A gray catbird surveys its snow-covered surroundings Saturday at the Currituck Banks National Estuarine Research Reserve north of Corolla. Photo: Kip Tabb
nature
After the rain
A rainbow commands the sky over the Newport River and the Radio Island Fishing Pier Wednesday in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
December sunset
The sun sets over the Newport RIver in Carteret County on a calm December evening.
NC Bird Atlas to help prioritize conservation efforts
Volunteers are helping with a five-year project known as the North Carolina Bird Atlas that began this past spring to catalog the size and distribution of the state’s bird populations.
Sanderlings take flight
Sanderlings take flight over the beach in Kitty Hawk. Although a familiar and common sight on beaches around the world, this migratory species’ numbers may be in serious decline in the Americas, with surveys showing as much as an 80% drop since the early 1970s, according to Audubon. Photo: Kip Tabb
Silver liquid drops
A droplet of rain catches a ray of sunlight as summer showers wash over Beaufort in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Softly the evening came
The sun sets over the Newport River in between Beaufort and Morehead City in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Stick the landing
A dragonfly descends upon a twig breaching the surface of Black Creek in western Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Reflections of summer
Fishers watch their lines as a scope reflects the pier house Thursday at the end of the Bogue Inlet Fishing Pier in Emerald Isle. Photo: Dylan Ray
Seeking shoreline snacks
A blue heron hunts near the shore of the Straits in Marshallberg amid a combination of man-made bulkhead and living shoreline in Down East Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Piggish behavior when feeding earned hogfish their name
These predators hunt for food on the sea floor using their hog-like snouts to make meals of mollusks and crustaceans, but their sex lives are far more unusual than that of most farm animals.
Still Waters Down East
Slick waters reflect the sky in the salt marshes earlier this spring near Davis in Carteret County. Photo: Dylan Ray
Spring Colors on Display
An eastern tiger swallowtail lands on a pollen-packed bull thistle off Pringle Road in the Croatan National Forest near Newport. Photo: Dylan Ray
Butterfly Chaser’s Quest Leads to NC Coast
North American Butterfly Association President Jeffrey Glassberg recently visited Bogue Banks specifically to see the rare species named for the Crystal Coast.
Mountains-to-Sea Trail Friends to Meet
Friends of the Mountain-to-Sea Trail is opening its annual meeting set for March 26-27 to the public for the first time, which will be held online.
