Neuse

The Neuse River just below Falls Lake Dam.

 

Not so Green way.

The Neuse River greenway.

 

Nest

No action yet in the Osprey nest.

 

Lakeside

A lone fisherman at Falls Lake.

 

Merry Christmas

Mr. Snowman peeked out of the window of a candy shop.  

Merry Christmas!

 

Christmas fern

It's called a Christmas Fern because they stay green until Christmas. Do they wilt the day after Christmas?

Happy Christmas Eve!

 

Mrs. Kingfisher

She watched us closely before flying off to hunt for fish.

Kingfisher

 

Storm clouds

We started with a sunny day.  But it didn't last long. 

 

The last goose

I don't know if they've become dinner, or just flew off, but this seems to be the last Toulouse goose at Lake Lynn.  

They are a French breed of geese someone introduced to Lake Lynn years ago.  One by one they've disappeared until this gentleman is the last survivor.

 

Silhouette

A lone squirrel flipped his tail at us.

 

Common Buckeye

A common Buckeye butterfly.  How did it survive this late in the season?

 

Boardwalk

Lake Lynn boardwalk on a chilly day.

 

Dive

A group of diving ducks swam around in the lake.

Every time I was ready to snap the picture, all I could see was the tail as they disappeared.

Finally I caught one between dives.  

A Ruddy Duck.

 

Killdeer

This little killdeer looked like he was on guard.

 

Last look

One last look from Beaufort.  

 

Sunset Beaufort, NC

The sun sets over the water in Beaufort.  Not what you usually see on the East coast.  

 

Drift

It's hard to resist taking artful driftwood pictures...

 

Birds on the Bank

The pelicans were feeding on a school of fish.

A sanderling scuttled in and out of the tide.

 

Wild Horses

Wild horses have been on Shackleford Banks for 400 years.  They are believed to be descendants of Spanish horses shipwrecked off the coast.

They seem to spend all of their time eating.  The vegetation is very sparse so I can see why.  Even so they look pretty skinny.

 

Shackleford Banks

While in Beaufort, we took a ferry to Shackleford Banks, a barrier island off the coast.  It is part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore.   

It's a good place to look for shells

And the ones you don't keep, you can hang on the tree at the embarking point for the ferry.

 

Topsail park, Beaufort

This statue in Topsail marine park memorializes fishermen.  Yet the park also memorialized the spot as a known landing point of the middle passage.  African captives that survived the Atlantic crossing disembarked here and then sold at the courthouse in Beaufort.

 

Old Guard

This confederate statue guards the Carteret county government building.  Erected in 1926, 60 years after the end of the Civil War, its purpose was to frighten Black citizens from registering to vote.

Many such statues have been removed yet many more still remain.

 

Beaufort

Beaufort has been a harbor town for hundreds of years.  Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard the pirate, sailed out of Beaufort and the outer islands.  His ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground in Beaufort inlet.  (see here)

 

Beaufort

We took a Thanksgiving trip to Beaufort, NC.  A small city on the coast.  I looked twice before I realized that this was a mural on the back of a building.

 

Pine Siskin

Where else would you find a Pine Siskin but in the pinecones and needles?

 

And it continues

 

This fall has been long and slow.  There are still a few stragglers hanging on to their leaves.

Theme day: Slow

The theme for December is "Slow".  What goes slower than a turtle.  

 

Leaf fall

Even the heron has to wade through leaves.

 

Murder

A group of crows is a murder of crows, but if there are only a few does that make it mayhem instead?

 

Phoebe

A phoebe in the weeds.

 

Balance

Mr. Heron decided to hang out in the trees for a while.

 

Deer

This young deer watched us warily from the lakeside.

 

Kingfisher

He was making a lot of noise, chattering in the trees.

 

Spread

A cormorant dries out in the morning sun.

 

Heron again

A lucky heron shot.

 

Birds of a feather?

The Egret doesn't seem to mind the gaggle of geese that surround him.

 

Sparrow

Sparrows just look like little brown birds when the flit around.  But if you look closely you see that they are different and interesting.  This one is a chipping sparrow.

 

Downy

A downy woodpecker at the feeder.

 

Phoebe

The little phoebe was bug hunting in the tall grass.

 

One

The lone egret at Shelly Lake needs a friend.