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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

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A brightly hued eastern bluebird peeks out from a knothole in a tree at the Dare County Arboretum and Teaching Garden in Kill Devil Hills. Male bluebirds tend to draw attention to themselves at their nest cavities in this way to lure potential mates, according to Cornell Lab. Dare County Extension Master Gardener volunteers maintain the arboretum garden at 300 Mustian St. Photo: Kip Tabb

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An American alligator sunning at North River Wetlands Preserve in Carteret County slides in for a dip recently as March temperatures rose. The 6,000-acre preserve is the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s project to return farmland back to its original state and to use the wetlands to naturally treat polluted runoff. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review. Photo: Doug Waters

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A snapping turtle climbs from the water for a snack recently at Sandy Run Park in Kitty Hawk. The park at 4343 The Woods Road offers public access to the Kitty Hawk Woods Maritime Forest, a half-mile nature trail with a pair of gazebos, canoe or kayak access, a nature observation tower, a catch and release fishing pier, picnic tables, benches and interpretive signage. While Sandy Run Park is home to friendly turtles, visitors are asked to not feed them. Photo: Kip Tabb

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A male pileated woodpecker, or Dryocopus pileatus, searches for a snack Sunday in the bark of a pine tree in Nags Head Woods Preserve, one of the largest remaining maritime forests on the East Coast, according to The Nature Conservancy. This woodpecker, which feeds on insects in trees and logs, is one of more than 150 bird species visitors may spot at the preserve, and at least a third nests here, according to the conservancy. Photo: Kip Tabb

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Marshallberg Harbor is iced in during last weekend’s winter storm. Despite warmer temperatures in the days since, black ice and snow along with refreezing of standing water remain a threat to travel, National Weather Service forecasters in Newport said Thursday. Also, after this brief improvement, strong winds will again develop Friday night over coastal waters as an Arctic front moves through the region, producing strong gale conditions expected to persist into Sunday morning. Photo: Rachael Carlyle

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Ice covers a patch of volunteer vegetation near Michael J. Smith Field Tuesday after an overnight freeze in Beaufort. Cold temperatures are forecast to continue through the weekend, when there’s potential for a coastal low pressure to develop, possibly bringing wintry weather, National Weather Service forecasters said Tuesday. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A small gathering watches 2025’s final sunset Wednesday over Taylors Creek from the wooden deck at Harborside Park at 322 Front St. in Beaufort. Here are some of Coastal Review’s most-read stories of the year. We thank you for reading. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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The Duncan House at 105 Front St. in Beaufort, a structure that dates back to the mid-1700s, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of only 11 properties in North Carolina designated as Statewide Properties of Significance, is cordoned off Tuesday after a blaze consumed the unoccupied building on Monday. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A siege of herons takes refuge Monday from high winds near Russell Creek in Beaufort. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A Venus flytrap shows off its perhaps little-appreciated blooms, which are often overlooked, as compared with the other, better-known, insect-trapping attributes of this carnivorous plant that’s native only to a roughly 90-mile stretch of the North Carolina coast between Wilmington and Morehead City. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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A recent visit to Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge offered little in the way of migratory waterfowl viewing for which it’s known but did yield this glimpse of a whitetail doe through the trees. The refuge, which was established in 1934, spans some 50,000 acres, including the 40,000-acre Lake Mattamuskeet, the largest natural lake in North Carolina. Photo: Kip Tabb

Snapped an image of the North Carolina coast worth sharing? Submit your photo.

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A gull keeps watch from atop the North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division’s vehicle ferry Kinnakeet as it plies the Neuse River between Minnesott Beach and Cherry Branch. Photo: Mark Hibbs

Snapped an image of the North Carolina coast worth sharing? Submit your photo.

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Danielle Carey of Holly Ridge recently submitted this image of various shorebirds congregating on a sand bank in the Sneads Ferry area as if time for a shift change. “This was my first time taking this lens out on the water, and I felt like it was the one day I wasn’t seeing any birds out” Carey told us in her submission. “On our way back, I spotted this little sandbar with a whole variety of birds. I was so excited, and although I aim to capture birds in flight, I loved that I was able to capture a moment where one was taking off, and another was landing at the same time.”

