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Field and Swamp: Animals and Their Habitats |
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Archived-by-Date Pages
Fort Fisher State Recreational Area, Kure
Beach, New Hanover County, NC
Located on Pleasure Island at the southern tip of New Hanover County, NC, this area
offers a beach (on the Atlantic coast), an aquarium, and the Basin Trail, which extends west through a
marshy and brushy area to the banks of the Cape Fear River on the west side of
the island. Bald Head Island is south of Fort Fisher, and is
actually connected by the (very long!) beach. To read
more at this place, visit the website of
Fort Fisher State Recreational Area, New Hanover County, NC.
For directions, see this live map.
Battery Buchanan, Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, New Hanover County, NC 12/20/25
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| Common Buckeye |
Northern Mockingbird |
Same Northern Mockingbird |
Tree Swallow |
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| Helicopter |
Tree Swallow |
Tree Swallow |
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| Tree Swallow |
Airliner |
Brown Pelicans |
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| Song Sparrow |
Young Northern Mockingbird |
Double-crested Cormorants |
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Battery Buchanan, Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, New Hanover County, NC 12/18/25
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| Asters |
More asters |
Tree Swallows |
Earleaf Greenbrier (Smilax auriculata) |
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| Tree Swallows |
Tree Swallows |
Northern Mockingbird |
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Basin Trail, Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, New Hanover County, NC 11/16/22
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| Beach Pennywort (Hydrocotyle bonariensis) |
Wandering Glider |
Gret Egret |
Goldenrod |
View of the marsh from the boardwalk |
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| Clams and mussels |
Osprey aircaft in airplane mode |
Small plane |
Sea Myrtle (Baccharis halimifolia) |
This aquatic aster defies identification. |
Battle Acre, Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, New Hanover County, NC 11/16/22
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| Atlantic Ocean |
Common Buckeye |
Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella) |
Another Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella) |
Another Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella) |
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| Gulf Fritillary |
Gulf Fritillary on Monarch |
Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) |
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Battery Buchanan, Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, New Hanover County, NC 11/16/22
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| Male Boat-tailed Grackle |
Palm Warbler |
Same Palm Warbker |
Another Palm Warbler |
Another Palm Warbler |
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| Another Palm Warbler |
Perennial Saltmarsh Aster (Symphyotrichum tenuifolium) |
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12/2/21
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| Goldenrod |
Gulf Fritillary |
Snowy Egret and White Ibis |
Snowy Egret |
Snowy Egret |
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| Tricolored Heron |
White Ibises and a Double-crested Cormorant |
White Ibises and Mallards |
White Ibises |
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| Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) |
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11/30/21
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| Dune Camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris) |
Cape Fear banks |
Clay deposited on the beach by the Cape Fear River |
Double-crested Cormorants |
Karl walking south on Route 421 |
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| Osprey aircraft in airplane mode |
Small private plane |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
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| Song Sparrow |
Another Song Sparrow |
White Ibises |
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Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) |
3/30/21
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| Mating crane flies |
Brassicaceae family member |
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3/28/21
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| Dune Camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris). ID thanks to John Nelson, seconded by Yvonne Nordeen on the FB group Carolina Wildflowers.. |
American Oystercatchers, Dunlins, Forster's Terns, and Brown Pelican in the distance |
American Oystercatchers, Dunlins, and Brown Pelican in the distance |
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| American Oystercatchers and Dunlins |
Brown Pelican and Dunlins |
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| Double-crested Cormorant |
Low-hop Clover with purple spots on leaves |
Common Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) |
Snowy Egret |
Wasp |
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| Willet |
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3/27/21
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| Bald Eagle holding fish |
Same Bald Eagle |
Same Bald Eagle |
Common Vetch |
Male Boat-tailed Grackle |
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| Same male Boat-tailed Grackle |
Karl |
