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My Summers are not what they used to be. It seems that I get caught up more in photography business, than surfing and hanging out at the beach. Now there are more people than ever coming to the Outer Banks, and I don’t blame them. The place speaks for itself. So now I make hay while the sun shines.

Lately, I’ve been occupied printing, matting and framing not only for my gallery inventory, but also preparing for an exhibit being held at the largest gallery space in the area. Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo is hosting a group show that will feature my work along with two other local photographers, Ray Matthews and Eve Turek. Our theme is one of my favorite subjects, the weather.

We hang our pieces next Thursday, and the exhibit will start with a reception, open to the public on Sunday, August 1st from 2 to 4 PM. 

Since I’ve got this on the brain so much, I thought I’d give a sneak preview of a few of my prints.

Taken last Fall, this breaking wave was formed as a result of Tropical Storm Ida.

The past winter was unusually cold here. I made this photo in my back yard after brisk northwest winds sprayed water from the Pamlico Sound, forming icicles on the marsh grass.

This image of the Pamlico Sound was made several years ago with my medium format film camera. As you can see, the sound was frozen well offshore. The chilly winds blow the water toward the shoreline, where it is built up as striations of ice on the surface.

An unusual weather shot, this waterspout appeared in 2005.

It should be a fun and extraordinary show, so consider yourselves invited.

Spawning

This is a time of year when new life is born to maintain a continuance of species. Signs are all around us. Much of it is obvious, as in nesting birds or budding plants. But much of it we cannot see, unless we look closely. Take the eastern oyster, for example.

For as long as I’ve lived on Hatteras Island, oysters have been a fascination to me. Whenever I go collecting, it’s apparent that they grow in certain areas more than others. I notice that even in those more prolific spots, that the oyster population has generally been in a steady decline. This is attributed to over-harvesting, water pollution, parasites and lack of substrate material for new oysters to attach and grow.

Mature brood stock oysters emit egg and sperm into the water column, which in turn combine to produce eyed larvae, the beginning of becoming a true oyster. A scientific collection permit has allowed me to gather brooders for my own oyster garden spawning. I also donate collected brood stock to the aquaculture program at Carteret Community College and to the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute at Cape Hatteras School.

Several years ago I attended an oyster conference in Morehead City, where I saw a number of scientists and people like myself looking for answers. It was here where I met Dr. Kemp. He runs the aquaculture program at Carteret Community College. A number of us got together and founded Shellfish Gardeners of North Carolina. We are interested in growing oysters, not only as a recreational activity, but also as a way to help the environment. We have had workshops to learn more about life cycles, water quality and to educate others.

For oyster gardening in eastern Pamlico Sound, Skip Kemp has been my mentor.

This has evolved into a network of people compiling and studying data. I collect water quality data for the Citizen’s Monitoring Network out of East Carolina University, and also compile information for the Oyster Spat Monitoring Project based at University of North Carolina in Wilmington.

Past data indicates that now is a prime time for local oysters to be spawning, so I have to keep a sharp eye out to see if there are any new oyster spat.

These eyed larvae have attached to an oyster shell and are 1 day old oysters.

This composite image shows new oyster spat at weekly intervals beginning with 1 week old at the upper left and 4 weeks old on the lower right. The initial growth rates are dramatic. The ruler scale is in centimeters.


These are almost 5 months old.

Yearlings can come in different sizes, depending on environmental conditions.


Unexpected Visitors

I love the nature and tranquility of my yard. The variety of birds that come throughout the year is amazing. Some fly to the feeder hanging in the garden. Others come to perch in the trees and bushes. Some do both. I’ve seen unusual birds like scarlet tanagers, baltimore orioles and bald eagles. I also get more usual sightings like cardinals, towhees and finches.

 A couple of weeks ago, my friend Steve dropped by. Like me, he’s an avid gardener, and sometimes we exchange seeds or ideas. As we were sitting next to one of my raised beds, discussing the merits of soil pH, there was a rustling in the pines. We looked up to see a feathery creature stumbling along the branches. It was a young great horned owl clutching a limb then jumping to another. We could hardly believe it. We all stared, checking out each other. The young bird was clicking it’s bill, and glaring at us with big yellow eyes. It was an amusing sight.

We looked for 20 minutes not realizing that we too were being scrutinized. Unbeknownst to us, there was an adult owl perched in an nearby tree, and it was watching us the whole time.   

The next few days I saw them again and again, and wondered why they would stay here. The juvenile, only a few months old, still had some downy plumage, yet was able to fly fairly well. A nest 30 feet up in a tree gave me a clue. Could it belong to them? It looked so small. 

I remembered the baby great horned owl that we rescued 2 years earlier, after it fell out of a nest. That youngster had been raised in a nest even smaller, but it worked. Well, sort of. I learned that great horned owls use nests built and vacated by other birds. Locally here on Hatteras, they nest in January or early February, long before most other birds are doing it.

This 4-week old owl had fallen onto soft pine straw from a nest 25 feet high.

Now I’ve been watching these raptors for 3 weeks. During the day they roost nearly motionless in the branches. They move around a little, depending on the comfort zone. At times they get harassed by mocking birds, but other than that you’d never even know they were there. They blend in beautifully. If my theory about their nest is right, then they’ve been in my own back yard for 3 months without me knowing it.

The adult gets a morning snooze.

The adult after a long rainy night of hunting.

The juvenile is just getting its feathery horns.

Natural born killers, they are perfectly designed for what they do. At dusk they get active. They’re silent, stealthy fliers. At night, I’ve seen them perched on power lines, rooftops, on my osprey platform in the marsh, or at my neighbor’s fish house looking for prey. Then the next morning, I find them nestled stoically in the same group of trees. It’ll be interesting to see how long this continues.