Snapped an image of the North Carolina coast worth sharing? Submit your photo.

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Barbara Johnson of Morehead City carries a pumpkin Thursday across the grounds of First Presbyterian Church, 1604 Arendell St., Morehead City. Held every October, the fundraising event that benefits the children and youth ministry program is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday until Oct. 31. Photo: Dylan Ray.

Though not producer in the country, more than 30 million pounds of pumpkins are grown each year in North Carolina. In 2023, more than $18.2 million worth of pumpkins were sold in the state. A symbol of fall, “Pumpkin is a winter squash that is usually considered a vegetable. However, pumpkin is technically a fruit. It is grown from a flower and contains seeds,” according to the N.C. Cooperative Extension.

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Fingerstyle guitarist and vocalist Noah Cobb, 18, of Greenville, performs Saturday at the New Village Brewery in Oriental as part of the Pamlico County village’s two-day Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival, which was free to attend and brought together folk, Americana, bluegrass, country, gospel, blues and jazz performers on numerous stages sited within walking distance of one another. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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Storm swell associated with Hurricane Imelda and Hurricane Humberto breaks Tuesday along the Bogue Banks shore at Oceanana Fishing Pier in Atlantic Beach. The storm, while moving away from the U.S. Tuesday, still packed a potent punch, forecasters said, and could bring possible minor flooding in areas of onshore winds along the coast in the Southeast. At 11 a.m. Tuesday, the storm was moving to the northeast, toward near Bermuda, but swells and high surf from Imelda and Hurricane Humberto were expected to produce dangerous marine conditions and rip currents along much of the East Coast for several days. Farther north, the N.C. Department of Transportation on Tuesday closed N.C. 12 on the north end of Ocracoke Island between the National Park Service Pony Pens and the ferry terminal due to deteriorating travel conditions and five oceanfront houses collapsed on Hatteras Island. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Wild horses cross tidal waters from Town Marsh to Bird Shoal along Beaufort’s barrier islands, which are part of the Rachel Carson Reserve, in Carteret County. The cluster of islands includes Carrot Island, Town Marsh, Bird Shoal, and Horse Island, and the horses are descended from those brought to the islands by a Beaufort area resident in the 1940s, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The state manages the horse population for its health and for the health of the environment, but the herd is otherwise left to fend and forage for itself. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A male luna moth, or Actias luna, finds a perch in the branches of a Japanese maple near Russell Creek in Beaufort. The easily identified species flies mostly at night and is found statewide this time of year in and near hardwood forests, wooded residential areas and, on North Carolina’s barrier islands, in maritime forests. Adult luna moths do not feed and live off food they consumed as caterpillars for the moths’ seven- to 10-day lifespan.

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People on Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head watch as waves generated by Hurricane Erin crash into the concrete structure that’s part of the North Carolina Aquariums system. The storm’s center was about 260 miles east of Cape Hatteras at midday Thursday and moving out to sea, but hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 105 miles and tropical-storm-force winds extended up to 320 miles from the sprawling but weakening storm’s eye. Life-threatening surf and rip current conditions will likely continue as storm surge and flood risks subside. The pier’s website provides information on current conditions and live webcam views. Photo: Kip Tabb

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The North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division vehicle ferry Avon prepares to dock at the Minnesott Beach Ferry Terminal in Pamlico County, making one of the service’s numerous daily, 20-minute trips each way, back and forth between here and the Cherry Branch terminal across the Neuse River in Craven County. The Avon is one of 21 state ferries serving commuters and visitors on seven routes across the Neuse, Cape Fear and Pamlico rivers, and the Currituck and Pamlico sounds, and their schedules vary seasonally. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Fishing lines, sunshades and beachgoers crowd an Emerald Isle beach while two seagulls fly overhead, with another in the foreground searching for food. Photo: Robert Watkins

Emerald Isle resident and student at University of North Carolina Asheville, Watkins submitted last week this photo he took in October 2024 because he was thinking about how coastal North Carolina changes throughout the year.

