THE PEOPLE OF ALLIGATOR RIVER AND PEA ISLAND

I’m going to tell you about all the wonderful, FRIENDLY, informative people that Dan and I have had the opportunity to meet and to work with.

We have met a LOT of people and I can’t even begin to remember names. Many of them were locals and we may never see them again, but they helped us or informed us.

Then there are the employees of Alligator River Refuge and of Pea Island Refuge. I know we haven’t met them all and the ones we have met we may not remember their names yet, but they are just as important as the ones I’m going to tell you about.

I know all of these people have titles, but I can’t commit to memory all of the titles!

We had been corresponding for almost a year with our Volunteer Coordinator, Abbey. I felt by her emails that she would be a genuinely special person to get to know and to work with. We were not disappointed. Abbey strikes us as a warm and caring person. She is so full of energy and ideas; she is also a mother and a wife and a horsewoman. How she finds time to sleep is beyond me.

Then there is Cindy who works out of the Pea Island Refuge; she TOO is a hard worker, extremely personable and a lot of fun to be around. From what we have seen so far, Cindy is on the go all of the time. Cindy is a wealth of information and is very happy to share it with others. And she too puts in a LOT of hours.

And there is Bonnie. She works out of the Manteo Office and due to all the responsibilities Bonnie has, I think she is often viewed as the manager of Alligator River Refuge. She is extremely knowledgeable and helpful. You can tell the dedication to her work and the refuge just by having a conversation with her.

Then there is Bruce who is the head of, I guess you would say maintenance and repairs and all of the 9 (or 11??) refuge’s in the area. He wears a LOT of hats. I can’t even begin to tell you the duties of the field’s operations office but he is the head of it…and he has been extremely helpful when Dan and I need something and don’t know where to go or what protocol is. Dan and I think of this branch of the refuge as an equivalent to the Michigan DNR’s field offices. They oversee 3- year prescribed burnings, the drainage of the ditches, the purposeful flooding of the fields, timbering the dikes, etc.

And speaking of the DNR…the Michigan DNR has finally had to admit that there ARE cougars in Michigan!!! I believe the story was dated November 4th and is out of Chippewa County which is to the east of the county of Luce (where we live). For years locals have been trying to convince the DNR that there ARE cougars and they, the locals, were not taken seriously. One of the DNR’s wildlife cams caught a couple of photos of a cougar! I guess they now have to agree, there ARE cougars in “da U.P”!

Back to the people we’ve met; Friday, Dan and I worked the hospitality table at the Pea Island Visitors Center. This was all part of the Wings over Water festival so there were a lot of bird people at the center who had been on very early morning guided bird walks. We view them as very DEDICATED birders due to the howling wind and the 40 degree temps. It had to have been very cold walking through the marshes that morning to get to the viewing areas. I’ve never seen such a variety of spotting scopes, binoculars, tripods and cameras. And people talking about birds we’d never even heard of. But they were so willing to share their knowledge. It wasn’t only birds that people had seen off and on throughout the day but various types of butterflies, snakes, assorted other reptiles and other types of mammals. It was an education for us.

It appears the bears have been very active on the trails and boardwalks again. Dan and I will have a lot of boards to replace this week. I can’t remember for sure, but it seems to us that the treated lumber that we purchase in Michigan is NOT treated with salt as it is here. I know it use to be treated with arsenic, but I can’t remember what is used now. I feel a search coming on!!! One would think there would be something that could be used for this boardwalks and rails and wouldn’t entice the bears to chew on them.

Have a great weekend!!

CRITTERS ARE BIGGER AT ALLIGATOR RIVER

OK, I know...it's just a bug. But I've never seen a praying mantis this large! Or casting such a shadow. I thought of calling this "ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS FOR SURE!!"

In regards to the weather, if it'll make you feel any better, we had to put an extra blanket on the bed last night; it was about 39 degrees when we got home from the photography speaker thing. And this a.m. it was only 50 inside!!

More later! I don't want to tie up the line too long!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND BOYS IS THE PRICE OF THEIR TOYS

As many of you know, Dan and I were farmers in our “former lives”. It is something you never get out of your blood; from the smell of new mown hay, to the smell of cows breath, to the early morning “cattle calls” and to all the things in between. It is hard, but rewarding work. As the saying goes; Farming is everyone’s bread and butter.

We still like looking at farm equipment, but that is especially something Dan is “fascinated” by. He marvels at how things have changed in the past 20 years.

This afternoon, we have been watching two men working hard at V-cutting the field(s) across the road from our campsite. These fields are all part of the Alligator River refuge. There are X amount of acres set aside for soy beans. Some of it is harvested, some is left for the critters of the refuge….but however it is handled THESE FIELDS ARE WET!

You may remember from an earlier post that we thought that the fields must be tiled because they ARE so wet; that is not the case.

Dan and I have been watching these two guys for about the last 4 hours preparing the field for the V ditching. It is fascinating to watch how it is all done from beginning to end. From what we can figure out, the back hoe first goes into the area that is going to be ditched and searches for hidden stumps and roots them out. Then the ditcher (I’m sure it has a proper name, but don’t know what it is!) goes across the field with the equipment not quite set deep enough into the ground to make the ditch, but more like it is being notched out. Then he makes a return trip setting the ditcher deeper and actually makes the V ditch…and you should see the water run out of the fields and into this ditch! It appears that all of the V ditches start and end at a large culvert (at each end of the fields). This particular field is about one mile across. I’m not sure if all the plots are set as such or not.

