THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606200644
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: SPECIAL EDITION: A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO THE EXPANDED VIRGINIA MARINE
SCIENCE MUSEUM
SOURCE: BY LARRY MADDRY
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 100 lines
The museum's marsh trail stretches for one-third of a mile through woods and along the bank of Owls Creek salt marsh, an environment teeming with life - much of it invisible to the naked eye.
Much that is hidden can be seen in live exhibits in the Owls Creek Marsh Pavilion, where even the tiniest creatures are magnified and brought into focus.
The best way to begin the walk is with a stroll through the pavilion, perhaps with the movie ``The Secret Life of Owls Creek,'' presented in a 88-seat theater.
For a close look at marsh creatures, visitors can use Opti Tech cameras to get magnified glimpses of live sea roaches, green snakes, hairy cucumbers and other crawlers - creepers and floaters in their natural environment.
Other live exhibits include a meadow vole secreted in a muddy burrow, and a snapping turtle in a water-filled tank.
Youngsters seem to particularly enjoy the pavilion's Macro Marsh Room, where everything is 10 times larger than life and the sounds of the marsh are amplified. The legs of a great blue heron rise like giant stalks to the ceiling. The oversized replicas include a water snake, fiddler crabs, a ribbed mussel, a grasshopper and other insects.
A stroll outside can be even more rewarding, if a keen eye is kept on the marsh.
At sunset, for instance, bats zigzag across the crimson sky, after leaving their roosts in rotting trees. As many as seven species of bats make their homes here.
A blue heron or white egret tiptoeing on stilt-like legs toward a favored fishing hole is an interesting, if common, sight at the creek's edge.
A marsh is a flooded meadow. Saltwater marshes like the one bordering Owls Creek are places of great fertility, comparable to tropical rain forests in their richness. Information boxes are placed along the marsh trail to assist walkers who want to know more about the birds, grasses and mud-dwellers living around them.
(Humans are also dependent on marshes, indirectly. An estimated 95 percent of fish and shellfish sold commercially in Hampton Roads grow up in marshes.)
Plants are the main producers of food in the marsh. They are special plants, able to cope with harsh doses of salt water and the variations of wind and water caused by tides.
Two of the most common, but nevertheless interesting, grasses to be seen while walking are salt marsh cordgrass and salt marsh hay.
Tall cordgrass stands resemble fields of grain. They produce tiny ricelike grains in summer. Cordgrass's flat, thin leaves have tiny, sharp teeth near their tips. Cordgrass can grow to a height of 10 feet.
Cordgrass is unusual because its roots are covered with salt water at high tide. It is, literally, a weeping grass, shedding excess salt through tiny glands on the surface of its leaves. The salt crystals sparkle on the leaves at times.
Salt meadow hay was harvested for cattle feed during Colonial times. The hay is much smaller than cordgrass and rarely grows over 2 feet tall. It is usually found behind and at a slightly higher elevation than cordgrass and is submerged only during extremely high tides. The grass's flattened, swirled appearance resembles a cowlick in human hair.
The marsh walk begins outside the pavilion, at the Coastal Woodland Retreat, where plants native to the region are labeled.
A few of the wildflowers now blooming in the woodland are the Virginia willow, mountain laurel, blue flag iris and false indigo. Trees in the retreat include sweet gums, tupelo, red maples and white oak.
Next, the stroller encounters the Wildlife In Focus area, which is dominated by a blue 30-foot observation tower that can be climbed for a better view of Owls Creek. Nearby, museum staffers have erected osprey nesting platforms, which should make for interesting viewing if the birds make nests there.
Crossing a short bridge, the walker encounters a sunny meadow that will be planted with a variety of wildflower seeds in the fall. Some native wildflowers have already taken hold there, including lyre-leaf sage, purple coneflowers and black-eyed Susans.
Not far from the meadow is the Owls Creek Overlook and Outdoor Classroom area, which will be used for nature lectures from time to time. It is a grassy clearing planted with native shrubs, including mock orange, sweet shrub and strawberry bush.
Near the original museum building is an elevated boardwalk crossing a freshwater pond, where green turtles bake in the sun and bullfrogs can be seen partially submerged in the water. The boardwalk returns the walker to the creek and a slice of the marsh where fiddler crabs swarm like insects in the mud.
Panels on the elevated boardwalk give viewers clues about what animals might have recently crossed the marsh. Paw prints and food particles - such as broken pieces of shellfish - are the clues to determining whether an otter, raccoon or other mammal has been on the prowl. ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON
The Virginian-Pilot
The trail runs through owls creek salt marsh. visitors may see bats,
herons, egrets, turtles, bullfrogs and other species.
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
The Virginian-Pilot
Museum-goers enjoy the trail, which was finished prior to today's
grand opening. by SS