“It is summer now, and the beaches of North Carolina are packed with tourists, especially now with the approach of the 4th of July. Fall will return, and some tourists will go back home, but not all. Some, like the ospreys, gulls, and pelicans, are here for the year,” he wrote in his photo submission.

When he took the photo, he had returned home to Emerald Isle because the university he attends in Buncombe County had shut down temporarily due to the damages caused by Hurricane Helene.

“Coastal North Carolina offered a strange reprieve from the stress and damage that Western North Carolina had been riddled with; I was lucky to have a home here, for many in WNC lost their only home. I sat down on the beach for several hours that day, loving where I was, shocked at the irony of the situation: I was a refugee from a hurricane, yet the refuge itself had been ravaged by a hurricane just six years prior,” he wrote.

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A wall of sandbags extends along the roadside far into the distance aside N.C. Highway 12 on the north end of Ocracoke Island. This is where washouts and erosion from storm surge repeatedly chew away at the barrier island beach and roadway, part of the normal ocean dynamics that humans often try to control. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Least terns are excellent fish-catchers, and when feeding their young, can deliver about two fish per hour. Males also catch and display fish during courting, which is what we assumed is going on here. There’s only one problem with that theory: After showing it to the female for a few seconds, when she finally showed interest, he flew away. Photo: William Birkemeier

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A mother black bear and three cubs stroll along Creef Cut Wildlife Trail in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, located on the Albemarle Peninsula in eastern North Carolina. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a press release featuring the photo, recommends staying at least 1,000 yards away from bears. Use binoculars, scopes and telephoto lens to get a better look. Check out BearWise, an online resource that offers practical tips in the event of a bear encounter. Photo: Karen Lebing, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

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An anole sends out a message to potential mates by flexing his throat to reveal a show of color in a Beaufort garden. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Daddy longlegs, scientifically speaking, a member of the Leiobunum genus, stretches its legs recently on the leaf of a sweetbay magnolia, or Magnolia virginiana, a native species on the North Carolina coast. Often called harvestmen — there are at least 6,600 suborders of the species — and mistakenly identified as spiders, the insect is an arachnid that has been found everywhere on Earth except Antarctica. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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A calf lies in a field of spring flowers near the Haystacks area of Morehead City in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray

Carteret had 22 farms raising cattle and calves mostly for beef production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2022 county-by-county farm census, up by three from the 2017 count. The 2022 figure accounted for about 400 head of cattle.

Among coastal counties, Onslow leads in the number of cattle farms with 84 and about 1,900 head in 2022, down from 95 farms and nearly 2,100 head in 2017.

North Carolina had nearly 15,000 cattle farms in 2022 with just shy of 719,000 head, down from more than 18,000 farms and more than 776,000 cattle in 2017, but numbers rebounded last year to about 750,000 head, according to a 2024 USDA document.

By comparison, the state held steady at around 2,400 hog farms during the 2017-25 period, but the hog inventory during the 2022 census had decreased by about 700,000 from about 8.9 million in 2017.

About 32.3 million hogs were sold in 2022, compared to just over 11,300 cattle and calves sold that year.

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A state Department of Transportation crew works high above the Newport River Tuesday inspecting the underside of the Morehead City-Beaufort high-rise bridge next to the state port. Traffic delays were expected through Friday on this part of U.S. Highway 70 as one lane of travel was planned during daylight hours, or 8 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Track progress online. Photo: Dylan Ray

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An angler recently tries his luck from beneath the Scuppernong River Bridge on the the Scuppernong River Boardwalk at the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge visitor center in Columbia, in Tyrrell County. Money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was appropriated to replace the boardwalk, a project that was announced to take place in fiscal 2026. Congress directly appropriated $455 million to the refuge over five years for programs related to the previous administration’s America the Beautiful initiative announced in 2021. The nonprofit National Wildlife Refuge Association has said that continuing resolutions, such as the emergency funding bill signed into law last week, throw refuges into chaos and uncertainty and can prevent new project starts. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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Paint crews work high above the deck of the North Carolina Port of Morehead City March 13 as they apply a protective coating to the water tower. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A lone cypress stands apart from those closer to the shoreline at the old mill pond in Carteret County that was originally part of a tract owned by Welshman Robert Williams, who settled in Carteret County in 1763. Williams created the mill pond by having a dam built on Black Creek. A gristmill and a sawmill operated at each end of the dam, which is now below a bridge span on Mill Creek Road. Williams was also one of two county landowners whom historians say received money to build salt works in the county to assist in the Revolution. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Fog blankets the cannons Monday at Fort Macon State Park at the east end of Bogue Banks in Carteret County. Built during the decade after the War of 1812 to defend Beaufort Inlet, the fort was taken by Union forces early during the Civil War and was never again relinquished to the Confederates. Now, Fort Macon is one of the state’s most visited parks, welcoming more than a million visitors annually. Photo: Dylan Ray

