Each year hundreds of thousands of eager
beachgoers flock to the miles of Delaware's unspoiled white sand
ocean beaches, flying past signs for unfamiliar beaches in the
process: Bowers Beach, Slaughter Beach, Broadkill Beach. These
are the lightly visited beaches along the Delaware Bay. The sand
here is a little coarser, the beaches aren't wide enough for
sunbathing but the waves are frisky and dogs are always welcome.
The best of these bay beaches is Fowlers Beach, reached by a
series of twisting back roads until you arrive at an enormous
sand dune at the end of the road. The dune-backed beach is completely
undeveloped for over a mile - no sand replenishment, no sand
pumping, no construction.
The only sign of human interference is the reamins of a concrete
World-War II lookout hut that breaks the waves as they roll in.
Unlike ocean beaches there are plenty of pieces of driftwood
here for your dog to fetch and waves that will test the mettle
of any retriever.
Fowlers Beach is also a sanctuary for horseshoe crabs. These
catcher's mitt-sized arthropods are fierce-looking but completely
harmless. If you happen across one on the beach (most often in
late spring) that has been flipped helplessly on its back by
the waves, reach down and flip it back over.
The eggs of the horseshoe crabs around the Delaware Bay are the
only sustenance for the red knot, whose winter migration is among
the longest in the avian world. Every year the birds arrive at
the Delaware Bay on the brink of starvation and without the crab
eggs will never complete their arduous trip between the Arctic
tundra and South America.
<<Back To November 2007 Newsletter
<<Back
To Article Index
