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2/25/2012

Woodland Beach, Delaware

Woodland Beach Is On The Delaware Bay East Of Smyrna, Delaware

Woodland Beach on the Delaware Bay

Woodland Beach is a lovely small beach located about eight miles east of Smyrna, Delaware, near the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge that I mentioned in my last post. From Route 9 in Smyrna, turn onto Route 6 and follow it until you come to the beach. There is a very large parking area adjacent to a freshwater pond which is often filled with waterfowl. A wooden boardwalk provides access to the water for boaters.

The beach has fine to medium tan sand, and at low tide it is about 30 feet wide from high tide mark to the gently lapping waves. If you enjoy searching for sea glass, or bay glass to be technically correct, this is the place to be. Rockhounders, too, will be overjoyed with this beach because of the unique pummeled rocks and minerals that line the sandy shore. Interested in looking for seashells? Woodland Beach has a variety of shells, too, and many are lined with mollusk secretions similar to mother-of-pearl. Beachcombers can spend the entire afternoon at Woodland Beach and still need to come back the next day to finish scanning their search area. That's how many beauties of nature that can be found on this beach!

New Fishing Pier at Woodland Beach

Woodland Beach also offers great opportunities for fishing and crabbing from its new Fishing Pier. There are also benches on the pier for visitors who prefer to relax and just enjoy the view of the Delaware Bay and the surrounding wetlands.

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) monitors the beach to maintain its natural beauty and to remind people that it is a carry-in, carry-out beach and no littering is allowed. Access to the beach is free and parking is free, as well.

Sea Glass, or Bay Glass, at Woodland Beach

Can you find the piece of sea glass in this photograph from Woodland Beach?

More Sea Glass, or Bay Glass, Mixed in With Rocks and Minerals at Woodland Beach

Do you see any sea glass in this second photograph from Woodland Beach?

Beachcombing at Woodland Beach

What about this picture of Woodland Beach? Can you identify any rocks, minerals, or shells? Try zooming your screen to get a good close-up view, as if you were actually beachcombing on the sunny beach right now.

As you can see, Woodland Beach is loaded with interesting things for both beachcombers and rockhounders to find.

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2/18/2012

Delaware Bay Beaches

Serenity and Serendipity at Unique Delaware Beaches Along the Delaware Bay

DE Bay Beaches Offer Free Pedestrian Access

Driving south of Wilmington, Delaware, along State Route 1, most seasonal travellers head for the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware's great Atlantic beaches, making the short trip in under two hours. But few people realize there are closer free public beaches hidden along the Delaware Bay that offer unique opportunities for nature walks, fishing, and water activities. Along quiet beaches with gentle waves, local homeowners and visitors can enjoy collecting shells, sea glass, and beautifully pummeled rocks and minerals (more on the treasured "Delaware Diamonds" in an upcoming post).

Public Beach Access signs for pedestrians have already been installed for the new season by the Delaware Shoreline and Waterway Management Section of DNREC at the following sites: Pickering Beach, Kitts Hummock Beach, Bowers Beach, South Bowers Beach, Slaughter Beach, Broadkill Beach, and Lewes Beach. DELDOT has carefully marked the entrance roads to these beaches along Delaware Route 1 S, making them available for a short detour from journeys south or a leisurely drive to spend the afternoon exploring all that each unique beach has to offer.

I hope you enjoy these beaches as much as I do. The beaches are beautiful and the people you will meet are warm and welcoming. Watch for my reviews and pictures of each of these beaches in my upcoming posts. When you discover your favorite new beach, head over to the DNREC website seeking volunteers for the annual March Beach Grass Planting: www.dnrec.delaware.gov/swc/shoreline/pages/beachgrassplanting.aspx You can help make these beaches even more beautiful and lasting!