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An immature white ibis nearly blends into its surroundings as it forages just off a Bodie Island trail that ends at a series of creeks southwest of the lighthouse. Photo: Kip Tabb

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Snow covers Front Street in Beaufort Wednesday morning as the winter storm continues to blanket Carteret County and much of coastal North Carolina. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Kevin Hardy of Wilmar, near Vanceboro, fishes along Cape Lookout National Seashore as a commercial fishing trawler offshore heads southwest. Photo: Dylan Ray

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An egret hunts along the shore of an icy marsh Thursday near Pelletier Creek in Morehead City. Don’t look for a quick thaw as much of coastal North Carolina is under a winter weather advisory from 4 p.m. Friday until 10 a.m. Saturday. The forecast calls for the potential for light accumulations of ice and snow, although little to none is expected from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Visitors during a recent chilly day carry fishing poles while strolling along the water’s edge at Cedar Street Park in downtown Beaufort, with the construction site of the 103-room Compass Hotel Beaufort by Margaritaville Resorts on Gallants Channel in the background. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A tiny Z-scale model train operated by Mike Basher of Basher and Sons Hobbies rounds the bend during an appearance earlier this month at the 30th annual John Costlow Train Show at the North Carolina Maritime Museum Harvey W. Smith Watercraft Center in Beaufort. The three-day show included model train layouts of various scales, including working antiques.

This model transported a yellow rubber ducky on a flatcar.

Basher said the Z-scale, a ratio to actual size of 1:220, is his scale of choice due to its diminutive size and a lack of space at home.

“My permanent layout at home consists of a Z-scale layout inside a glass-top coffee table that sits inconspicuously in our living room, ready to be operated at a moment’s notice,” he told Coastal Review.

But Z is not the smallest model railroad scale — there’s at least one smaller: the T-gauge, a scale of 1:450, or about half the size of Z-scale models.

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A rainbow reaches skyward from the Newport River as viewed from the marsh at Radio Island following Sunday showers. The island was formed by the placement of dredge spoils from an early channel-deepening project at the Morehead City port in the 1930s and takes its name from Carteret Broadcasting Co.’s WMBL, which began broadcasting in 1947 at 740 kHz. Photo: Mark Hibbs

Former Pine Knoll Shores resident Walt Zaenker authored a 2015 blog post about how Radio Island got its name.

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A belted kingfisher, or Megaceryle alcyon, surveys its autumnal surroundings from a perch, Nov. 14 at North River Preserve in Carteret County. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes the species as busy birds that burrow into the earth, patrol stream and river banks, and are “always ready to dive down and snag a meal.” Photo: Nick Green

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The 1859 Cape Lookout Lighthouse reaches 163 feet skyward beyond shorebirds hunkered down recently on a jetty across the bay at the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center at Shell Point on Harkers Island. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A fishing skiff anchored at the North River Bridge in Otway, in Carteret County, is nearly silhouetted at dawn recently. Photo: Doug Waters

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Striations of clouds blanket the sky at sunset over North River in Carteret County recently. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Webs around a vent in the tiled storefront wall of the old, now vacant, M. Mann’s & Sons building in Newport create a ghostly appearance peering out slightly menacingly at passersby from the longtime home of the former C.M. Hill Hardware, where Chatham, East Chatham and Market streets all converge with the North Carolina Railroad Co. line and East and West Railroad boulevards. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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Fall colors, the reds, yellows, browns and copperheads. An eastern copperhead crosses a path recently at the New Bern Civil War Battlefield in Craven County. Watch your step! Photo: Doug Waters

