Clouds , Ghost Crabs , Ocean

We went to the Beach this morning and it was just beautiful. nice breeze from the South and at 9:30 it was already 82 degrees.

We have a storm off to the south and north of us and the sky was awesome. Clouds from two directions . All shapes and colors.

The clouds over the dune that's just behind the RV

This shelf cloud turned the sky black over us but there was no rain. We have noticed that by Thursday the beach looses most of the crowed. mostly they are all sunburned and looking for some sort of indoor activity.

Just sitting and enjoying the day so we always bring something to feed the Gulls. Today we had a surprise with a couple of Ghost Crabs. We knew they pick up bits of food we throw out but this really surprised us.

He came over and grabbed a full cracker and carried it off to his hole. just a small problem occurred when he got to his hole.

When it didn't fit into the hole he tossed it out for another try.

Grab the end here and lift , that should work.

Just a little more effort should do the trick.

No

A different approach.

No , same result

Lets try again, but by this time his neighbor came over and stole the cracker.

Darn , he has had the same result. You can only wonder what the first Crab was thinking.

It really should fit

He gave up so we went over and broke it up for him and watched for another 20 minutes as he carried each piece into the hole. Made us wonder just how deep the little one had dug down. We also put some cracker by the first ones hole and he also filled his hole . Just a hoot to watch these Crabs work .

Just one bird picture today. The surf was fairly calm as the wind is out of the South West and it keeps the waves really low.

Birds , Bears and such

We went out to the Alligator River refuge and was lucky enough to see several moms and cubs .

And like all good moms when she saw us she took the little ones into the soybean field.

Sunset over the Sound

We have been witness to a really cool discovery of one of the great mass Purple Martin nesting areas on the East coast. Thanks Cindy.

This is still a little early in their nesting period but in two weeks there should be a hundred thousand Martins here.

Just a pretty Beach day.

Watching the Shore birds working the wash for some eats.

Peaceful

Gulls and Cheese Doodles , perfect together  .

If you have the goods they will come

A little out of order but we made several trips to watch the Martins

If you wander through enough Cemetery's you will find the neatest head stones.

This is a new marker  we found near the Aquarium parking lot in Manteo

Always a little history

A little more Civil War history in NC

Tern Banding

We arrived on a small sandy island out in the sound at 6:30 am to band a new batch of Tern babies.

Any time you enter a rookery you are going to upset the moms

We had to be extra careful walking about as there were eggs everywhere.

There were so many small chicks still in their nests it was some times hard to find a safe path.

This small one was only a few hours old and the egg shell was still in the nest .

One mom was trying to protect this batch of little ones and was herding them into the bushes to protect them.

As we tried to herd the chicks across the beach to our make shift corral. It wasn't going well. they had there own thoughts on where they were going.

How could such little birds out smart 14 adults. It was easy. We would go left and they would go right and then turn around and just stop.

We finally broke them into smaller groups and had some success. We brought down the wire corral and banded them on the spot.

Just so cute. One of the three thousand little one we helped to band on a really sunny hot day out in the Pamilico Sound , about 10 miles in from the Oregon Inlet . It is just a beautiful location for the rookery as they are all posted " no entry " and they really are just for the birds.

Too hot

         We have been in the Outer Banks for over a week now and it's just to hot to do much of anything. We have done our first three shifts in the Pea Island VC and every one who comes in can not believe how hot it is. The fresh water pond behind the VC has almost disappeared . That's the first time in 30 years . All we are able to do right now is do our shifts and hide in the AC until this heat breaks.                                                                                                      G

Traveling

         Day three on the road and so far everything has been a good . Our one day and two nights in New Orleans was as good as it has always been but the French Quarter is not a pretty as it use to be. A little more trash and now there is graffiti on some of the historic houses and just about every where else a can of paint can come into play. So sad. As we walked some of the side streets there are signs that say to travel in large groups for safety, how things have changed in a few short years. Today as we were leaving the RV park the road to I 10 was closed due to a shooting under the bridge where the on ramp is, once again things seem to be changing for those who love to visit there. Tonight we are in a little RV park in Alabama  and we are the only ones here and it's a weird being all alone.       G

Getting ready to travel

          Hard to believe we have been here for almost 6 months. Time just rushes by here and it is now just a week until we start back towards the East Coast. We have several stops planned along the way. First we are going to New Orleans for two nights. a little Café Dumont and some good sea food on Chart Street and then we plan to visit a friend in Hilton Head. We meet him in Wyoming two years ago and have stayed in touch so we will do a short stop as we have never been there before . Then on to Pea Island and we will be back on the Beach for the summer. It was just awesome there last year so we asked if we could come back an we were accepted. We have a new Refuge on our list for next year and it will be totally different as it is inland and on the Mississippi River just below Natchez , MS . It looks really nice. Should be interesting as the Refuge has parts that are totally flooded for part of the year . Looking forward to seeing it that way.                                   G

A little rain and a little sun

As we have had some rain every day for the last 27 days , all the ponds are full and there are frogs every where.

And as always where there are lots of frogs there are snakes hunting them.

He was just passing by on the hand rail where I was shooting the snake.

All the water plants are in bloom wherever there is some water.

Was washing the RV and this little one popped out from under the unit. We were wondering why our evening serenade of little green frogs had stopped.

It seems he didn't like to be hosed down with cold water so off he went back into the field next to us. A Rat Snake , no venom .

The moist soil unit across from the VIS .  Some young Roseate Spoonbills and Egrets.

One of the many Purple Gallinule around Shouvlers Pond

Went and visited one of the larger State Parks last week.



Lots of flowers every where.

A pair of Whistling Ducks enjoying the wet . They are the size of small geese.



Every where you look are flowers

And odd red one

Lotus flowers are in bloom all over the park



Just beautiful

Water drops on the lotus pads

We don't see a lot of deer in these parks so this was different.

Just resting. Also the reason there aren't a lot of deer in the park.

The cattle Egrets are every where right now. Their migration is off by a least 5 weeks due to the weather .

We were leaving the Refuge the other day and got caught in one of the many cattle drives that use the roads to move about.

                  They still do it the old way on horse back

Love their faces.

An Egret doing his part to keep the bugs off .

Some of the plants we helped with. They will help restore the Prairie that was destroyed during hurricane Ike.

A Night Hawk resting.

A Heron Fishing at the Refuge boat ramp.

A Purple Gallinule picking bugs on the pond edge.