A heron congregation, it must be ugly on the river

This Saturday,  December 18, has been a wet one here on the Crystal Coast.

We have hardly stirred from the warmth of our house.  I did make two trips to the mail box which is a nice walk at our house.  I just wish the grass was as green now as it is in the linked summer picture.

During our recent cold snap, our roses froze, and the only thing left green in the yard are the wild onions that I have been unable to kill.  I think most of us humans have recovered from the unseasonably cold weather.  I remain uncertain about both our birds and our fish.

There have been enough reports of dead fish from the really cold days that I assume we did have some scattered fish kills.

We have also had reports of someone killing pelicans recently. I hope they catch the low-life responsible, and put him away for life. Pelicans harm no one and add tremendously to the beauty of the area.

Beyond that the herons and gulls have been especially active in the gut behind our home near the White Oak River.

This morning a small corner of the water behind us seemed to be especially popular.  I counted anywhere up to five white herons  and two great blue herons in a fairly confined space at one time.  A couple of sea gulls also kept circling but I never saw them land.  Not far from the herons, there were some returning merganser ducks which I managed to capture in pictures on Friday.

The herons were there when I got up for breakfast, and they stayed all day.  I did observe them successfully fishing so they were feeding.  There were a few squabbles over territory, but we see that all the time.  However, it is rare for our feathered friends to spend all day behind our house.

They usually will make a visit or two, and then sometime later in the day come back and spend the night in some of the sheltered trees around our marshes.

I don't know if the unusually cold water temperatures in the river have made the water behind our house a better feeding ground, or if it this is just a coincidence.

It was nice to have some feathered company on such a dreary day.  We did enjoy our visitors.

The day was made even a little worse by the news that Emerald Isle is considering charging for beach parking.  The plan is that parking at the Eastern or Western Regional lots will cost $5 or $10 per day, May through September and 8 AM to 5 PM.

That will certainly make beach walks a little less spontaneous. 

Hopefully the economy will turn around soon and before the fees are implemented. We can always hope for some increased tax revenues flowing in from island businesses if the recently reported trend for people to travel more continues.

I suspect the island businesses will be the big losers if the city does start charging for parking.

Icing Penalty for the Crystal Coast

When I wrote the post about a cold December,  I knew it was going to get cold this month.  I just had no idea that it was going to get this cold so quickly.

Yesterday we managed to make it up to 36F from our low of 23F.  Our normal low is 39F, and our average high temperature in December is normally 58F.  With those temperatures, the ice on the Gut leading to the White River has more than a skim of ice on it.

Tonight's predicted low of 23F will not help with the problem.  The good news is that we are going to make it up to the forties tomorrow and even the fifties on Friday.  We should manage to see the sixties on Sunday before we get hit by another wall of cold Canadian air.

When I ventured out to the grocery store tonight, there were only four cars there.  It is hard to believe only ten days ago, I was sorry that I had left home for my beach walk with changing into shorts.

I had been looking forward to a reasonable December which would make our two cold months, January and February, not so bad.  I know it is pretty silly to be complaining about the 34F temperature that I saw this evening on my drive to the grocery store.

However, you do adapt to your area's climate, and our area normally has a nice December.  So this cold weather is not what we are accustomed to feeling.  I guess this icing penalty is to make up for all those great days that we had during the fall.

We will survive because the sun warms this area up sometime in late February no matter what.  That is only a couple of months away.  I will spend some time deciding which tomato plants that I am going to grow this year, and writing about our scenic area.  We eventually hope to write a travel guide about the Crystal Coast.

I manage to never be bored.  As the air begins to warm, we will take some walks on the Croatan Trails.  Some of these pictures were taken there last February.

I am sure we will manage some winter beach walks just like last year, and by March we will regularly be on the beach.

Every winter, we also make trips to the Maritime Museum, the Aquarium, and the Core Sound Museum.

