Pea Island to Anahuac

As the Tundra Swans and the Snow Geese are hanging out the Eagles are following close by and always looking for an easy meal .

Every time the Eagle makes a flyby the birds get all excited and lift off, where they make crash into each other and make the Eagles hunting that much easier.

It was an awesome site watching all the shore birds work a large school of bait fish out by the wreck of the Oriental just across from the Visitor Center on Pea Island .So many birds that they actually drowned out the cars passing by .

Watching the Pelicans and the Gannets fly up and just drop straight down into the ocean was amazing . This went on for 5 hours .

Now this was the view from our back window . Yes that is really snow and it's 20 degrees out . Should not happen here in Nags Head .

Well you know that the weather is not always what it should be and we tell the visitors that the snow doesn't stay very long ?

Well this season seems to be just a bit out of the normal .The snow stayed for 3 weeks and it was sooooo cold .

So much ice and snow and if you have ever been to and area that usually doesn't have much it really can make for some interesting travel . Cars off the roads every where .

Cape Hatteras National Seashore , there should not be snow here.

The Bonner Bridge , covered with 2 inches of ice and snow , yes we were the only vehicle on the road .

The never ending removal of sand from NC12,. the sand just blows over the road and it needs to be cleared every few days to keep both lanes open.

It's not supposed to be this cold here . Darn

Frozen sea water in the VC entrance

 

Snow and frozen waves by the Oregon Inlet where the new bridge construction is going on. You have to feel for the contractor trying to keep to a deadline for the new structure

The entrance road to Bodie Island Lighthouse , a half mile from our RV.

Just so pretty when covered in snow

Not some thing you expect to see in an area where sand castles are normally built

Wind and snow , pooh. The day of the storm this side of the RV had 2 inches of ice on it and it took 12 hours for the ice on the door to melt so we could go outside . The second storm we had was classified as a winter hurricane and we had gusts to 74 miles per hour . We are so glad we have a zero degree unit . Warm and snug inside and cold as all getup outside .

And just when it looked like the first snow would finally go , boom ,9 more inches . So we said good by to the snowy Outer Banks and headed back towards Texas

And of course along the way we just had to visit , a Refuge

And like most of the smaller Refuges , the Visitor Center was closed so all you an do is take a peek. OH well.

Nice Pelican shot on the Refuge .

Back at Anahuac and a trip around Shoveler  pond and we found that there are now numerous Muskrats now living in it .They are cute .

Of course it's always nice to see some of our favorite birds .

And of course the always present wild pigs that are just creating havoc all over the refuge when they start digging up everything in site . A piggy will eat just about everything it can smell.

A very handsome face .

A Tri Color Heron just enjoying the day . One of the few since we arrived , It has rained all but 2 days in the last 10 .

Now there is a cute face

There are 10's of thousands of Snow Geese here and they can make some major noise when moving around the refuge .

Some Roseate Spoonbills moving over the RV Pads

Just lovely, And it is really nice being back in Texas , it may be rainy but at least we are in the high 70's here and not the 20 degrees we left in North Carolina . The few couple of snow days that ended up being 2 weeks worth and the wind chills in the single digits were just awful .Our  next year there we will be warmer we hope .