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1 Assateague Island became part of the National Park System in 1965. Thirty-seven miles long, the island covers over 18,000 acres in the states of Maryland and Virginia. It's a windswept barrier island that offers many opportunities for seashore recreation and nature study. Ocean swimming, surfing, camping, bayside canoeing, crabbing, clamming, hunting, surf-fishing and off-road vehicle use are all popular activities. The famous wild Assateague ponies roam throughout and share beach to bay habitats with a host of other mammals and nearly 300 species of birds. Sometimes the ponies are only seen in the distant summer haze grazing with Sika deer and at othertimes up close in the beach parking lots or on the beach wading in the surf.
Assateague Island National Seashore is a place for dreaming and walking down the beach. Along the way, particularly on cloudy days or with a flashlight at night, you can see pale ghost crabs. In summer dolphins often cavort just offshore while raucous laughing gulls announce your presence. During the spring and fall migrations, countless shorebirds probe for food as the waves retreat. From April through summer, thousands of herons, egrets, and terns fish the shallow bayside waters. In autumn you can watch monarch butterflies feed on flowering goldenrods as they pause in migration toward Mexico. Occasionally a red fox or the dead-playing hognosed snake is seen in the dunes.
The National Park Service and two other agencies administer Assateague. Within the Virginia boundaries of the national seashore, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, renowned for its snow geese and other waterfowl in winter. Within the Maryland boundaries of the national seashore, the Maryland Park Service manages Assateague State Park.
"A picture can say a thousand words" so I've included some images of Assateague Island for your viewing pleasure.
Images of Assateague: Page 1 Page 2
| These titles offer more interesting reading about Assateague and/or the Wild ponies:
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1Most of this text is from several National Park Service documents.
The authors are unknown.
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