Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge is a large refuge in several segments. It has only been a refuge since the 1990s so much of the area is still recovering from being drained/farmed. There was an area planted in colorful grass - different enough from what we had been seeing to stop for some photography.

A butterfly was so involved with a dandelion flower that we had plenty of time to take pictures from multiple angles.

Wild turkeys were enjoying the leavings in the cornfield.

Later in the day we drove to Columbia NC where the visitor center for the refuge is located. The center was already closed but there is a boardwalk along the edge of the Scuppernong River. You can see the time level via the rings of the pine pollen at the base of this cypress stump.

The boardwalk meanders over the marshy areas back into the forest where there were several shelf fungi.

The cypress stand in the soggy areas - sometimes surrounded by water.

A lone pied-billed grebe was looking for dinner.

A turtle was catching the last of the day’s sun - ignoring the green debris on his back.

Last but not least, as we walked back toward our car - there was a snake on a branch hanging of the water. Is that a bulge toward the middle? He may have already had his dinner.

Swanquarter and Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuges

We headed out to Swanquarter National Wildlife Refuge first thing one morning. The birds that winter there had already left. We tried to walk silently on the decking to get close enough to take good photographs of terns and gulls that are always around.

I watched an osprey dive successfully for a fish but the bird was too far away to get a really good picture.

Our next stop was Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge had many groups of coots.

There were egrets fishing in the shallow water. I managed to get a fuzzy picture of one becoming airborne….different enough from the stalking poses I usually capture.

The turtles line up on anything in the sun. This morning was chilly.

I liked this grouping of cormorants. There were some noisy Canadian geese nearby so they did not hold this pose for very long.

The male and female pintail ducks swimming single file was my best sighting at this refuge. I captured these pictures by leaning out of the open car window!

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge

After we left the barrier islands - our plan was to visit some of the inland wildlife refuges so our first stop was the multi-refuge Visitor Center in Manteo. We picked up the maps and brochures for all the refuges we wanted to visit. I couldn’t resist photographing the colorful tile band in the visitor center restroom!

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge was the first refuge we visited. As we turned onto the wild life loop road (gravel), we were thrilled to see otters frolicking in the canal. I benefited from my husband walking ahead of me and getting most of their attention. They were huffing at him to go away when I took this picture.

There were a few wildflowers. This one had a spider!

The maples were further along their seed production than our tree in Maryland.

I only saw one mushroom but this was lovely nestled in this moss and pine needles.

Fiddleheads were everywhere. The forest was wet…lots of places for ferns to grow.

The pines were releasing a lot of pollen. Our car was covered with the yellow dust when we returned from our hike.

We used our car as a blind to photograph 2 vultures on the other side of the canal from the wildlife drive. The black vulture (on the left) was feeding on a raccoon carcass as we drove up. The turkey vulture (on the right) was waiting patiently at first - but then seemed to become more assertive and the black vulture flew away and the turkey vulture settled in for a meal.

There were also turtles. They were very sensitive to any noise and would plop in the water very quickly. I was glad to catch these two…complete with reflections.

And last but not least, as we reached the highway out of the refuge we spotted an alligator in the canal by the road. He seemed to be dozing in the sun at first. As I used the full zoom on my camera - he opened his eye. What an ending to a visit to the refuge!

Zooming - April 2015

There were so many zoomed images to choose from this month…and it is only the 16th! I couldn’t resist a clip from one of the Zentangles to include with the brilliant spring color of maple flowers (my back yard) and skunk cabbage (Brookside Gardens) early in the month.

Brookside Gardens is full of photography opportunities in April. Some is old growth like evergreen ferns and dried flowers from last summer. Other things are the harbingers of spring - bulbs and witch hazel blooming. There are more birds around too.

The rest of the images are from our loop trip from Maryland down to North Carolina to visit wild life refuges. I’ll be posting more images in the next few weeks. The images below are from the barrier islands - lots of beaches…pines...shore birds…turtles.

And then we crossed the sound to the wetlands. The colorful tile (rightmost clip below) is from the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge visitor’s center. We saw otters, spiders, mushrooms, fiddleheads, maple samaras, vultures (turkey and black), and an alligator! There was a formal gardens too (camellias, daffodils, statuary)!