We have also been know to do a little winter fishing.  There is plenty to do here on the Crystal Coast in the winter, and this winter my wife has announced plans to revamp her clam chowder recipe.  I expect to be the official taster.

With all this on tap, I am not going to lose any sleep over a minor icing event.  I expect to see some open water by tomorrow afternoon.  If it happens, my spirits will go up even more.

A Cruel December on tap for the Crystal Coast?

It must be time to hibernate.  After Tuesday's high temperature of 76F and a Wednesday morning wake-up temperature of 68F, fresh chilled Canadian air seems to have found its way to the Southern Outer Banks.  Still it has been a fall to remember.  The weather until now has been great.

I still find it hard to believe that we were able to be on the water so late in the fall without any heavy coats.   From my reading of the December forecasts, it looks like we might pay dearly for all that nice weather.

Of course with December arriving, the number of people visiting has dwindled, and even some of our permanent residents are off traveling for the holidays.  When we visited Trattoria in Swansboro for lunch yesterday, we were the only people there eating at just after 1 PM.  Today we had lunch at Andy's in the Emerald Plantation Shopping Center just before 2 PM.  Once again we were the only folks enjoying the food.

Tuesday afternoon when we pulled into the Western Regional Beach Access to show some clients one of our beach accesses, there were no other cars parked there.  Yesterday afternoon when the winds were starting to blow and the temperatures were starting to drop, there were only three other cars besides us.

Normally December is not a bad month for us.  The folks at Weather.com have the average daily high temperature for the western part of Carteret County pegged at 58F.  Looking at the fifteen day forecast from Accuweather, there is only one day in the next fifteen when we will be at or above the average high temperature.  Nine of the days have us at a high temperature below 50F.  There are also nine evenings when our low temperatures will be in the upper twenties.  That is serious winter weather for the Crystal Coast.  Even in January our average low temperature is 35F.

Of course things could be infinitely worse, much of Virginia and parts of North Carolina are going to see some snow this weekend.  There is also a chance that almost all of Virginia and areas north of there plus half of North Carolina, and the northern parts of Georgia and South Carolina will have a white Christmas.  That is not normal, and as someone born in the south, I feel qualified to say that.

The only silver lining to this cold weather is that long term winter forecast from Accuweather is "not much winter."  Considering how much snow that I shoveled in the Virginia mountains last winter, I could use a break.  Pictures from my first efforts to clear the big December storm to when I finally got a driveway open provide a good idea of how much snow I moved last year.  It was an impressive storm, and I hope that I don't see another one like it for a while.

That snowy winter of 2009 is one of the reasons that my love for living on the Crystal Coast has gotten stronger.  Snow rarely visits the Southern Outer Banks, and even when it comes, it almost never needs shoveling.  For those in Buffalo and other areas suffering under a blanket of snow that requires snow blowers, my sympathies go out to you. My seventeen years in a Canadian snow belt and twenty years in the Virginia mountains have given me an understanding of your frozen pain.  However, I have seen the warmth of the Carolina sun, and I can tell you that there are better ways to spend your winter than shoveling snow.

Once we get through this extraordinary cold of the next couple of weeks, I plan to come out of hibernation.  Until then I will plan my activities accordingly and wear lots more clothing than we are accustomed to using here on the coast.

Stay warm, spring is not that far away.

Some different fall colors

While fall along the coast does not have the magnificent canopy of colors that you often see in the fall in the mountains of North Carolina.  We do have get some fall colors that are unique to the area.

I find that the clear fall skies and bright sun often combine for an unbeatable show of color.  The picture at the top of the post was taken on the White Oak River on November 19 just after sunset.

The colors out on the river that evening were so stunning that it was hard to stop snapping pictures, and head back to my dock.  As you can see from the album that I posted the colors were really amazing.

The river isn't the only source of wonderful colors in fall along the Southern Outer Banks.  You also find some amazing displays of beauty on Bogue Sound and even on the beaches at sunset the light can be spectacular.
 