Low Hop Clover |
Pennsylvania Bittercress |
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Battle Acre Area, 12/28/19
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| Yellow Firewheels |
"Normal" Firewheel |
Firewheels |
Flags at the Visit Center |
Plane |
Basin Trail, 12/26/19
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| Cargo ship on the Cape Fear River, far beyond Battery Buchanan (at Fort Fisher), as seen from the Fort Fisher Basin Trail. |
Climbing Hempvine |
Stick insect (Anisomorpha ferruginea) |
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| Double-crested Cormorants |
Double-crested Cormorant |
Distant fiddler crabs |
Firewheel |
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| Goldenrod, with a true bug |
Henbit |
Male Hooded Merganser |
Male Hooded Mergansers |
Mating stick insects (Anisomorpha ferruginea) |
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| Hooded Mergansers |
Hooded Mergansers |
Northern Mockingbird |
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Battery Buchanan, 12/26/19
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| Plane |
Royal Tern |
Royal Tern |
Snowy Egret and young gull |
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| Snowy Egret |
Another Snowy Egret |
Same Snowy Egret |
Another Snowy Egret |
Song Sparrow |
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| Song Sparrow |
Another Song Sparrow |
Fallen cedar tree |
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Basin Trail and Cape Fear River, 12/21/18
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| Yellow Firewheels |
Brown Pelicans |
More Brown Pelicans |
Female Bufflehead |
Duckweed, Water Meal, possibly Water Fern |
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| Firewheel |
Gulls |
Sea Myrtle |
Waves |
Cape Fear River, 12/21/17
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| American Oystercatcher by the Cape Fear River |
American Oystercatcher with prey |
American Oystercatcher looking for prey |
Non-breeding Laughing Gulls |
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| Song Sparrow |
Tricolored Heron |
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12/20/17
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| Tricolored Heron, Snowy Egret, and two juvie Ring-billed Gulls. |
One of the juvie Ring-billed Gulls. |
Ring-billed Gull in flight |
Ship on other side of the Cape Fear River with cranes. |
Song Sparrow |
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| Song Sparrow with flowers |
Another Song Sparrow |
Sunrise at Carolina Beach |
Sunrise at Fort Fisher |
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Basin Trail, 9/27/17
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| Queen |
Long-tailed Skipper |
Monarch |
Gulf Fritillary |
Pink Muhly Grass |
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| Wandering Glider |
Spot-winged Glider |
Wandering Glider, one of about seven |
Another Wandering Glider in the same group |
Saddlebags |
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| Black-throated Blue Warbler (migrating) |
Same Black-throated Blue Warbler |
Same Black-throated Blue Warbler |
Female Painted Bunting, a summer resident. ID thanks to Harry LeGrand. |
Same female Painted Bunting |
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| Tricolored Heron |
Mating stick insects (Anisomorpha ferruginea) |
Bee fly |
Fowler's Toad |
Male Common Green Darner |
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| Carolina Anole |
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Basin Trail, 3/8/17
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| Green Anole |
Green Anole |
American Oystercatcher |
American Oystercatchers |
Question Mark |
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| Snails on dried marsh bed |
Heron and egrets |
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Cape Fear River, 1/22/15
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| American
Oystercatchers, Marbled Godwits, Short-billed Dowitchers and
Dunlins |
Non-breeding Royal Tern |
Northern Harrier |
Short-billed Dowitchers, maybe one Marbled Godwit, and American
Oystercatchers |
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| Great Blue Heron |
Cedar tree,
10.5 MB multi-photo stitch (two rows) |
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1/21/15
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| Sparrow |
Snowy Egret |
Same Snowy Egret |
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Atlantic Ocean, 10/21/14
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| Gulf Fritillary (ventral view) |
Gulf Fritillary (dorsal view) |
Semi-palmated Plover |
Another Semipalmated Plover |
Savannah Sparrow |
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Non-breeding Ruddy Turnstone |
Short-billed Dowitchers
(Limnodromus griseus) |
Ailanthus
Webworm Moth |
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Basin Trail 10/20/14
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| Common Buckeye |
Drone Fly (side view) |
Drone fly
(front view) |
Tiny Wharf Crab |
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Basin Trail 8/12/11
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| A view from the boardwalk of
several White Ibises and a Great Egret |
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| White Ibises.
Photo by Karl D. Gottschalk. |
White Ibis landing |
White Ibis in flight |
White Ibis in the
marsh |
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| Spider wasp |
Will Cook
and Harry LeGrand agree that this is a Salt Marsh Skipper. The
clincher was behavior: it feeds on marsh grass, close to the ground.
