Field and Swamp: Animals and Their Habitats |
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Carolina Beach State Park, New Hanover County, NC
This park is located on Pleasure Island, just south of Snow's Cut, which separates Wilmington and its near southern suburbs from Carolina Beach. How to get there? See the live map.
Animals and Plants
11/14/22
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Pond | Mystery wildflower, very tiny |
12/1/21
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Canada Geese | Chaffhead (Carphephorus bellidifolius) | Another Chaffhead (Carphephorus bellidifolius) | Grass |
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Grass | Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) | Northern Mockingbird | Pine Warbler |
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Pine Warbler | Pitcher Plants | Navy plane | Pond | Red Scorpion Fly |
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Ruby-crowned Kinglet | Preening Tricolored Heron |
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Turkey Oak | Another Turkey Oak | Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) | Same Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) | Yellow-rumped Warbler |
3/30/21
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American Snout | Female Comet Darner | Crane flies mating | Sand wasp attacking a leafcutter bee | Sand wasp and leafcutter bee |
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Leafcutter bee and sand wasp | Cherry Laurel (Prunus caroliniana) | Cherry Laurel (Prunus caroliniana), ID by Joshua Giordano-Silliman and Tim Dekle. |
3/29/21
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Blackberry flowers | Blowfly | Hoverfly | Fly? | Turkey Oak catkins and new leaves |
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Turkey Oak catkins and new leaves | Yellow Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia flava) in bud stage | Yellow Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia flava), flowering |
12/27/19
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Female Eastern Bluebird | Male Eastern Bluebird | Another female Eastern Bluebird | Yellow-rumped Warbler | Another Yellow-rumped Warbler |
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Turkey Oak | Long Leaf Pine |
12/22/18
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Mystery asters | Eastern Buckmoth | Same Eastern Buckmoth | Another Eastern Buckmoth | Fly |
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Pond | Yellow-rumped Warbler |
8/7/18
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Antlion (Vella fallax) | Aster? Notably missing from the guidebooks. | Male Brackish-water Fiddler Crab | Comet Darner | Eastern Pine Barrens Tiger Beetle |
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Lichens | Golden Silk Spider pair | Indigo Bunting | Meadow Beauty (Rhexia genus) | Pitcher plants |
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Pitcher plants | More pitcher plants | Male Eastern Pondhawk, transitioning to adulthood | Southern Bee Killer | Southern Magnolia |
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Wharf crab | Virginia Spiderwort | Yellow-eyed Grass (Xyris fimbriata) | Another Yellow-eyed Grass |
9/28/17
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Female Pileated Woodpecker, one of four of this species seen | One of the several ponds | Sand wasp? | Lone Virginia Spiderwort flower | Wharf Crab |
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Brown-headed Nuthatch | Common Buckeye caterpillar, with exuvia still attached | Hovering Common Green Darner | Horse fly |
9/26/17
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Bee fly (Poecilognathus punctipennis) on a Purple False Foxglove flower (Agalinis purpurea). Wildflowers were sparse in the sandy sections of the park, and this species was most conspicuous. | Red-bellied Woodpecker | Same Red-bellied Woodpecker | Female spider wasp (Psorthaspis sanguinea). Genus ID thanks to Ken Wolgemuth and species ID (as well as sex) to Bob Biagi. | Square-headed Wasp (Tachytes genus). ID thanks to John S. Ascher. |
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Square-headed wasp (Tachytes genus). | Bee fly (Poecilognathus punctipennis) on a Purple False Foxglove flower. | Dogday cicada | Firewheel | Grasshopper |
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Lily pond | Mourning Cloak | Pine Warbler |
3/7/17
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Henry's Elfin | Cape Fear River |
3/6/17
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Brown-headed Nuthatch | Same Brown-headed Nuthatch | Hermit Thrush | Same Hermit Thrush |
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Hermit thrush | Northern Mockingbird | Legume family plant with seed pods |
1/21/15
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Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Same Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Forster's Tern, about to dive |
10/22/14
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Bee fly (Poecilognathus punctipennis) | Common Buckeye | Common Buckeye on blazing star | Sleepy Orange |
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Pond | Ocola Skipper on blazing star |
4/2/14
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Scoliid wasp (Dielis plumipes fossulana) |
12/21/13
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Eastern Buckmoth (Hemileuca maia) | Another view of this Eastern Buckmoth |
12/4/12
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This sign's placement (on the bank of the Cape Fear River) gives some indication of sand movement, perhaps largely as a result of Hurricane Sandy in late October. |
8/12/11
5/23/11
9/28/10
5/13/10
5/12/10
3/9/10
3/9/09
8/4/09
Earlier periods
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Copyright © 2005-2019 Dorothy E. Pugh
Map of Carolina Beach and surrounding area: The long road bordering the park on the east is Dow Road, your first right turn upon arriving on Pleasure Island from the north. Note that you can follow the trail through the park as well as the roads on this map.
View Carolina Beach State Park in a larger map