The Outer Banks

I am here this morning thinking of how fortunate we have been in this life. We have been blessed with family, friends, and many experiences. As mentioned in earlier postings that there are special places that you always hold in your memories. I have written of Red Creek, Dolly Sods, and I have to add to the list the Outer Banks of North Carolina. When our girls were growing up, we vacationed several times in this unique barrier island ecosystem.

The Outer Banks is home to many attractions. There are four distinct lighthouses (Cape Hatteras, Bodie Island, Ocracoke, and Carrituck.) along the stretch of the Outer Banks. It is the site of the Wright Brothers first flight, America’s oldest outdoor drama (The Lost Colony), and Jockey’s Ridge State Park, which are the largest sand dunes on the east coast.

Our favorite activity on the Outer Banks is birding. We often go to Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge with our birding scopes in hand. Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge is located between the Oregon Inlet and the village of Rodanthe. Established in 1938 as a wintering sanctuary for waterfowl, Pea Island contains 5,915 acres of coastal barrier island and 25,700 acres of Proclamation Boundary Waters in the Pamlico Sound. This refuge provides diverse habitat types including beach, dunes, salt marsh, fresh and brackish water ponds and salt flats. Judy and I would usually set up our birding scope along the the Charles Kuralt Trail. It is a great location! The last time we were there we watched a Roseate Spoonbill. It was many hundreds of miles out of it's normal range.