Sunday, June 10, 2018

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2005. This was Mattie's third and final trip to the Outer Banks. We thought we would always have plenty of opportunities to take Mattie back to the beach, but it never happened. Given that we are at the beach this week, I decided to post some of our beach trips with Mattie. 


Quote of the day: Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peter and I went on a two hour kayak tour today of an estuary on Bowman Island. There was one other couple with us from Florida, and our tour guide Kade. Kade was very passionate about his waterways and the animals that live off of the water. Though I must admit I thought we would see a lot of water birds, we didn't. What we learned more about was the sea grass, the mud flats, and the oyster beds. All of which help protect the main island from eroding and also help aerate the water for other creatures.... like dolphin, manatee, fish, and birds. I had NO IDEA that oysters are considered the kidney of the water. They help purify it as each oyster can circulate through 30-50 gallons of water a day and clean it and push it back into the estuary.

Though I am sure Kade rather I not pull out my cell phone to take pictures, he clearly doesn't know how I operate! This is what we were seeing along the way. 

This is a snowy white egret. They have long fluffy plumage and Kade was telling us that at one time these birds were killed from their feathers.... to don women's hats. Now that is illegal. Which explains why these birds are no longer on the brink of being extinct. 

Do you see all these little brown dots on the sand? Well believe it or not, these are hundreds of fiddler crabs. 

 A close up of the crabs. The male crabs have one large white claw. It was like seeing a mound of ants, except the infestation was of crabs. 

This shrimp trawler was destroyed in hurricane Irma. In South Carolina, they do not remove ship wreckage, as these vessels are used by their marine ecosystem.

The highlight of the two hour trip was a dolphin pair.... mom and child. The mother dolphin was very cautious around us, but we were able to approach and a snapped a few photos. 

Same mother-child combo. It is very challenging to capture dolphins in their natural habit on camera!

This is the beauty that surrounds us in South Carolina. The roads have canopies of trees over them, with Spanish moss hanging off of the trees. It is like a picture postcard!

When we got back from the Kayak adventure, we then went bicycle riding around part of the Island for an hour. It was a lovely experience. With lots of bike paths and little to no cars. 

As I sit on our balcony looking at the water, don't you know it.... our resident buck is out grazing. Do you see him in the scrub bushes???