Okay, so we're a little late making another post and here is some of the reasons why. We have been spending three days a week doing our normal work things like working at the visitor center, mowing grass, and working at the office in Manteo. By the way, we love the work here and the people we work with.

After work, two or three nights a week we go on the beach and watch a turtle nest. Actually, we rig barriers for ghost crabs and aid any hatchlings to get in the water. This lasts until midnight, and those who know me well know that I like my sleep, so the next morning is a late one.

The outstanding cultural activities in Manteo have ended for the season so we've had to find something else to entertain us. That's where the pictures of the bears come in.

We go to Alligator River NWR and watch the bears and spend some time with our friend Bill. One night we spotted fifteen bruins doing their thing. Actually it is a real treat for us nature lovers to see these guys in action.

Rainbows

Some of the beauty here at Pea Island makes all of the wind, non-potable water and rust minor inconveniences. here are a couple of shots of a rainbow that our fellow work camper Diane took the other day. Tough life, but someone has to live it.

When you are looking at this kind of thing, it is hard to keep a blog current. Stick around because there is some really interesting stuff coming up.

Entertainment

There is something for couples and families to do around here everyday. The refuges alone have enough free programs for adults and kids whereby most families with kids would be hard pressed to turn up any boredom. Here at Pea Island there are bird walks lead by experienced birders, animal adaptations program, turtle program and a program called Sound Side Discovery. Kids love the Sound Side Discovery program because they get to use a seine net in the sound and come up with crabs, fish and shrimp. Then there are the fee canoe trips lead by the interns.

Alligator River Refuge has programs on red wolves and bears as well as offering canoe trips through a different ecosystem. Then comes the really good stuff. The North Carolina School of the Arts offers free plays, musicals, and showcases of various talents six nights a week.

Want a little more for the kiddies to do? The school also has a number of daytime programs for the kiddies at various venues which includes music and child centered plays. The educational opportunities for kids are fantastic. Bored yet? How about a little college summer league baseball?

I'm sorry that I didn't explain more about the plays and the Festival Park venue in Manteo. People bring their own chairs, sit on blankets with drinks,food, goodies of all kinds and just generally enjoy the evening with some first rate talent. So far this week we have attended "A Comedy of Errors" and tomorrow night we will attend a Red, White and Blue music program.



Okay, so the performing arts aren't your cup of tea. How about a sail board competition or a kite flying competition at the Wright Brothers Memorial? Don't forget, you can spend a day visiting the four outer banks lighthouses. Here at Pea Island we have a shipwreck from 1862 which is still visible in the ocean not far off the beach.

Tomorrow night we will be taking egg salad sandwiches, crackers, spinach dip and liquid refreshment to the Red White and Blue music show. We'll sit back, be entertained for a couple of hours and forget about the ills of the world. Wish you could be here with us.

Reasons for late posts

Somewhere between five and five-thirty each morning, Junior gets up and wants to go out to do the dirty deed. As a result, I've gotten into the habit of walking the boys for three to four miles each morning, on the beach.

We see some outstanding sunrises with lots of color and varieties of texture.

I thought I'd throw these in so that everyone can see how deprived we feel on a daily basis.This area is truly gorgeous.

Early in the morning, everything takes on a freshness or softening and, as a result, one feels renewed. I guess the relationship between mother sea and humans can't be overlooked.

Rough Seas

Last week we had some rough surf conditions with waves up to twelve feet. There was an awesome amount of beach erosion, which can be expected on such a dynamic barrier island.

Will, being the confirmed surfer guy, insisted on surfing in the rough water. We were concerned for his safety since the seas were really mixed up and just getting out past the breakwater was tough. Of course there were also rip tide warnings.

Patty asked Will to not go out unless someone else was with him, in case he got in trouble and help needed to be summoned. Being the level headed guy that he is, Will agreed and preceded to have a ball surfing. I got tired just watching him going through the breakwater.

He caught a couple of good waves and appeared to have a ball in the rough water. Since surfing means a great deal to him, we were pleased to see him have such a good time. Will is obviously in great shape to be able to handle these surf conditions for an extended period of time.