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The faint tail of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS pointing away from the setting sun is visible Sunday evening over Taylors Creek in Beaufort. NASA says the “dirty snowball’s” appearance is “a once-in-80,000-years sight.” The comet believed to be from the Oort Cloud at the edge of our Solar System was expected to swing close by at about 44 million miles from Earth — its closest pass — on Saturday. Discovered in 2023, it is named for both China’s Tsuchinshan, or Purple Mountain, Observatory and an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope in South Africa. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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Aurora borealis, the result of an intense solar geomagnetic storm reaching Earth, lights up the skies over Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Nags Head late Thursday evening. Photo: Catherine Kozak

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An especially young green tree frog catches the morning sun from an agapanthus leaf in a Beaufort garden. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A vehicle creates a wake Tuesday while passing through floodwaters from the saltmarsh along Crow Hill Road near Otway in Down East Carteret County. Carteret County and coastal Onslow County were placed under a coastal flood advisory Tuesday effective until 5 p.m. Wednesday. Up to a foot of inundation above ground level is possible in low-lying areas near shorelines and tidal waterways. Officials urge people not to drive through waters of unknown depths. Photo: Dylan Ray

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The sun sets over Albemarle Sound in Edenton earlier this month near the N.C. Highway 32 bridge in this photo submitted by Tom Brennan of Edenton. “For the past couple of years I’ve been flying my drone over the Albemarle Sound capturing the dramatic cloud formations, sunsets and sunrises,” Brennan told Coastal Review. “This time of year the sound becomes impossibly calm with remarkable sunsets.”

Submit your photo.

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A green tree frog peers out at the rain from the safety of a fence railing near Russell Creek in Beaufort. Frogs all along the North Carolina coast may be in for more of the same with the potential tropical cyclone stalled about 185 miles south-southwest of Cape Lookout early Monday expected to move northward during the day, dumping very heavy rainfall, according to the National Weather Service Newport-Morehead City office. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A maze of creeks cuts through the salt marshes north of the Commissioner Jonathan Robinson Bridge and the gateway to Down East Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Blaze, a piping plover shown here on the beach in Waukegan, Illinois, has returned for the second consecutive year to winter at Masonboro Inlet in New Hanover County. The small, but determined piping plover was abandoned before she hatched and became among the first captive-reared chicks to be released in Illinois from the University of Michigan Biological Station in 2023. Within about two months of her release into the wild, Blaze migrated south to spend the winter at Masonboro Inlet, according to Audubon North Carolina. Audubon officials spotted Blaze Aug. 15 at the inlet, returning from Waukegan, where she successfully raised three chicks.

Piping plover are federally listed as threatened on the East Coast and listed as endangered in the Great Lakes region.

Sandy spits created by inlets provide havens for shorebirds to rest and roost and, for some, nesting habitat.

“No one else would be monitoring for Piping Plovers in these areas if we didn’t,” said Lindsay Addison, coastal biologist at Audubon North Carolina, in a statement. “We monitor the areas around Wilmington as part of ongoing shorebird surveys, along with our regular work to protect and manage shorebird habitat, including at the south end of Wrightsville Beach.”

Photo courtesy of the Lake County (Illinois) Audubon Society.

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A sea of sunshades hug the shoreline recently in Atlantic Beach on Bogue Banks. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A wedge of egrets fish in a salt marsh along North River near Beaufort. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A black-necked stilt dips its bill as it feeds in standing water at sunrise July 30 at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center in Nags Head. Reader Brian Horsley of Nags Head submitted this image, noting that he captured the photo July 30 while on his way to work. When “it rains a lot and we get big freshwater puddles Black Neck Stilts pay it a visit,” he said with the submission.

Partial to freshwater pools, marshes and shallow lakes, they are vulnerable to habitat loss and pesticides, conservation groups say. But their range is expanding and they are known to take quick advantage of what Audubon describes as “artificial habitat.”

Submit your photo.

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Ed Sanford of Hertford used a long telephoto lens to capture this image of a ruby-throated hummingbird Monday while it visited the hummingbird feeder at his home on the Yeopim Creek in Perquimans County.