I think I told you in an earlier post that there is about a 10 acre “strip” of beans, beside it is 10 acres of all the plants you’d expect to find in a wetland area, then beside it is another strip of beans, and so on. Last week, someone was across the road in these fields brush-hogging all of it. (I believe all the equipment has to be 4 WD….or they would never get through!).

There is a very large ditch between our road and the next road and the Refuge can control how much water is in the ditch with a pumping station that is at the end of our road. This morning, there was very little water in this deep ditch, however, since they have been V-ditching this field today, it is filling back up. The V ditches look to be, I’m guessing here, about 2-3 foot deep….and the water is flowing into that ditch as soon as he cuts it in the field, from there it flows back to the culvert(s) and into the BIG ditch. Clear as mud???

Maybe the photos will help clear it up!

NUTTIN MUCH!

5 a.m. on Wednesday; got my “cuppacoffee”. Have a light blanket wrapped around my legs…it got kind of chilly last night. I think it is about 42 degrees outside because it is about 55 inside. I don’t want to turn the furnace on yet!!

Trying to get a weather report is about impossible, at least on the radio. We have our radio set to 15 different FM stations and 5 AM…and no one gives a weather report on a predictable basis. And I think the weather wizards in N. Carolina might be a bit on the chicken side…they only give you today, tonight and tomorrow. Heck, where we’re from, you can get a whole 5 days weather report!

The report I finally got yesterday a.m. was kind of interesting though. It started out telling us that the highs would reach near 70, a sunny day, overnight it would drop into the 40’s. The man went on to warn us that the tide was high (full moon the past couple of nights), and that due to the high tide there would be high surf and riptides and to stay out of the surf. Then he told us what to do if you got caught in a riptide. And, again, where we’re from, OUR weathermen tell you what to do if you get caught in a blizzard even down to the point of telling you what you should be wearing and how much kitty litter you should have in your trunk in case you get stuck in a snowbank.

One thing I’ve noticed since being here is I’m beginning to feel like a nicer, more relaxed person. I didn’t realize how stressed I was till I got away from our business. I must be a real B to Dan sometimes and don’t even realize it! It still seems strange though to not be telling him to watch the phone and office while I go brush my teeth (little things like that).

The bird migrations have begun. When we first arrived here, all we were seeing were TONS of buzzards and a couple of eagles (oh, and fighter jets…get to that later if I don’t forget). Now, we are seeing huge flocks of tree swallows, warblers (at least we think they are warblers; very shy and hard to see), and many flocks of snow geese flying over head..WAY overhead. They are too high up in the sky to get a photo. Their clamor proceeds their view…they sound like Indians on the warpath way off in the distance.

About the fighter jets…they too are way up in the sky and way too fast! Dare County bombing range is within Alligator River NWR. The Navy owns the range but leases it to the Air Force. It isn’t too far from where we are so there are a lot of fly overs as they are practicing. It is like having our own air show…but way off in the distance.

A couple of days ago, we were at the fire maintenance building and there was an 8” x 10” photo on the table in their kitchen of fire personnel holding a snake over the end of the shovel. The snack was a huge rattler…and when I say HUGE I mean HUGE. It weighed 98 pounds and was 9’ 5” long. He killed it at a part of the refuge about 30 miles south of here. I am not worried about bears so much as I am snakes (and spiders!)! He managed to break its neck with the shovel but couldn’t chop its head off with the shovel. You’d probably need a buzz saw for that! I will think about this snake every time we are out in the refuge filling brochure boxes or near the river….at least you can smell a bear before you see him (usually anyway!)

There is another post today below this one; just photos of a shy bird. We THINK it is a cormorant; well Dan thinks it is. I don't know for sure...any ideas??

Guess that is about it for this time!!

SHY BIRD

Hiding behind the rushes


Hiding under the water


Coming up about 30' downstream


And the bottom one..leaving the scene! You can see where he has "paddled" out of the water with his feet leaving a sign of each "step".

THE CABIN

This is what the inside of the little cabin looks like. It is close to our campsite; the first shot (left to right) is me trying to get connected to dial up in the 'living room', the shot under it is the mini kitchen, next is the laundry room and last is the two bathrooms and showers.

Dan helped me connect a very long phone line to the camper so I can now get on line IN the camper instead of hauling everything over to the cabin. Much more convenient.

We just saw a bear run across the field which is across the road from us; it was too far away to get a photo of it, so Dan and I are going for a walk in a bit to see what else we can see!!

On Friday we work at the Pea Island visitor center and Friday night we get to go to a dinner/speaker. The speaker is a renowned photographer; check his work out at www.markbucklerphotography.com.

Saturday we will be transporting people to and from canoe launches. Saturday night we are going on a REFUGE AT NIGHT drive from 5:30 t0 8:30 p.m. Not sure what we are supposed to do Sunday.

Catch ya later!!