Maryland - Day 1 - arriving

Pocomoke River State Park
Friday, 1 February 2019

Maryland - State #11

today's route

On our second walk this morning, I saw another Belted Kingfisher.  I've been hearing them fairly often flying around the lake, but they're fast and not always easy to see.  But today, just like the last sighting, I saw one perched on a tree limb for long enough for me to see she was female.  I think Belted Kingfishers must be one of the only bird species where the female is more colorful than the male, and you can see that she definitely is.

male

female

The morning weather report said it was snowing right then in Dover and points north, but that it would likely total no more than an inch.  They said the snow flurries would work their way south and be in the area of tonight's campground by late afternoon.  Accordingly, I decided to leave earlier than I'd originally planned.  We were gone by 10:00.

From the campground to Salisbury, the principle town in southeastern MD, is only about 15 miles so it didn't take us long.  A car passed us that had clearly been snowed on, and its rear window had been scraped and still had ice on it, so I concluded it had spent the night somewhere north of Dover.

I'd thought about doing some sightseeing in Salisbury to keep from getting to the campground earlier than check-in time but, while we were sitting in a grocery store parking lot eating lunch, it started to snow.  Not much - just a little flurry, but the flurry didn't stop and I decided if I was too early to go to my campsite, at least I'd be sitting in the campground if it were going to snow on me.

As we drove farther south, we ran out of snow - very reassuring to me as far as driving conditions - and the campground let us check in hours early.  Just as well, too, because after we'd been here for about an hour, it started snowing and it didn't stop.

This is about 2 hours worth.  You can see it's not much, but it's not nothing either.  I'm glad I planned to sit here for tomorrow as well, because it's really likely to be adverse road conditions tomorrow.

The campground came along with a snow plow on the road after about a half-inch fell.

Except for the campground host, we're the only ones here.  Odd kind of feeling, but it's certainly a guarantee of quiet and no dog problems.

I'll spend some time tomorrow trying to figure out what I might be able to see in this state this month.  The prediction is for temps in the 50s for much of next week, though that's hard to believe now, but most of the state is north of that Dover line and has been getting snow all day, which may mean difficult access later in the month.  Well, hope on, hope ever.