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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‘R’ you ready for April?
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
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
Surf snack
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
Pelican’s perch
A pelican stretches while perched upon a pylon in Core Sound near the Down East village of Atlantic. Photo: Dylan Ray
‘It’s not a costume’
An orb weaver appears to don its Halloween skull mask. Photo: Mark Courtney
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
No frittering for fritillaries
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
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
Cozy pigmy rattler family
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.
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.