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2/11/2012

Migratory Birds Flock Along the Delaware Coast Every Winter

Wildlife Refuges Along the Delaware Coast

Superflocks of Migratory Birds Fly in Synchrony Along the Delaware Coast

The coastal areas of the Delaware Bay and the Delaware Atlantic Seashore are excellent birding spots. Birdwatchers from around the nation migrate along with the migratory birds to watch the amazing flight patterns of synchronous flocking. It is in these very large groupings of birds that birdwatchers get a chance to spot the unusual species that often elude them at other times of the year.

What are superflocks? According to the Public Broadcasting Service's website (www.pbs.org), superflocks are composed of thousands of birds of one species or several compatible species who fly together in synchronous patterns for the protection of the flock, to search for food, to seek warmth, or because of kinship. The synchronous patterns result from instinctive rules about flight: Stay a precise distance away from the surrounding neighbors and stay aligned with the nearest neighbors during flight. To view a superflock taking off or landing, or performing an amazing oblique turn without a single collision, is an awesome sight.

Delaware's two national wildlife preserves, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, east of Milton, DE, and Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, east of Smyrna, DE, provide some of the best birding habitat along the East Coast. During January, February, and March, superflocks of Canadian geese, snow geese, tundra swans, blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds, grackles, and starlings converge on the marshes, farm fields, area parks, and residents' yards.

Watching the synchronous landing of a superflock of blackbirds into a nearby marsh, only to discover that every one of them are suddenly hidden from sight, humbles the best of the veteran East Coast birdwatchers.

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2/4/2012

Fact-Based Fiction and Assumptions About Bacterial and Viral Immunity

What If Our Assumptions About a Disease Are Wrong?

I've always loved reading fact-based fiction because I love learning new things. If I can be entertained while learning new things---all the better! Thus, I'm writing fiction based on current research and events and the age-old question, "What if?" What if one part of that research contained faulty data or analysis? What if one variable or the interaction of several variables had been overlooked? What if that current event had been held in a different setting? What if one person's agenda had been altered by a few seconds? What if our assumptions about our safety are wrong?

Think about our assumptions concerning our health. We assume that many diseases confer immunity against ever contracting them again. But consider Dengue Fever. Even a severe case of Dengue Fever does not confer immunity; rather, the first exposure to Dengue Fever confers a weakened immunity against a second attack of the disease. It is the second, more serious illness that often kills. What if other diseases assumed to confer immunity, like malaria, actually do not confer immunity?

Today's headlines report that a Lancet study discussed by Neil Bowdler, Science and Health reporter for the BBC News, concludes that "Malaria Deaths Are Hugely Underestimated." Immunity, or lack of assumed immunity, factors into this report:

"Worldwide malaria deaths may be almost twice as high as previously
estimated, a study reports.

The research, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, suggests
1.24 million people died from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010. This
compares to a World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate for 2010 of
655,000 deaths....The research was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation. It used new data and new computer modelling to build a
historical database for malaria between 1980 and 2010. The conclusion
was that worldwide deaths had risen from 995,000 in 1980 to a peak of
1.82 million in 2004, before falling to 1.24 million in 2010. The rise in
malaria deaths up to 2004 is attributed to a growth in populations at risk of
malaria, while the decline since 2004 is attributed to "a rapid scaling up of
malaria control in Africa", supported by international donors.

While most deaths were among young children and in Africa, the
researchers noted a higher proportion of deaths among older children and
adults than previously estimated. In total, 433,000 more deaths occurred
among children over five and adults in 2010 than in the WHO estimate.

"You learn in medical school that people exposed to malaria as children
develop immunity and rarely die from malaria as adults," said Dr Christopher
Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study. "What
we have found in hospital records, death records, surveys and other sources
shows that just is not the case."

"Over the past decade, 230 million cases of malaria have been treated and
the same number of bed nets have been distributed to people at risk of
malaria, and the result of that has been this huge downturn. So what we know
is that we're actually able to turn off malaria with our existing interventions."

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Woodland Beach, Delaware

Woodland Beach Is On The Delaware Bay East Of Smyrna, Delaware

Delaware Bay Beaches

Migratory Birds Flock Along the Delaware Coast Every Winter

Fact-Based Fiction and Assumptions About Bacterial and Viral Immunity

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