(Pic 25): Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina. © 2010 DeLene Beeland
This image was taken in late April 2010 when I visited Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on the NC Outer Banks (map). There’s not much I’d rather do on an early summer day than kick around on the coast. Pea Island is part of the ribbon of sand that makes up North Carolina’s famed Outer Banks. These coastal barrier islands jut out into the Atlantic like a V. I spotted some marbled godwits foraging in the shallow estuary on the western side of the refuge, and what I think was a loggerhead shrike near to these trees. The wind was blowing so hard that the shrike would seem to hover in mid-air, trying to land on the terminal end of a branch but then it would get blown further away. It finally gave in to the wind and let the airy forces carry it far away.
