Nature Notes: Coastal NC

I live in the central part of North Carolina which is the piedmont region. I went to the coastal ocean (Atlantic Beach, NC) for the weekend.

It amused me to sit on the porch and watch the mockingbird, much as I do at home.

One difference though is this mocking bird was a lot less jittery around me than the ones at home.

I'm not sure what kind of bird was feasting in the sea oats.

They were fun to watch. There were a lot of pelicans flying by when I sat on the porch.

It's nice to be able to sit in a rocking chair and shoot the birds flying by.

There were a lot of gulls as one would expect at the beach.

I'm finally getting slightly better at capturing birds in flight with the camera I've had a little over a year.

I love sea oats and enjoy photographing them at the beach.

My state has many distinct ecological sections.

The eastern part of the state comprises the coastal plane. The central part of the state is the piedmont plateau and the western part of the state has the Appalachian Highlands. Another time I'll try to get write more about the many ecosystems within those broad divisions. Maybe next week.

One of the advantages to living in the central part of North Carolina is that it's an easy drive to the east for a beach trip and an easy trip to the western part of the state for mountain trips.

I enjoyed seeing a group of willets.

I had to ask my sister what kind of birds they were because I'm not used to seeing them.

I read that at one point willets were threatened due to hunting in the late nineteenth century.

After hunting wasn't an issue their numbers increased but they are still considered at risk due to loss of habitat.

It's fun watching them stretching out their long legs.

I saw gulls fishing but didn't get a shot of them with a fish.

The next gull was taking a stroll on the beach.

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