I also really enjoy the fall colors of the marshes.  We just took a wonderful cruise through the marshes courtesy of Hammocks Beach State Park which was collecting Toys for Tots.  The golden color of the marsh grasses against the backdrop of blue skies and beautiful waters is hard to beat.

We do get some color in our trees, and late in the evening when the sun is shining on them or even reflected in the water, you can almost imagine yourself in the mountains.  Some maples stand out even in our pine dominated forests.  Bradford pear trees also put on a colorful show here on the coast, and I even enjoy the contrast of dark berries against the yellow-orange color of crape myrtles as they prepare for winter.

Still it is hard to beat a nice sunset on the river for fall color.  It puts a very colorful exclamation point on the day as it draws to a close.

Kayaking on the White Oak River

Almost everyone has been pleased with our recent weather here on the Southern Outer Banks.  We might quibble a little with the high surf that has made surf fishing difficult for a few days, but blue skies and temperatures in the mid-sixties are hard to beat in the middle of November. Saturday afternoon was a nearly perfect day. Sunday there was not a cloud in the sky, so there was no reason to expect anything but nice weather for an outdoor adventure.

After church and our grilled lunch, I briefly thought about leaning back in my easy chair and watching some football, but the weather was just too good to waste it on football.  I decided that it would be a great time to go kayaking.  Our home is right on Raymond's Gut which leads out to the White Oak.  Saturday's boat ride in our skiff had taken care of my longing for flying across the water, so I was ready for some paddling.

We have a grassy area behind our bulkhead, and that is where I slide my kayak into the water. It is a little slope so when I am ready to exit the water, I usually have my wife pull my kayak in with our pickup truck.  That way I don't get in trouble for wet or dirty clothes.

The water Sunday afternoon was creating some beautiful reflections of the blue sky so it was also a good time for some photographs.  I loaded my trout rod, a couple of cameras, life vest,  floating bag with cell phone into my kayak and headed out just after 2 PM.

The coast has been experiencing some very high tides, and one of the first things that I wanted to do was investigate an area in the marsh grass that I can only get into when the tides are very high.  I did not have any trouble getting in there Sunday afternoon, and as I suspected I found our great blue heron hiding back there.  Of course he saw me before I saw him.  I got a couple of pictures, but neither of them is good enough for public consumption.

It is a neat spot back in there.  I love the gnarly old live oaks that surround the area.  After checking out the blue heron's lair, I fished a little out in the channel before I paddled out to the river.

I made it out the Red Sixteen Buoy which is the buoy which marks the spot where on our trips back up the river that we turn to go back to Bluewater Cove.  I did "check in" with Foursquare at Red Sixteen.   I fully expect to continue being the mayor of Red Sixteen on Foursquare.  It will be a hard spot for someone to dislodge me, especially with winter coming.

The picture at the top of the post was taken just beyond Red Sixteen looking towards Swansboro.  I did a little fishing out in the river, but the current and winds were strong enough that each time I made a cast, I ended up having to paddle for five minutes to get back to where I started.

There were only a couple of distant fishing boats on the river so it was relatively quiet as is usually the case.  I finally gave up on the fish and started making movies.  I have a friend who is unable to kayak so I thought he might enjoy the feeling of a movie instead of just static shots.

Before I knew it, time had slipped by, and it was four PM.  My wife was due to take our cat to the vet for some medicine before 5 PM so I focused on paddling myself back to the dock.  I found my wife waiting for me by our pickup.  She had gotten carried away with the good weather and was cleaning out my pickup.  Hopefully I will still be able to find everything when I need it.

The water was so high, it didn't take much of a tug to get me onshore.  I had a great time, got some exercise, and managed to relax a little.  That is hard to beat.

I posted three short YouTube videos, Kayaking on the White Oak, Bluewater Cove, and Headed Home.