Our intrepid surfer came out of the water tired with a grin on his face, and Patty and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Sea Turtle Nests

Turtle patrols go out early each morning looking for crawls. The crawls are evidence of turtles coming onto the beach and then exiting. These are the first signature a sea turtle leaves when they come onto the beach to lay eggs in what is obviously a very laborious task. For some reason, not all crawls result in the turtle laying eggs because for some unknown reason a turtle will turn around and head back to sea. These non-egg laying crawls are called false crawls.

When a crawl is discovered, the intern on duty is notified and they contact a biologist. The intern and the biologist will usually excavate the nest and move it to a safer place on the beach. Data as to nest location, size, number of eggs, size of eggs and most importantly the type of turtle are recorded.Anyone who has dug at the beach knows this is hot and sandy work. Will and Kris are excavating a nest in this photo.

This is the way a turtle nest looks when the camouflaging sand is removed and the eggs are exposed. The eggs look very much like ping pong balls.

Pelican Banding

Yesterday, we went to Pelican Island which is a Corps of Engineers dredge spoil island in Pamlico Sound. We all met at the boat launch at Oegon Inlet and were given a lift to the island by the Coast Guard on two boats a large MLB and a small twenty footer whaler type. When we left the dock there were small craft warnings and the weather forecast was anything but good, however as it turned out the weather was perfect. After the Coast Guard landed us on the island, the adult birds became excited and took flight. Fortunately they aren't aggressive, so we didn't have any birds dive bombing us.

I know a picture of someone putting on boots is boring, but it is the first good picture we have of James. The other guy is one of the banders and the rings hanging around his neck are the bands which are put on the right leg of the pelican.


Many shore birds make a small indentation in the sand and lay their egg in the indentation. They don't bother building a nest or camouflaging the egg. This egg is an endangered oyster catcher's egg that was just laying in the sand. When you see this, you can understand why it is necessary to close beaches when endangered shore birds are nesting. Only idiots would oppose such a needed safeguard.

The young pelicans are grouped up for the most part similar to teenagers on a Friday night. They for the most part are very excitable and will try to bite anyone in reach. Pelicans have a tooth type protrusion at the end of their upper beak which allows them to hold on to their catch of fish.


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Okay! So we have a group of young excitable pelicans which may strike out at this unknown threat they have never laid eyes on, and each pelican has a sharp tooth at the end of it's beak. Now stick your hand in there, hold the beak closed and gab both wings just behind the body. By the way, be careful to not close off his nostrils on the top of the beak.










These guys are to small for banding, but they still act out screaming, grunting and striking at anything that gets in their way. Actually, one sort of looks like Jimmy Durante. You do remember Jimmy Durante. Don't you?






Well, Patty has it mostly right. She should have the wings clasped just behind the body. That serves two purposes. One, the bird is pretty well immobilized and won't beat you with it's wings. Two, and most importantly when the wings are grabbed in the back near the body, the poop machine is pointed away from you. Any of you science types out there distressed over my non-anatomical writings have never grabbed an excited pelican. Actually, Patty was more concerned about injuring the pelican than in getting pooped.







Now this guy has it right. Notice where the business end of the poop machine is pointed. There is no way the guy holding the bird is going to get messy. I wonder if the guy doing the banding is aware of the danger he is facing. No matter what you do, you will smell worse than any barnyard or chicken house, of which I have heard. After being washed with Clorox, our shoes are still outside.

Lee holding the pelican he caught and James banding the bird. Lee is an intern at Alligator River NWR, and James is an intern here at Pea Island NWR. Both of them are great guys and we enjoy being around them.



The lady in the white blouse is Abbey Reibel the Pea Island volunteer coordinator. She is a real pleasure to work with and has made our stay very enjoyable.

Will, another on of the Pea Island interns and all around good guy has captured a big one which he is obviously proud.

Jess, an Alligator River intern getting ready to jump into the pile. Jess is one of those people who seem to smile most of the time.

