Seeing bears isn’t everything.

Since I’ll be working the next several days, I needed to take care of some errands and grocery shopping today.  Considering that I slept in this morning, and didn’t get up at the crack of dawn, it was 10:00 by the time Emma and I headed out for a drive on the refuge.  I figured I’d take her on a little outing before I headed into Nags Head.  If I had been a little more ambitious and left a little earlier, we might have been able to see some bears along the way.  As it was, we only saw one bear and it was way out in the middle of a corn field.

Turkey vultures don’t get up very early in the morning either.  There was some little dead animal in the road that it was brunching on.

Soon afterwards, it took flight to look for something more substantial to eat.  At this point I decided to take a drive to one of my favorite places on the refuge… Milltail Creek.

Near the end of the road is a parking area and kayak launch along the bank of the creek.  It’s right after you pass over a short bridge.  Emma and I took a walk around this peaceful area, and we were in for a couple of surprises.  As you can see, it’s not a very fast moving creek, but I found the patterns of the green algae floating on top to be entrancing as my eyes followed their undulations.

Then on the other side of the bridge, a couple of swallowtail butterflies were chasing each other around through the creek side vegetation.  First one would be in front, and then the other.  It was a hoot trying to hang on to Emma and get some pictures of their antics at the same time.

Eventually, one butterfly flew off, and the other stopped for some nectar.  Since I was up on the bridge looking down, I was able to get a different perspective on this little beauty.

As we got to the other end of the bridge I spotted one brilliant flower blooming off at the edge of the creek.  That blossom was about six inches across, and was the only one around. 

Then this colorful dragonfly landed on one of the bridge pilings.  Isn’t that an interesting little face?  As I moved around to try to get the best view, another creature came into my peripheral vision.

I was not as thrilled to see this guy, but he sure was keeping an eye on me.  As Emma and I stepped back, he slithered away off of the bridge guard rail.  We may not have gotten any good looks at bears this morning, but we sure did see plenty of other interesting things on our little outing.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy