Birds and shells
Saturday, 13 December 2008
From the ferries to and from Okracoke last week, we saw flocks of birds on the Sound, but I’m not entirely sure what species. There were minorities of brown pelicans and some kind of gulls (big ones, it seemed), but most were anhingas or cormorants. Actually, after studying the closest bird book (Sibley’s Eastern North America Field Guide), I wonder if they both weren’t there. Most seem definitely like feeding anhingas, but a few seem to have cormorant shapes and colorations (most likely the double-crested species).
Elsewhere, we saw tundra swans glistening even in the grey, fogged muted daylight. I think there were snow geese, too….
Most of the beach shells on the Outer Banks have been hammered between the surf and sand, yet they still make patterns in the multi-colored sand after the tide goes out….