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Sunset Passage

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The North Carolina Department of Transportation ferry Floyd J. Lupton leaves Hatteras Village bound for Ocracoke Island on one of its last passages of the day. Photo: Doug Waters

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The story was compiled by staff members of Coastal Review.

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A lynx spider covertly watches as a pollinator bee forages on a sunflower blossom in a garden near Russell Creek in Beaufort. Photo: Dylan Ray
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The state's ongoing drought is affecting water levels in the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s North River Wetland Preserve near Otway where wading birds take advantage of conditions recently to feed on the fish, tadpoles, frogs and aquatic insects left with nowhere to go. Nearly the entire state is facing drought conditions at the time this was published, with most of the coast in moderate drought with increasing severity toward New Hanover and Brunswick counties and the western portions of most other coastal counties.
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Case Skinner, 4, son of Kathleen and Jeremy Skinner, fishes from his parents' dock on on the Newport River in Mill Creek, an unincorporated community in central Carteret County. The young Skinner is also accomplished with a cast net. Photo: Jeremy Skinner
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Two cottonmouths, aka water moccasins and known scientifically as Agkistrodon piscivorus, came face to face while foraging Sunday at the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s 6,000-acre North River Wetlands Preserve, with one rising up and the other backing down. One of six venomous snakes in North Carolina, the cottonmouth is the most aquatic, preferring wetter habitats. It's a pit viper, having a pit on its face that senses heat. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission offers tips on how to coexist with snakes. Photo: Doug Waters
Pit viper stare-down
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