Radecsky-RV: Alligator River & Pea Island

We have been asked to help rebuild the mobile Bear Blind and so we went and picked it up way out in the Alligator River Refuge and dragged it over to the AR RV pads to work on it. It' hard to believe that some of the largest bears in NC are living here and their numbers are said to be between 500 to 800 bears in the Refuge. Lauren giving me the what are you taking my picture for.

After we did some major and minor repairs to the structure of the unit the ladies did some pretty cool art work on the exterior as to try to give it a little bit of a camo look. I don't think it will fool the Bears but it looks great and I know the bears have a knowledge of this unit as one of the repairs I made was to a section of trim wood just above where the claw marks were in the plywood and the section of wood was ripped away.

Giving a lesson in how to properly roll up an extension cord. Nothing frustrates me more than a badly rolled up cord.

Tundra Swans on one of the flooded farm field impoundments in the AR Refuge. At this time there are about 1000 Swans scattered through the one hundred fifty thousand acres

Always a treat to see a mom and a little one moving across one of the flooded impoundments.

As she moved to the tall grass she made a switch.

We watched them for some time and realized that when they passed through the tall grass and entered the water that they had changed positions and mom was now behind the cub as they swam across the drainage ditch. Just making sure her little one was doing OK.

It was awesome to see just how fast they can swim .

Out of the water and back up on the berm with a few good shakes to remove the excess water from their coats. The only sad note on the whole thing is she had another cub earlier this summer but it didn't make it.

Like most of the large water fowl the Swans pair up for life and when migrating they manage to remain as family groups with the young still traveling together.

Driving past one of the many ditches we disturbed a great blue heron.

Their wing span always impresses me.

Swans , Geese , and all manner of ducks out on the salt marsh at the Pea Island refuge.

Some Ibises perched on a dead tree at the back of the Pea Island pond. Several small groups have arrived in the last few days.

We gave these poor ducks a bit of a freight when I stopped to take their picture.

This one was flying backwards .

One of the Bald eagles that arrived with the flocks of Snow Geese . The Eagles follow the migration of geese south.

We were out at the back side of the fresh water pond on Pea Island and this shot shows just how close the fresh water pond is to the blue Atlantic. just a hundred yards separates them. The only thing you can't see is NC highway 12 which is by the power pole.