Landscapes
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Scenes from the Outer Banks
We visited several highlights at the Outer Banks, in North Carolina. This black bear was in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. It was our second time visiting, and we still haven’t seen any alligators — but the bears are certainly impressive. They can be observed from the car as you travel the roads of the preserve.
We also took a dolphin watching cruise one evening. Though we saw a dolphin or two, the most striking natural phenomenon was the rapid incursion of a cold front that blasted us with wind and a major temperature drop shortly after the cruise began. The sky stole the show.
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Visiting Chincoteague
Despite being a diehard Marguerite Henry fan as a child, and revisiting the books and movie with my daughters as an adult, I’ve never been to Chincoteague. Till last week, that is. We stopped on our way back north from a vacation further south, spending a night in “America’s happiest seaside town.”
While there, we had an absolutely stellar experience touring the waters around Chincoteague and Assateague by boat. Our guide, a lifelong Chincoteague resident, shared a wealth of knowledge and keen observation that gave us a sense of the local and natural history of the place, the ponies, the diverse coastal birds and other wildlife, and the way the community has evolved into a primarily tourist economy. These pictures capture only a small part of what we were able to observe.
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Morning
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Late February, Late Afternoon
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Outer Banks in June
I thought I’d posted these earlier in the summer. Better late than never! These are a few select pictures of a great experience at the beach.
To scroll through the photos manually, click on a photo and move forward or back in the sequence using the arrows.
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Winter Beauty
These photos were taken back in December. I was trying out a wonderful Christmas gift of a new camera. I’m posting them months later when the chill has lifted, and I can enjoy them without my teeth chattering!
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Niche
Some people have a talent for creating beautiful domestic niches in the midst of a wild landscape. These images are from a visit with some of those people.
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Early Summer: Outer Banks
What a treat to enjoy the vast, changing landscape of the ocean for a few days…
Morning 
Osprey 
Pelican 
Just a few blocks away from the wide open, salt-sprayed spaces was the Nag’s Head Woods Preserve, a place of clinging, muggy air; wetland chirps and croaks from all manner of unknown (and unseen) creatures; and green scum covering everything from the water surfaces to the turtles and, yes, the beaver — the first beaver I’ve seen live, though in our area we see the signs of beaver activity often.
It was an amazing place, and it hosted far more wildlife and plant life than we were able to see. As may be apparent from the pictures, we were racing a cloudburst, and the walk was accompanied by rumbles of thunder and general eeriness.
Still, I think my favorite environment was the beach. The grandeur, the invitation to reflect on possibilities, and the good spirit of others made it a wonderful week.
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Feeling Crabby
I have quite a few photos I haven’t posted this year. For this one, I’m reaching back to last summer, when we visited the Outer Banks and were amused and captivated by the hermit crabs. Have you ever seen a more dejected expression than this little crab wears?
We enjoyed watching them survey the world from their holes, darting out now and then and scurrying quickly back to hide. My husband even set up what we happily dubbed the Crab Cam to capture one on film.
Of course, there were plenty of other sights as well: ospreys, pelicans, dolphins, shorebirds, and the various lovely moods and prospects of the ocean.
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Summer Falls
Wild geranium at the entrance to the trail 
The first of many stairs 
One example of the harmony between human stairs and natural stairs 
There’s always a mixture of darkness and light 
Greenery is everywhere 
There were brook trout in most of the pools, waiting for the next rain to raise the water level and carry them further down the falls 
Sun peeks through 
Peace 
Forget-me-nots along the bank 
A female mallard that plopped in for a rest while we watched 
Turning to look back down the stream This is a 3/4 mile walk along a gorge, but that short span includes something like a 600 foot rise in elevation. We climbed a lot of stairs, then walked down the other side on a more gradual trail. It was an absolutely lovely day.