You get a real feel for being in a large coastal river with the first one, Kayaking on the White Oak.  The Bluewater Cove one is just my kayak riding the currents and wind back into the main body of Raymond's Gut.  My favorite YouTube one out of this batch is the final one, Headed Home.  I did some fancy paddling with one hand in that video.

I hope the weather stays this way for a while.  I would love to get some more kayaking in before it gets too chilly to sit in a kayak.   If you have never been out on a coastal river in kayak it is well worth trying. Where I do most of my kayaking, the White Oak is nearly two miles wide.  If it is your first trip, you might want to wait for a calmer day.  Sometimes there is hardly even a ripple in the water.  I really enjoy sunset kayak trips on the White Oak.  Early in the morning and just before sunset are the best times to catch calm waters.

Quiet on the river

When I got up this morning, it was cool and windy.  Twenty-four hours certainly made a difference in the temperature.  My blue jeans added some welcome warmth as I wandered out to the get the morning newspaper.

Sunday night, October 31, I took a boat ride on the river in my standard summer uniform of shorts and tee shirt.  I was a little cool coming back up river at just under thirty miles per hour, but when I was idling around waiting for the sun to get behind the trees, I was fine.

While it warmed up nicely the next day, it was still somewhat cooler than Halloween evening.  I spent most of the day after Halloween catching up with things after our recent trip to Virginia.  Each time I come back from Northern Virginia, I am reminded that I made a conscious choice to live somewhere that traffic does not come close to gridlock on a regular basis.

We were at Tyson's Corner Shopping Center on Friday afternoon before Halloween.  My wife wanted to drive by the apartment that I shared with our grown children for a couple of years.  It is just north of Tyson's Corner on Route 123 which seems to have grown to about twelve lanes.  It was about 4 PM when we drove by our old spot, and it was clear than the southbound lanes of Route 123 were not moving.  I remembered a back way over to the Toll Road so we escaped unharmed though we did have to get off of the Toll Road an exit early because of everyone rubber necking an accident.

We hung around the Northern Virginia area until about 2 PM on Saturday and then headed back to North Carolina.  It wasn't long before we were in stop and go traffic on Interstate 95 for about 20 minutes just north of Fredericksburg, but that was our only hitch on the trip home.  We stopped for breaks a couple of times and once for gas.    Even with that, we passed through the intersection of Routes 24 and 58 near the Emerald Isle Bridge at 8:10 PM, just a few minutes over six hours after we left Reston, Va.

While we love visiting our children in Northern Virginia, we have no desire to live in a spot where you avoid going out on weekends for fear of traffic.  While we might skip visiting the grocery stores here on the Crystal Coast for a few hours on each of about six or seven weekends during the summer, most of the time we go wherever we want, whenever we decide that we need to go.

I had also forgotten how small the parking spaces are in Northern Virginia.  Here on the Southern Outer Banks our parking is designed for big trucks, and we even make accommodation for those pulling boats.

Of course if you need to buy something, there is hardly any place better than Northern Virginia.  The malls in the area have almost any store known to mankind.  Actually the women have heard of almost all the stores, and like most men, I am clueless about most of them.  I did enjoy LL Beans, Levengers, and of course the Apple Store.  I was amazed but not surprised that the Apple Store has done away with cash registers.  The employees have a gadget that swipes your credit card, and then they can email your receipt to your smart phone.

Besides shopping, Northern Virginia has some very nice restaurants.  We managed to eat at Sweet Water Grille, Coastal Flats, and Chicken Out which was one of the places I would often run by after work when I was working out of the Reston, Virginia Apple office.  I also got to make a trip to Whole Foods which is my favorite grocery store.  Where else can you find an ostrich egg when you need one?

Every place has its pluses and minuses, but at this stage in our lives, the Southern Outer Banks is the right spot for us.  Being able to drop a boat in the water for a sunset cruise and be back at the house in ten or fifteen minutes is not that unusual here on the coast.  It is a great way to soothe your soul, and I use it often.

