An orb-weaver spider sits in it’s intricate patterned web in the Porters Neck area just outside Wilmington. Photo: Mark Courtney
Featured Photo
Follow the sun
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
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
Whale of a tail
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
Feeding time
A pied-billed grebe chick watches intently as mother prepares a crawfish for breakfast at North River Wetlands Preserve in Otway. Photo: Doug Waters
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
Spray of color
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.
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
Wintry Wednesday
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
