Undergraduate student Lara Breithaupt, left, stands alongside Duke University President Dr. Vincent Price as he holds a moon snail Wednesday during a tour of Duke University Marine Lab on Pivers Island in Beaufort, with Maggie Epps, secretary to the board of trustees and chief of staff to the president, and Frank Tramble, vice president for communications, marketing and public relations with the university. Also visiting were Provost Alec Gallimore and Executive Vice President Daniel Ennis. Photo: Dylan Ray
Power restoration underway
A Duke Energy truck is seen passing through floodwater along Community Road in Davis in Down East Carteret County Thursday as the effects of Tropical Storm Idalia on the North Carolina coast became clear in the morning light. The utility said that high winds and flooding left about 20,000 Duke Energy customers without power Thursday morning, but more than 60,000 customers have had power restored since Wednesday.
Day on the water
Boats dot the Carteret County waters of, from left, Gallants Channel, Taylors Creek and Bulkhead Channel Thursday, with, in the foreground, Pivers Island, home to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Beaufort Laboratory and the Duke University Marine Lab; Front Street in Beaufort at top left; the Rachel Carson Reserve, center-left; Shackleford Banks, top-center and part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore; and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Photo: Dylan Ray
Leaving home
An osprey takes flight, leaving chicks in a nest on a leaning piling above the waters of Midden Creek near Tusk in Down East Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Morning meal
A lone Ibis hunts near a ridge of oysters near low tide on a recent morning in Marshallberg. Photo: Dylan Ray
Massachusetts turtles released on NC beach: A photo essay
Ten loggerheads that were cold-stunned off Cape Cod and treated at a Missouri aquarium were flown to North Carolina last week and released at Fort Macon State Park.
Sugarloaf scenic
A sailboat is anchored in the cut near Sugarloaf Island along the Morehead City waterfront in Carteret County, with two cargo ships shown berthed at the North Carolina Port of Morehead City in the background. Photo: Dylan Ray
Sometimes it is easy being green
A green anole, the United States’ only native anole, hunts near a row of agapanthus Monday in a Beaufort garden. Photo: Dylan Ray
Slow-motion takeoff
A great blue heron takes flight from an oyster bed at low tide near Russell Creek in Carteret County. These large birds, often called cranes, walk and beat their wings slowly and can be found near all kinds of waters all over North America, according to the Audubon Field Guide. Photo: Dylan Ray
Left exposed
Low tide exposes clusters of oysters clinging to the piles supporting the Morehead City-Beaufort high-rise bridge over the Newport River and near the Radio Island Fishing Pier. Photo: Dylan Ray
Color in the canopy
A yellow-bellied sapsucker forages on a rose bush Wednesday near Russell Creek north of Beaufort in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Into the mist
Two unidentified people paddle a dinghy into the cut near Sugarloaf Island from the Morehead City waterfront on a recent foggy morning in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Sandy strides
A beach walker heads west along Bogue Banks near the dune line at Fort Macon State Park in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Washing up for the holidays
A strong southeast wind, heavy rains and an especially high tide combine to create a pool reaching from the ocean to the showers on the west side of the Oceanana Fishing Pier Thursday in Atlantic Beach. While not a king tide, which are the highest high- and lowest low-tide events of the year and happen when the Earth, sun and moon are aligned while the moon is at its perigee, or closest point in its elliptical orbit to Earth, Dec. 26-25 is a period of higher- and lower-than-normal tides. The the lunar perigee is Dec. 24. Photo: Dylan Ray
Feeding frenzy
Flocks of pelican and cormorant chase a bait ball of fish along the shoreline of Atlantic in Down East Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Swell vantage point
Pigeons take refuge from the wind Wednesday as an unidentified surfer cruises along the face of a wave at the Oceanana Fishing Pier on Bogue Banks in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
