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Outer Banks, North Carolina (cont.)

6/30/2015

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Three more from Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, and then it was back to the hotel, which will close out day 2. 

First up, was the first thing we saw as we got out of the car at the visitor's center...


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A red-winged blackbird chasing a fish crow away from its nest at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Crows will snatch a baby bird or two if they get a chance, and here this crow got no chance and fled
And omnipresent along all the trails are...


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Butterflies! Seeming the most common in June would be the common wood-nymph (Cercyonis pegala).
And one of the most common types of birds are gulls.  That is to be expected.  I made no real effort to photograph them, but took a shot of this...


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Laughing gull. Seemingly named for its call
And for now that ends my pics of Pea Island.  Which leads to the road back to the hotel, with a short side trip to the...


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The Bodie Island Lighthouse. Big, powerful structure, and great to see. But our interests didn't include climbing it.
Okay, I promised to end at the hotel, and I will.  With one most awesome Lockheed HC-130 search and rescue plane doing a fly by with the rear cargo door open along the beach.


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A Lockheed HC-130 search and rescue plane flew by. Hope just a training bit and no one needs rescued, but awesome to see this plane
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Outer Banks (cont.)

6/30/2015

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Our second day there was really amazing.  Other than my fail at photography.  Yes, on a family vacation I have other things to do than sit for 40 minutes to get a single shot of a bird, but I really was off my game.  I reviewed my camera setting on pictures that I thought I had got and they were fine, yet most are unusable. 

And by not being there with either permission or permits to go off-trali, I couldn't get very close to the good birds, so what I do have are shots of birds far away and just not enough time or lens length to capture what I could see would be good shots.

That said, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is well worth a visit!  If you are a birder, with binoculars and/or a scope, you will see quite a lot of good birds.  The middle of summer is not best, but what a nice place to bird.  If you are a photographer, bring a BIG lens, as there are not many trails and they don't go real close to the best spots for the birds.

So, how about an American Avocet.  This bird is not just quite pretty, but has the interesting bit that its bill turns upward at the end instead of straight or downward like most birds.  This is reflected in its Latin name, Recurvirostra americana (roughly translated from Latin as the "bent backwards beak").
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American avocet at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge
And there were some red-wing blackbirds around

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red-wing blackbird calling
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Pea Island coast. Looking out into the Atlantic Ocean
But wait, do you want to swim here?  Something like six shark attacks in the last six weeks...


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And here is one scary fin just outside of the surf
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And it seems there are least four!!! But these are porpoises, not sharks, so relax
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Hitting the water in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Sharks staying away and all limbs were accounted for. This was not assured given the spate of shark attacks in NC lately
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Outer Banks, North Carolina

6/28/2015

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The Outer Banks are a series of mostly linear offshore barrier islands and a sort of sand bar that protects much of North Carolina from the effects of hurricanes, while taking the brunt of them.

They have become a huge tourist draw, and well, my family wanted to see what it was all about.  Following will be a bit of what we saw and experienced.

First up, this area can be accessed during a day's drive from much of the east coast, as it is pretty centrally located.  You leave in the morning and arrive around dinner.  And if you are staying near Kitty hawk, a good stop for dinner is the Slice Pizzeria.


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Slice pizzeria has big pizzas that feed a family. Including drinks you will spend less than $25, a bargain for a family of three around this area.
And don't be put off by the big line that sometimes forms.  They make pizzas at a rate second to none.  One of the guys in front of us in line ordered 12 pizzas, and we still got ours in a reasonable time.  Limited indoor and outdoor seating, as they do a lot of take out but also do dine-in.  By the slice or by the pie.

So, you finish dinner, and have a bit of time to hit the beach.  For our trip there was an upwelling of cold water, temps in the low 60's, but still could play in the water as the air temps were so high.

But how about a way to play without much getting wet!  The surf was 2-3 feet, and this guy had figured out a way to wakeboard from shore and surf the beach break back.  Never getting wet over the knees, but he was good.
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Studying the waves
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He runs off and jumps on the wakeboard toward a wave
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He starts to turn and catch the wave
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He gets the groove with a serious leaning turn
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Finishing the ride, without getting wet above the knees. Note that he is right at the edge of the water and sand for most of this. Tricky bits.
And don't forget to just go fishing.


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A gentleman I talked to who was thinking maybe some bluefish would be around
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And everyone should just have a good wild run on the beach!
And just one more for tonight.  The sunset was not best from our angle, but some dune grasses and lit sky were worth a shot.
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More the next couple of days, as I go over the Outer banks pics.
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Green Cicada from Mulu National Park, Malaysia

6/27/2015

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There are a lot of cicadas out there.  Here is one from the island of Borneo, Malaysia. 
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I found this green cicada on a trail at night.
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 A while ago, at the FCRE

6/26/2015

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Took this pic back around 2008.
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pic from the past

6/25/2015

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A fine pic of a mourning dove

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Mourning dove nesting in a planter.
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Caver Stuck In Butler Cave, VA

6/24/2015

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My good friend Al Grimm is stuck in a side passage of Butler Cave.  And don't worry, our caving partner Scott Olson pulled him out just after I got this photo.  Original pic was taken in 2008.
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Poor Al Grimm. All he needed was a good tug and he would be unstuck, but doggone it I had to get the pic first.
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More pix

6/20/2015

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Put up the wrong pic last night.  Here is the correct shot.
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Carolina wren in Falls Church, VA
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A beautiful bat

6/19/2015

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One of the flying foxes, from Zambia. This is Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi)


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Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat from just east of Lusaka, Zambia
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Dancing

6/18/2015

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Yesterday I got rained out trying to get a pic.  Similar bit today. So let's go way back and here is a photo of Barbara am Ende from 15 years ago.
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Barbara am Ende dancing with a gentleman to a local drumming band in the Dominican Republic. We had just returned from a very difficult weeklong caving trip to Nalga de Maco.
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