A Few Days at Chincoteague NWR

In late April, I spent a couple of days photographing at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. Chincoteague is my favorite NWR to visit and its a place I know pretty well. But as always, there is something different to photograph than on previous trips.

As usual, I photographed a sunrise in the marsh. This may be my favorite place to photograph sunrise, almost every time I visit, I end up with photos of a peaceful sunrise. During this sunrise, I saw some sika deer and birds in the early morning light in the marsh.

 

 

 

Once the sun came up I spent my time photographing wildlife! I found a herd of Chincoteague’s famous ponies grazing along the side of the road. A couple of them raised their heads while walking so I could photograph them. I can’t tell you how many photos I have of Chincoteague ponies with their heads down grazing!

 

 

As usual, there were lots (and lots) of birds to photograph. These are some of the Great Egrets I saw.

 

 

The big surprise for me was finding a pair of sika deer alongside one of the channels. I’d seen a few earlier in the marsh at sunrise but was too far away to get anything more than a tiny silhoutte in my photo. Along the channel, I was actually able to get photos where you can tell what the deer are!

 

And for me, no trip to Chincoteague is complete without stopping by Assateague Light. It was nice to see that the light has been painted recently.

If you are in the DC area, Chincoteague is always a great place to visit for a quick photo getaway. I’m not sure when I’ll next visit, but I do know I’ll have a wonderful time photographing when I do.