The Coastal Railway Swing Bridge spans the Pamlico River in Washington, where the waterfront can be seen on the north bank at upper right in this recent image. Farther in the distance are the U.S. Highway 17 Business bridge into town and, beyond it, the U.S. 17 Bypass. Photo: Dylan Ray
Sunscreen season arrives
An anole, freshly shed of its skin except the still-peeling tip of the nose, suns in a Beaufort agapanthus bed. For us creatures who don’t normally peel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that protection from the sun’s rays is important year-round, not just during the warmer months. Photo: Dylan Ray
Nature’s prescription
Smoke rises in the pines Monday in a section of the Croatan National Forest after a prescribed burn of 561 acres in the area of Nine-Foot Road and Millis Swamp Road near Newport. The U.S. Forest Service also prescribed a burn of 499 acres off U.S. Highway 70, Hibbs Road and Shaver Road, near Newport. This controlled application of fire is to diminish fuel for wildfires and restore natural ecosystems. Note posted signs and watch for firefighters and personnel in the area. Helicopters assist during the burns, so drone use is prohibited. Photo: Dylan Ray
View from above the fog
A late winter fog blankets Beaufort’s historic downtown in this recent aerial view. The Gallants Channel Bridge is visible at the upper left, Pivers Island and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Beaufort Laboratory docks, lower left. Photo: Dylan Ray
Sleepy harbor
Fishing trawlers are protected from recent strong winds in a boatyard on the Sleepy Point peninsula between Gloucester and Marshallberg in Down East Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Happy trails
Aquatic vegetation appears to form a pleased expression on the water’s surface as viewed from above the Patsy Pond Nature Trail in the Croatan National Forest near Newport. The trails that are accessed from N.C. Highway 24 include lengths from 0.75 to 1.9 miles and are open from dawn to dusk. The small ponds here are fed by groundwater and often surrounded by carnivorous plants such as bladderwort and sundew. Photo: Dylan Ray
Pelican’s perch
A pelican stretches while perched upon a pylon in Core Sound near the Down East village of Atlantic. Photo: Dylan Ray
Morning hunt
A blue heron hunts in the marsh grass near Conch’s Point on Calico Creek in Morehead City. Photo: Dylan Ray
Converging, if not merging
The Earl C. Davis Memorial Bridge, right, is still in use Wednesday as the only route for motorists on and off of Harkers Island, while construction continues on its replacement.
King tide nearly isolates boatbuilding campus
The Jarrett Bay Boatworks campus is turned into a peninsula Monday as the waters of Eastman Creek rise over Tuttle Grove Road north of Beaufort. Sept. 25-Oct. 4 has been a period of king tides, the highest high and lowest low tides of the year — when the sun is aligned with the Earth and the moon is at its closest point to the Earth. Photo: Dylan Ray
Top Duke University officials tour marine lab
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.
