
DATE: Tuesday, June 10, 1997                TAG: 9706100038

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, Staff writer 

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE BACK BAY'S A HAVEN WITH GORGEOUS SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

BEFORE IT GETS too hot, take a trip to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. This time of year, a stroll through the marsh, along the dunes and on the beach can be a wonderful outing that introduces you to all kinds of local wildlife. It's also a look at what this area was like before man moved in and made the animals move over.

The 7,732-acre refuge is a haven for migrating birds. More than 250 species drop in between October and February.

On summer mornings or evenings, especially, you can catch glimpses of white-tailed deer, raccoons, opossums, gray foxes, minks, muskrats and nutria.

But if you wait too far into the heat, you'll have company of an unpleasant kind - blood-thirsty biting flies that guffaw at your feeble can of insect repellent.

So go to the refuge soon, or put it on the calendar for fall.

We visited on a cool, sunny day and began in the Visitor Contact Station. Examples of all kinds of birds and small mammals are mounted and displayed there. They are just to look at.

But - bless them - park rangers have filled a wooden trunk with found items and put a big sign on top: ``Please Touch.'' There we gently rummaged through deer antlers, whelk shells, skate tails, bones, bird wings - even a small, bleached skull that we guessed was from an opossum or raccoon.

There we also ran into Florence James, a wildlife biologist who was preparing a slide presentation on loggerhead turtles. The sea turtles lay their eggs on Refuge beaches and rangers move the nests to protect the eggs and then release the hatchlings into the ocean when they're ready.

At the center, James said, visitors can request and watch videos on a variety of topics. She also told us about the electric tram rides the park offers. Twice each day, from Memorial Day through Oct. 31, they take visitors through the refuge and into False Cape State Park, which lies just to the south.

We walked outside to the boardwalk and Bay Trail that leads on about a one-mile round trip through the marsh. A word to the wise: Watch out for poison ivy. It is everywhere along the path. As it gets hotter, there are also abundant mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers.

But even with the threat of terminal itch and the creepy feeling that snakes lurk everywhere - which they most likely do - a walk through here offers gorgeous views of Back Bay and the delightful rustle of wind through the marsh grass. We saw turtles, frogs and guppies, wild blackberry bushes, honeysuckle vines and thistles.

Then we headed for the half-mile Dune Trail, which takes walkers parallel to the beach behind the dune line, then across on a boardwalk onto the beach itself for the walk back to the Contact Station. Walking across the dunes on the boardwalk we saw loads of animal tracks. Once on the beach we spied sand crabs, sandpipers darting back and forth with each wave and pelicans gliding inches above the water along the surf line.

Be forewarned. This is a rules kind of place: Signs warn visitors not to collect plants or animals. There is also no swimming, sunning or surfing.

Pets are not allowed from April 1 to Sept. 30. But surf fishing is permitted and so is shell collecting. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Charlie Meads

Back Bay...has boardwalks...

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Map

Area Shown: Back Bay Wildlife Refuge.

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IF YOU GO

What: Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Where: 4005 Sandpiper Road, Virginia Beach

When: Sunrise to sunset. Visitor Contact Station is open 8-4

Monday through Friday, intermittently on Saturday, 9-4 Sunday