A just-before-dusk trip on the water is how I got the picture in this post. The evening after Halloween I had to wear blue jeans and take a jacket, but it was still nice out on the water.  In fact it was even more peaceful than it was the previous night. Of course the light is always a little different, and I got some great photos.

The feeling of peace and quiet that you get on an uncrowded. wide coastal river at sunset is hard to duplicate when you get near major populations centers.  Access to water is one of the main reasons that we are here on the Southern Outer Banks. Of course a climate favorable taking boat rides in November is pretty good reason in its own right.

Boat gridlock is also not something we worry about on the White Oak River or out in Bogue Inlet. And we have some mighty fine small, family owned restaurants just around the corner even if they are mostly local secrets.

Perhaps A Great October Day At The Beach On Tap

I would have to say that the weather forecast for this coming Wednesday looks great. While my Latin is a little rusty, I believe it would be a great day to "Carpe Litus" or seize the beach.  To see the weather folks calling for a high of 81F and a low of 70F with partly cloudy skies on October 27 is something that should excite us all.

While we have enjoyed a mild fall, and the predictions are for a mild winter, an eighty degree beach day at the end of October calls for some sort of celebration or at least a long walk on the beach.

In fact I am organizing my week around trying to enjoy some of that warmth on this coming Wednesday.  We recently made a trip to the Virginia mountains.   I left the coast in my usual uniform of shorts, tee shirt, and sandals.  We were fine all through North Carolina, but I knew that we were in a different world when I got out to put gas in the car in Martinsville, Va.  The temperature had dropped to fifty four degrees.

The next morning I was running around turning on the furnace, and before we went out on some errands, I had changed to blue jeans, long sleeved tee shirt, and sneakers.  Two days later the morning temperature had dropped to 35F, and I was wearing a sweat shirt.

With that fresh in my memory, I plan to soak up all the warmth that I can in the remaining days of October. On Monday, October 17, we had a great walk on the beach in early afternoon.  There were plenty of people out there enjoying the late fall warmth.  I am hoping for as good or better day on October 27.

Later in the week of October 17, it was warm enough for a boat ride in shorts and tee shirt.  With the water still holding close to seventy degrees, we can hope for an extended warm period that might ease our transition into the winter months.

We never know what winter is going to bring or any other season for that matter.  However, what we know is that the Coast is warmer than the Mountains and Piedmont in the winter. The South is also almost certainly warmer than the North during the winter, though last winter was pretty close.

As they say the devil is in the details.  I have yet to have need of a down coat here on the coast.  My winter shoes are tennis shoes, and I only keep gloves in the car for our frequent trips back to the Virginia Mountains.  There are no snow shovels on our coastal property.

We have seen some ice on the "Gut" which run out to the White Oak. That water behind the house get a skim of ice a few times each winter.  Usually it melts by nine AM, but we did have one stretch last winter where the ice held on in places for a few days.  There were rumors of an unusually cold winter back in the late eighties when the river froze over, but I never saw any pictures to confirm it.

I do know that I shoveled a lot of snow in Virginia last winter, and I have yet to shovel any snow in North Carolina.  We did miss the brief snow storm last winter on the coast, but I was told the snow melted off the driveways before anyone had time to consider shoveling it.  That was a stark contrast to the situation of our friends who live near Pulaski, Va. and had snow on their long country driveway for over six weeks.

I will take that eighty degree weather on Wednesday, enjoy it, and use the memories of it to fend off those first cool days of the coastal winter.  I am hoping that the long range forecasts are correct, and that most of this winter's snows will be from New Jersey to the north.  At least they have the equipment to handle it.

We are much better equipped to handle visitors on the beach than we are to take care of snow on the beach.

Let us hope any snow we see this year on the beach is just a dusting.

4ENUHNX5T9P5