Road Trip Memories

From the memory files: Being an exceptionally busy and committed individual in my professional and avocational life, I don’t get as much trail time as I’d like, especially at any distance from Cary. This is much on my mind as my schedule starts to clear in spring. And I am remembering, increasingly fondly, my last trip out of town. That foray – whimsically entitled by me as “Wildlife Intercept Research” took me to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the company of two bird-savvy friends from Wilmington NC. We spent the third weekend in January surveying waterfowl at Pea Island and Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuges. The winter glories of this area include Tundra Swans, Snow Geese, and Canada Geese, all in the thousands. Certainly nothing we can see in the Piedmont! The photo shows a section of a cotton field occupied by a huge flock of Snow Geese (upwards of 3,000 birds) near the town of Englehard in Hyde County. W.I.R. Team “Mission 0109” was fairly successful as we conclusively identified 56 species (admittedly at a casual pace) and savored the wild, windy climate of the coast in midwinter. I expect to return again in the fall.