Portsmouth Village Homecoming

For me, the most intriguing town on the Outer Banks is the village of Portsmouth. Situated on the northeast tip of Portsmouth Island, it played a significant role in local maritime history for well over one hundred years. It’s geographic location next to Ocracoke Inlet was important in making it a major port of commerce when wooden ships still sailed the seas. Deep draft ocean going vessels could offload goods there, and smaller boats would come from inland river towns to pick it up. From the 1750’s to the 1850’s, Portsmouth was a thriving seaport. According to an 1860 census, the town had a population of 685 residents.

But by then, things were beginning to change. A series of storms opened other inlets, and at the same time Ocracoke Inlet began to shoal. Shipping routes changed, commerce dropped off, and gradually the town dwindled to only a few people. With the death of Henry Pigott in 1971, the last man to live at Portsmouth, the last two residents, Elma Dixon and Marion Babb reluctantly left the island.

Today the 250 acre historic district of Portsmouth Village is a part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore. The remains of the town have been left intact and maintained.

Since 1992, the Friends of Portsmouth Island have sponsored a homecoming every 2 years. I went in 2008, and looked forward to this April 24, 2010 event. Again I was not disappointed. Here are a few things that caught my eye.

Descendants of village residents pose for a photographer in front of the Dixon/Salter house.

The Robert Wallace house.

The Dixon family cemetery.

The post office opens every other year for this event, including canceling postage stamps.

Ocracoke fisherman Gene Ballance demonstrates the art of net mending.

James Gaskill wears a device once used for fire-lighting waterfowl. He is also a commercial fisherman from Ocracoke.

At the old Coast Guard Station, Dave Frum explains the beach apparatus method for rescuing shipwreck survivors.

The Methodist Church was always a focal point of the community and still is.

88 year old Rudy Carter and Mil Hayes ring the bell to begin a church service. Rudy is a descendent of Henry Pigott, the last man to live at Portsmouth.

Get to the church on time if you want to get a seat.

Born in 1921, Dot Willis affectionally known as “Miss Dot”, is the last surviving resident that was born at Portsmouth Village. The light coming in the translucent windows of the church was very nice so I took the opportunity to speak with her, and make this available light portrait.

Back in the day, the flat-bottomed skiff was a preferred mode of transportation. These guys were fastening the bottom planks in a boat building demonstration.

Roy Willis from Stacy, NC was showing his waterfowl carvings.

Roy made and hunted over these green winged teal decoys last season.

The main tent provides seating for up to 500 people.

Then there’s the covered dish dinner with plenty for everyone. And the mosquitoes weren’t even that bad. If you go in 2012, I’ll see you there.

Group shot of attendees at the 2010 homecoming.


Buxton Woods Boat Works

In the early 70’s, there was a small migration of people that transplanted to Hatteras Island. They came because they enjoyed the island for what it was and what it provided. The surf, the fishing, the serenity were just some of the things to savor. The kicker was to somehow find a way to make a living. Some went into commercial fishing, restaurants, real estate or construction.

Mike Scott went into the boat building business. At his Buxton Woods Boat Works he made dories for the commercial fishermen to haul seine from the beach. He also did a lot of boat repair jobs. As he got busier, he hired Richard Ryder to help.  Richard was also a transplant, and like everyone else was looking for ways to make ends meet. He and Mike were not only good friends, but also excellent craftsman.

This 1977 photo shows a Mike Scott dory in use. Here Dennis Midgett on the left, and Pete Smith haul net in the stern to make another “set”.

With more repair jobs still coming in, Mike asked me if I wanted to help them out for a few months, so I began sometime in February of ’82. We restored two old shad boats that had been converted from sail to mechanical power. One of them belonged to Lee Peele, standing here on the right. It turned out to be a complete overhaul and it was a beautiful boat. Mike Scott stands proudly on the left.


This shad boat belonged to another Hatteras fisherman, Mark McCracken. We replaced some rotten planks and gave it an epoxy treatment.


Then Mike got two orders to build boats. One was a 24 foot, flat bottomed net skiff for a longhaul rig. The skiff took only a few weeks to finish, and was simple in design. For me, it was a perfect introduction to boatbuilding. It taught me a lot about “dressing” rough cut lumber, working with power tools and epoxy techniques. The lumber came from a small sawmill in Camden, operated by Mose White. Note the shad boat in the shop.


The other boat ordered was a 39 foot dead-rise, commercial fishing boat, designed after the Albatross II. Based in Hatteras Village, the Albatross Fleet has been around for years. They are tried and true, built in Marshallburg, NC.

Beautifully designed as very seaworthy displacement hulls, they are unlike the more modern, over the top, planing hulls. All the Albatross boats have rounded sterns, but this new one would have a square stern with rounded corners. It was made for “Big Bill” Foster, and would take over 6 months to construct.

The original Albatross was built in 1937.


The keel and bow stem are the backbone and were cut from yellow pine , then the heart cypress bottom frames were fastened to the keel… then the side frames installed.

The planks made from atlantic white cedar, are bent and fastened into place.


Richard Ryder applies epoxy to the finished hull.


Once outside the unpainted Mamacita is ready for a cabin.

Years later in 2007, Mamacita is still an active fishing boat.

Today Mike Scott is a boat captain and runs charters on the Albatross lll.

Richard Ryder went on to work for Hinckley Yachts in Maine, then began his own business called Union River Boat Company.

I left Buxton Woods Boat Works in September of 1982 to dredge oysters on the Chesapeake for the next 2 winters. See earlier post on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks.