin. On equines, dapples are circles of slightly different shade than the rest of the coat.  And they are mysterious.  They can appear, disappear and reappear at various stages of the animal's life.  Your care can also contribute to the appearance of dapples.
  Many gray horses have dapples at some point in their lives.  They are typically not born with this marking, and many times aren't even born gray; they can be born with any base color, usually black, but also chestnut or brown.  They gray as they get older, gradually developing those circular dapples, but they are usually short-lived.  As the gray horse ages, the dapples fade, the hair whitens, and the dapple disappear completely.
   Horses of other colors - browns, chestnuts, bays, blacks, duns and palominos - don't dapple predictably or intensely like grays do, but some do have the genetic disposition for dapples.  Sometimes they last the entire year, sometimes only for the season after they lose their winter coat.  Dapples can be difficult to see, and sometimes the light needs to reflect at just the specific angle for them to be visible.  Good grooming and good health will accentuate them.  If your horse or pony is healthy, and you groom him properly and regularly, but you still don't see dapples, then your equine simply doesn't have the genes in it's DNA to produce dapples.
   A lot of people believe the appearance of dapples on a non-gray horse is an indication of good health.  They are not wrong, but they are not entirely correct, either.  Good nutrition is necessary for a healthy coat and skin, allowing dapples to appear in horses that are genetically disposed to them.  In particular, your equine needs protein, a fat source, the trace minerals copper and zinc, and vitamin A for a good coat.  Feeding your horse a diet of high-quality forage such as good pasture grass or hay that isn't old will give your horse most of these needed nutrients; a commercial grain will round out their diet.
  Another measure to promote skin and coat health, and to bring out any dapples, is regular worming to rid your horse or pony of parasites.  These parasites rob your horse of the nutrients that he absorbs from his/her feed.  The result is a dull, drab coat that lacks any luster.  Often in such cases, the equine won't be able to shed, or will shed unevenly.  Make sure your mount gets plenty of water and exercise; both of these help deliver nutrients to the skin and coat.
   I must add on that I am always amazed at the dappling on the ponies of Chincoteague and Assateague...  They are an amazingly hardy breed!

Critters, Wild and Tame

It doesn't seem like a week since I sat down in front of a blank blog page...  All sorts of things are going on in the news and wildlife areas.  And I've been taking care of multiple houses full of critters, as people decide to vacation on a whim, without planning for pet care.  I've been running around like crazy.  I think I have two days off, Wednesday and Thursday this week, if nothing else pops up.
   I've started re-reading my Robin Hobb collection, and am currently reading Dragon Haven.  After I read her books, I'll hit my Rafael Sabatini novels, and then my un-edited editions of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.  That should keep me busy for a little while.
  I received my National Geographic DNA information back some time ago - my Haplogroup is J1c4.  But I have recently sent my DNA for processing to both Ancestry and to 23AndMe, also.  I'm waiting to see what is reported by the other two agencies...
   We've recently had moose in North Boulder - a woman was tending her garden on the edge of Wonderland Lake, and said she "suddenly felt a presence looming over" her.  It was a mother moose with twin calves, and the mother decided the woman was threatening her babies.  She was knocked down and walked upon.  Luckily, she only had scrapes and bruises.  And another moose with a single calf was reported at the Justice Center near the end of Boulder Canyon.
   Of course it's now summer, and we're having our usual incursions of coyotes, mountain lions and black bears.  The coyotes have been grabbing small dogs who are off-leash on walking, jogging, and biking paths, as well as cats loose in neighborhoods.  The mountain lions are grabbing the mule deer and fawns.  The bears are smashing bee hives and stealing honey, as well as raiding any bird feeders they can reach.  A friend has a one-inch thick wrought iron post for her feeders, and thought they were safe - this morning the post was bent at a 70 degree angle and the bird feeders were crushed and empty on the ground.  And folks around my sister and brother-in-laws house now have teen-aged bobcats out hunting with their parents, as well.  The fox are staying under cover as much as possible.  The cottontail rabbit birth explosion is feeding most of the smaller predators.
    Tess, one of the dogs I care for, is not doing well at the moment.  She started having seizures last fall.  They began occurring every 4 days a couple of months ago, and she has finally been placed on Potassium Bromide as a daily medication. (Her owner is a very firm believer in holistic medicine and diet taking care of everything.)  The K-Bro medication has increased her appetite amazingly, as well as her thirst.  But the main side effect is ataxia, her hind legs don't support her well...  The vet told the owner that once Tess reaches her optimal medication level, she'll return to normal.  The vet told the owner it would take one month.  I read the information, and it says the optimal level is reached in three to four months...  We'll have to see.  In the meantime, the dog who always bounced and danced on her hind legs is now shuffling with her nose to the ground.  It's pretty sad...
   Still at 59 new foals on the Chincoteague NationalWildlife Refuge - 56 after the three losses.  One foal died from an umbilical infection, one foal got stuck in the marsh mud and couldn't break free, and one had a congenital defect of the forelegs, which could not be healed.  All the others are quite bouncy and bold.  As usual, there are some really stupendous pinto markings, quite a few solids with great conformation, and a few real stand-outs.  I'm happy with the foals so far...
 

Assateague Island Photos

 Above, first foal of 2017; below, the sire, Tornado's Legacy

Seen on Assateague Island (Maryland) - Photos

Photos by "Beached Paws" and "Cat Nonamehere"

Reflected serenity

Old anchor

Sika deer

The beach on 1 March

Fox at sunset

Pinecone study

Three generations - (left to right) mom Charmed, grandma

Ninka, grandson Phoenix

Island Views - Assateague and Chincoteague

Japanese elk

Ninka, Charmed, and colt - 3 generations

Chincoteague Channel sunset

Fall on the marsh

Tri-color heron

Delmarva fox squirrel

Monarch butterfly

Assateague and Chincoteague Photos

Buckeye, a 9-year-old Feather Fund Chincoteague pony, gallops along Tom's Cove

Charmed and her new colt on the Maryland end

Butterfly Kisses - Riptide foal

Chincoteague Bay sunset

CNWR sunset

Eagle eye, Assateague

Dolphin family

Assorted Photos - Assateague, Italy & People

Charmed finally had her baby - it's a girl!  

Actors on the set of  Vikings

Fall at the foot of the Dolomites

Tim Tebow's first day as a New York Mets player