Sanford explained in his photo submission that he is a landscape photographer with an interest in eastern North Carolina, but will occasionally photograph wildlife, especially birds. He said that hummingbirds are particularly challenging to photograph because of their sudden and extremely fast movements.

“I purchased a hummingbird feeder hoping that these beautiful creatures would visit my yard. Six weeks after installing the feeder, hummingbirds started to occasionally visit. In the last week, the visits increased,” he said.

Submit your photo.

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Gov. Roy Cooper speaks to reporters about renewable energy, sidestepping questions about his possible selection as a vice presidential candidate, Wednesday at a turbine blade-signing event celebrating construction of the Timbermill Wind project by Apex Clean Energy in Chowan County. The 189-megawatt wind energy project is the state’s second and the first to be built since 2017. It is expected to generate up to $33 million in tax revenue over its lifetime and become the county’s largest taxpayer during its first year of operation. Photo: Dylan Ray

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An agile, busy and well-laden pollinator nearly blends into the yellow of a sunflower recently in a barely maintained part of a garden near Morehead City. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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Red warning flags whip against the wind Friday in Atlantic Beach, notifying swimmers to not enter the water. Life-threatening rip currents were likely and the surf zone dangerous for all levels of swimmers on all North Carolina beaches north of Cape Fear Friday, according to the National Weather Service’s experimental Beach Forecast webpage, which is color-coded to indicate the forecast rip current risk level. Yellow flags indicating moderate conditions flew on Brunswick County beaches Friday. Conditions had improved to moderate to low risk Monday. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Lines of clouds move over Askin near New Bern and the power lines overhead as part of a weekend weather front. Photo: Dylan Ray

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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

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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

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A mallard strikes a semaphore-like pose signaling the letter “R” as viewed over the weekend from the dike at the Roanoke Island Marshes Dedicated Nature Preserve. Covering almost 1,900 acres of marsh and wetlands, the preserve is possibly the least well-known of the protected natural areas on the Outer Banks. Although most of the preserve is impenetrable, a 1.3-mile trail along an impoundment is, at times, a birder’s delight. Photo: Kip Tabb

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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

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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

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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

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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

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A ruddy turnstone secures a snack recently at the surf’s edge near Oceanana Pier in Atlantic Beach. These sandpipers have a varied diet that includes crabs, mollusks, worms, sea urchins and small fish, according to the National Audubon Society. They nest in the North American and Eurasian arctic and winter along the coastlines of six continents. Contributed photo: Nicholas Green

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A pelican stretches while perched upon a pylon in Core Sound near the Down East village of Atlantic. Photo: Dylan Ray

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An orb weaver appears to don its Halloween skull mask. Photo: Mark Courtney

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A blue heron hunts in the marsh grass near Conch’s Point on Calico Creek in Morehead City. Photo: Dylan Ray

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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, in this photo by Dylan Ray.

The state is replacing both the Earl C. Davis Bridge and Bridge No. 96, each of which is more than a half-century old and together link Harkers Island to the mainland with a short island causeway in between. The $68 million project began construction in 2021 and is expected to be complete in early 2025.

The old drawbridge was named in December 1988 in honor of the county native who was instrumental, according to county records, in getting built the bridge and the one it had replaced. He also played leading roles in providing phone, water and electric services to Harkers Island and the creation of an outpatient clinic here.

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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

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A Gulf fritillary rests on a flower inside the Butterfly House at Airlie Gardens in Wilmington. Guests can roam the 2,700-square-foot native North Carolina butterfly house that is part of the extensive Airlie Gardens. Admission is required to enter the gardens but is free to New Hanover County residents the first Sunday of every month. Photo: Mark Courtney

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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

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The female pigmy rattlesnake in this photo by Daniel Murdoch was spotted with her hatchlings in the Newport area near Croatan National Forest.

Wildlife Resources Commission biologists request that if you see a snake, do not harm it, instead give it plenty of space, and if you see a pine snake or rattlesnake, report it.  

