Horseshoe Crabs, the Delaware's State Marine Animal, fornicate on the beach
Not a lot to report today. Betsy worked on IABC matters while I worked at working out.
There is a subtle but noticeable change here each day as summer approaches; a few more bikes on the road, a few more cars with beach gear strapped on top, a few more bodies roasting on the beach, an uptick in the earnestness for a good time that people have when a vacation day is being used.
The eve of the summer season in Lewes is upon us.
During my bike/jog to the park I loitered for a while at Point Comfort, near the tip of Cape Henlopen, to watch the ferry leave Lewes through the breakwater the Federal government has built to help ships negotiate this raucous spot where the Atlantic and the Delaware meet.
Damn government. More wasteful, pork barrel spending I suppose. Which president started this project anyway; Clinton, Carter? Maybe one of those real big spenders, like Johnson or Roosevelt?
Nope, this Federal largess dates all the way back to the administration of the last Federalist, John Quincy Adams.
Another interesting story about another government project on the Cape. At the turn of the century (18th to 19th) the merchants in Philadelphia got so concerned about all the cargo and ships that were being lost in these treacherous waters that they agreed to impose a tax on all the goods unloaded at the docks in Philly to pay for a lighthouse here on the cap. It was built on what is today known as Big Dune. However, by the mid-1800s all of the trees on what had been a heavily forested cape were cut down and the beach began to erode, the sand drifted and the cape shifted and moved, growing noticeably at some points and shrinking at others. On some windy days the lightkeeper’s house was nearly covered in sand.
By 1921 the beach had eroded so much that the lighthouse toppled into the sea.
By 1921 the beach had eroded so much that the lighthouse toppled into the sea.
Ironically, when the Army built a concrete artillery bunker on Big Dune it helped to stabilize the sand and the dune has grown larger.
Today there are two lighthouses, unmanned of course, that sit out on the breakwaters above the cape.
I thought I might have seen an Osprey while I was out at Point Comfort, but then again maybe it was just a gull. On Osprey Cam Mrs. Osprey did stand up and move around a bit while I was there. The egg count is still two, possibly three. We will be long gone by the time they are scheduled to hatch in early June.
Still no sign of Mr. Osprey.
1 comment:
Full disclosure: Betsy has nothing to do with the cutlines Dave chooses. I did, however, catch these two Horseshoe Crabs - friends I suppose - on our own little beach in front of the condo. There were several in the incoming tides.
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