Stromboli's Rolling Log: Day 20, Fri. April 22, 2016 Osprey Nest RV, (trip to Pea Island)

Day 20, Fri. April 22, 2016 Osprey Nest RV, (trip to Pea Island)

We” bit the bullet’ and took the long way around to get to Pea Island NWR on the user Bans of NC. As the “Whipping Creek” fire in Hyde/Dare County has closed US 264 (which would have been a much shorter trip) it was still a 130 mile ‘run'.

The "trumpet" flower is quite unique
and a member of the Pitcher family.

A beatiful group of Flags along one of the canals

A close oup of one the most plentiful pines in the south...
The Loblolly Pine.

Along the road near Fairfield where we are staying, Ruth spotted some unusual yellow flowers , so we stopped briefly to get a few photos of them. They are bright and unique. They are members of the Pitcher Plant family. These were new to us. They are called ‘Trumpet’.

The drive to Pea Island is across two islands and a peninsula before we reached the Outer Banks themselves . The first crossing is the wide Alligator River and its causeway, to the peninsula of Dare County. The bridge is named after “Virginia Dare”, and you all know who she was. NO? Then we drove over the causeway to Roanoke Island and the city of Manteo, then the bridge to Bodie Island where there is the lighthouse of the same name. Fourth and finally the huge bridge/causeway to Pea Island, where there are working shovels and bulldozers to pull the sand dunes back from the road.(see photo of the equipment working to do this.) In places the dunes have reached the edge of the road which creates a traffic hazard I am sure. This dunes along the road are 15-25 feet high all along the Island.

The long islands together are called this. There are many.

These are the sand dunes along the road on Pea Island.
Note the closeness to the road.

One of the two pieces of equipment up on the dunes. YIKES!

Much prevention of dune erosion is being completed
including this sea wall. (These
are pilings.)

We did reach the NWR of Pea Island. This site had walking trails entirely and some very good ones. As we do not do long walks , we merely did some watching from the parking lot, ate lunch in the truck, purchased a few gifts, asked some questions, and decided to go to Alligator NWR which we passed on the way in. It can also be accessed by US 264 which was closed by the Whipping Creek fire which still was raging today. It had been reduced in size due to a wind change from 14,000 acres down to 9,000 acres. That was good news.

We reversed our direction and did stop at the Alligator NWR but there was little moving by that time in the afternoon. Even at that , with some birds here and there we spotted and identified 30 bird species and one new one the Pileated Woodpecker. That was at a stop at a Boat launch which usually has something.. North Carolina, with all the water along the coast has thousands of boat launch sites. Between those and the many forest fire towers (we saw another 4 today) N.Carolina has timber and water for sure. There were many logging truck on the road in this area today.

Oh yes! We did stop in Columbia at the Alligator River NWR headquarters for a breather . The volunteer from PA , told us he saw a Solitary Sandpiper today. That stop is a good one as they have some trails right near the Hq.

Tomorrow is laundry day again, so don’t expect much in the way of a blog. It will be what ever we see looking out the Laundromat window, and on the road going and coming.

Sunday is a guess as to what we might try to take in. My belief is to go back to Matamuskeet NWR as it was the best of the four NWR here.. A lot depends on the weather. Today the SW wind blew all day at 15-20 mph, but it was a fine 75 F. until rain came in the northern part of the county for a few minutes. It was heavy but did not last long. The rain will slow the fire but not put it out as much of it is peat bogs. Tune in tomorrow.