“Snakes play crucial roles within ecoystems and help control the rodent, slug and insect populations,” Jeff Hall, reptile conservation biologist with the Wildlife Commission, said in a release about reporting snake sightings. “There are many ways to coexist with snakes, which is important because of 38 of North Carolina’s native snake species, ten are listed endangered, threatened or of special concern.”  

The agency partners with the HerpMapper mobile app to track amphibian and reptile species. To report a sighting, download the app to your mobile device or tablet and enter information about your sighting. If reporting by email send a photo, the date and time the snake was observed and location to rattlesnake@ncwildlife.org.

The smallest rattlesnake species in the state, pigmy rattlesnakes give birth to up to nine babies in late summer or early fall, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. “Pigmy rattlers are rare but can be found in the southeastern Coastal Plain and in the Sandhills of North Carolina in pine flatwoods and scrub oak habitats. They have also been found at Crowder’s Mountain State Park in Gaston County.”

Of the six native venomous snake species, three are rattlesnakes. The pigmy, along with eastern diamondback and timber, are the three rattlesnake species in the state and are all protected under the North Carolina Endangered Species Act. The eastern diamondback is endangered and the timber and pigmy rattlesnakes are considered species of special concern because of declining populations.

“Public assistance in recording and documenting the pine snake will be a huge help, because it’s difficult to conserve a species when we don’t know all the places it occurs,” Mike Martin, wildlife technician with the Wildlife Commission, said in a release. “We are partnering with several organizations and agencies to conduct surveys in the areas where pine snakes have either been seen or areas with potentially good habitat.”  

Contact Hall at jeff.hall@wildlife.org or 252-917-1683 for more information.

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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.

The company said it plans to restore power to all affected customers possible by Thursday night.

“Duke Energy has more than 4,000 personnel in place to continue power restoration today,” said Jason Hollifield, Duke Energy’s Carolinas storm director. “We are committed to working as quickly and safely as possible to get the lights back on for our customers and we thank them for their patience.”

Photo: Dylan Ray

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An orb-weaver spider sits in it’s intricate patterned web in the Porters Neck area just outside Wilmington. Photo: Mark Courtney

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Sunflowers are in full bloom at the Trask Family Farms Sunflower Maze at 3650 Blue Clay Road in Castle Hayne. Tickets are required to walk the 9-acre maze. Photo: Mark Courtney

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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

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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

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A lone Ibis hunts near a ridge of oysters near low tide on a recent morning in Marshallberg. Photo: Dylan Ray

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A humpback whale navigates the tide May 4 in Beaufort Inlet, as photographed from Fort Macon State Park. Humpback whales’ flukes can be up to 18 feet wide, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says their markings are unique enough to identify individuals. Photo: Doug Waters

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A pied-billed grebe chick watches intently as mother prepares a crawfish for breakfast at North River Wetlands Preserve in Otway.

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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

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A green anole, or Anolis carolinensis, the United States’ only native anole, hunts near a row of agapanthus Monday in a Beaufort garden. Photo: Dylan Ray

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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

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A rainbow appears in the spray of a breaking wave Jan. 26 off Hatteras Island, near Buxton. West winds blow the spray offshore behind the wave, and the water droplets scatter the sunlight, allowing surfers and onlookers to see the full visible spectrum of color from certain angles.

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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

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A yellow-bellied sapsucker forages on a rose bush Wednesday near Russell Creek north of Beaufort in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray

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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

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A beach walker heads west along Bogue Banks near the dune line at Fort Macon State Park in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray

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Ice is shown Wednesday morning covering the surface of Hancock Creek in Havelock. After several days of lows in the teens and 20s, the air temperature was around 46 degrees Fahrenheit when the photo was taken. The National Weather Service Newport office predicts temperatures in the area to continue to warm with highs by Friday and Saturday approaching or exceeding 70 degrees. Photo: Capt. Gordon Churchill

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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

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A tricolored heron watches motionless for prey in the water at Roanoke Island Marshes Dedicated Nature Preserve in Wanchese. Photo: Kip Tabb

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Flocks of pelican and cormorant chase a bait ball of fish along the shoreline of Atlantic in Down East Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray

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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

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The waters of Styron Creek in Sea Level are pushed by high winds Monday onto Cedar Creek Road, blocking access to a fish house in Down East Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray