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
nature
Inundation-prone Sledge Forest site set for development
A sprawling, “rare, old-growth forest” on the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River in New Hanover County that’s a key part of the river floodplain is targeted for a massive 4,000-home golf course/equestrian development with few options for opponents to stop it.
Belted kingfisher surveys its kingdom
A belted kingfisher surveys its surroundings from a perch, Nov. 14 at North River Preserve in Carteret County. Photo: Nick Green
Beacon backdrop for the birds
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
Sunrise skiff
A fishing skiff anchored at the North River Bridge in Otway, in Carteret County, is nearly silhouetted at dawn recently. Photo: Doug Waters
Sunset striations
Striations of clouds blanket the sky at sunset over North River in Carteret County recently. Photo: Dylan Ray
Fishing is for the birds, and they can show you how, where
It’s true that feathered creatures can be an indicator of what’s going on beneath the surface, it’s important to understand what each bird is, how it fishes, and what it means to us as anglers.
Watch your step!
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
Autumn’s spectacular colors signal our natural connections
Our modern lives often make us feel disconnected from nature, but even if we don’t think we notice, evolution has ensured that our bodies remember the changing seasons.
Northern Lights appear down South
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
Tiny sunbather
An especially young green tree frog catches the morning sun from an agapanthus leaf in a Beaufort garden. Photo: Dylan Ray
Fence-sitter in the rain
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
Blaze the plover returns from Illinois after rearing chicks
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 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. Photo courtesy of the Lake County (Illinois) Audubon Society.
Agile pollinator gets busy
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
Chris Herndon joins NC Sierra Club as chapter director
The environmental organization’s new chapter director has spent most of the past 12 years in executive leadership roles with the United Way.
St. James folk bask among beauty, birds certification brings
The town of St. James in Brunswick County recently became the only coastal town to become a Certified Community Wildlife Habitat, a relatively easy-to-get distinction through a National Wildlife Foundation program.