Pelicans build little mounds of sticks and grass on which to lay their eggs. We saw a number of these with either one or two eggs. The mound is about six to eight inches high and just keeps the eggs off the sand. There were some nests in low scrub trees, which were easy to see and reach into.

We actually saw this little guy hatch out and wondered if we were doing more harm than good by keeping mom away from her nest. There were a large number of hatchlings on the island, which made us curious about the possible increased mortality rate because of our presence



Pat was called "Mother Earth" by the teachers a her school in Mobile and this picture sort of confirms it. In reality, one of the weird things that happened after the birds were banded was they would gather around one of the humans. It wasn't unusual for birds to make movement difficult because of their grouping up around people. I guess that since we ran the parents off, the young sought us as surrogates. Maybe, maybe not, who knows?

When the banding was done, we went over to a Royal Tern rookery. They are truly beautiful birds and made quite a spectacle as they flew on our approach.


The chicks are similar to chickens in that they are plain and devoid of interesting color as compared to the adults. There are three eggs just sitting in small depressions in the sand, but unlike the pelicans, I don't think the terns abandoned their chicks or eggs. We were within about ten to fifteen feet from the colony.

Another satisfying and interesting day drew to a close with the boat ride back to the docks at Oregon Inlet. We both experienced some things we had never done before,
and had mixed emotions about our effect on the birds and whether the discomfort caused them was necessary.

Top of the Heep Interns

Here at Pea Island, we have three interns, two male, Will, James and one female Emily. In this photo are two of the Pea Island interns, Emily and Will spoiling two perfectly good dogs. James,the other Pea Island intern was probably catching bugs or surfing when this picture was taken. Our dogs love these three young folks and will ignore our commands when they are around. At Alligator River we have Lee, Jess and ladies man Cal.Fortunately for us, we get to see all six of these young adults frequently.
This is truly an outstanding group of young people which are hard working, intelligent, motivated and fun to be around. They lend a summer camp atmosphere to the place, and like summer camp, it is going to be tough to say good bye when they have to leave.

No Cat but Two Raccoons

James, one of the interns, spotted a domestic cat near the South pond and set Have-a- Heart type traps baited with cat food. Patty went along the next morning to check the traps and found no domestic cat but two small raccoons.

This guy was blonde and had the markings of a standard coon except in tones of blonde.

This little cutie with standard markings and color was in one of the traps. Patty wishes she could have brought this little guy home for a pet. As you can see, working on a wildlife refuge is a neat way to help out during this time of budget crunches.

Busy Days and Nights

It seems there is something to do every day and night on the Outerbanks, and we are trying to do as much of it as we can. There is a play entitled "The Lost Colony" which tells the story of the first English settlement in the new world.The photo on the left is of the set for the opening act. This set is transformed from an Indian village, to a queens chambers,to a settlers "Fort Roanoke", and back again. Costuming, set design, directing, acting, dancing and ambiance in the outdoors all combine to make this a very enjoyable experience. When on the Outerbanks, take in this very entertaining depiction of early history.

Yesterday we went to a kite boarding competition which was fun to watch. So much so that we spent an entire afternoon observing the fun. The entire kite, harness and lines all fit into a package about the size of a backpack. In fact it has straps which would facilitate hauling it to the beach.




After the kite or more accurately parasail is unpacked and inflated it is taken to the waters edge.



The kite is then allowed to fill out with the wind and the fun begins.




Two kites that have caught the wind and are ready to go.









The kite boarder controls the kite by the means of a trapeze type affair and by manipulating the control is able to change direction quite rapidly though usually getting wet in the process. It is really interesting watching these folks manipulating the controls and tacking with the wind in order to gain the most speed.



They use the wind to lift them into the air and to facilitate the performance of tricks. UP! UP!



UP! and AWAY! Some of these guys go thirty to forty feet in the air. Some turn flips and others do tricks that we have seen snow boarders do coming off a ramp. LOOKS LIKE A BLAST!



At times, the wind, waves, reaction time and body don't quite come together to impress the crowd and fellow enthusiasts.




OOPS.

Don't worry. There is always someone flying around waiting to clean up the mess. In this case, a friendly neighborhood osprey.