Compare
Jeff Pippen's 2008 Salt Marsh Skipper photo. |
Tumbling flower beetle |
Seaside Dragonlet |
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| Salt Marsh Pink (Sabatia stellaris) |
Sea Ox-eye Daisy |
Flower fly
(Pseudodoros clavatus) on an Asian Dayflower |
Bee fly
(Exoprosopa fascipennis) |
Brackish-water Fiddler Crab |
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| Argid sawfly (Humeralis genus) |
Same Argid sawfly |
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Basin Trail
8/11/11
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| Juvenile White
Ibis and adult Great Egret sharing cedar tree |
Juvenile
Yellow-crowned Night Heron |
Sanderlings (20) |
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| Great Egret |
Great Egret in flight |
Seaside Dragonlet |
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| Brackish-water Fiddler Crab #1 |
Brackish-water
Fiddler Crab #2 |
Brackish-water Fiddler Crab #3 |
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Cape Fear River
8/10/11
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| Sand Fiddler Crab |
Brackish-water
Fiddler Crab |
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Battle Acre
8/10/11
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| Horace's Duskywing |
Pennywort |
Typical Firewheels |
Pink Firewheels |
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Cape Fear River 5/24/11
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| Yellow Rat Snake
(Elaphe obsoleta qudrivittata) |
Yellow Rat Snake |
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| Male Sand Fiddler Crab |
Male Sand Fiddler
Crabs: they competed for a crab hole, and the one on the right won. |
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Basin Trail 5/24/11
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| Golden-winged Skimmer |
Katydid on Prickly Pear flower |
Diamondback Terrapin |
Tricolored Heron (in Cape Fear
River) |
Thread-waisted Wasp, perhaps
resting |
Cape Fear River 5/23/11
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| Great Egret |
Wharf Crab |
Wharf Crab |
Sand Fiddler and
Brackish-water Crabs |
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| Great Egret |
American Oystercatcher
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Salt-marsh Skipper |
Pennywort |
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Basin Trail 5/22/11
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| Red-winged
Blackbird |
Snowy Egret |
Campsomeris
plumipes wasp on Firewheel |
Prickly Pear in flower |
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Basin Trail 1/17/11
The weather started out cloudy and rained most of the day.
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| Hooded Mergansers,
on pond near Aquarium, with grass in foreground |
Duck (brown head)
with eel (according to Ed Corey) prey. Ed and Josh Southern agree
that the duck is a female merganser. |
Turkey Vulture
taking off from viewing platform |
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| Subadult White
Ibis |
Snowy Egret at
Cape Fear River |
Mystery bird, may
be Yellow-rumped Warbler (flashes of yellow) |
Male Boat-tailed
Grackle, in Battle Acre parking lot. |
Basin Trail 1/16/11
This was the only sunny day of the trip.
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| Cape Fear River
mudflats, seen from near end of the Basin Trail |
Wading birds on
the mudflats. The one on the right is a Dunlin (ID thanks to Dave
Lenat). |
One of many flies
seen on washed-up seaweed on the beach |
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| White Ibis |
White Ibises |
White Pelican,
seen at the Aquarium pond from a great distance |
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Male Hooded
Merganser, at the Aquarium pond |
Basin Trail 9/28/10
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| Queen, dorsal view |
Queen, ventral
wing view |
Long-legged fly
(Hydrophorus genus) |
Megachilid bee
(note tiny fly on leftmost flower), one of many |
Wharf crab |
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Salt Marsh Pink (Sabatia stellaris) |
Pennywort flowers |
Firewheels |
Tievine (Ipomoes cordatatriloba) |
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| Trailing Wild Bean in a
drainage ditch |
Forked Bluecurls
(Trichostema dichotomum).These wildflowers
were common on the initial marshy stretch of the Basin Trail. |
Bitter Sneezeweed |
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Near Visitors Center 5/12/10
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| Firewheels |
Maybe Daisy Fleabane, but the
petals are suspiciously purple. |
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Near Visitors Center 3/9/10
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| Dung beetle (Copris fricator) |
Hop Clover
(Trifolium genus). This is a composite of maybe twenty typical pea
family flowers. |
A group of hop
clover plants. These plants were ubiquitous in grass. |
Maybe a Common
Vetch |
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| Rock Slater (Ligia
genus), a kind of crustacean. This one had wandered just off the
sand. |
Common Dandelion.
You can see the reproductive parts of the many individual flowers. |
Henbit |
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Basin Trail 12/23/09
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| Monarch |
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Basin Trail 10/15/09
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| Carolina
Mantis, on boardwalk |
Another
Carolina Mantis, with prey |
Gulf
Fritillary |
Common
Buckeye |
Question
Mark |
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Milkweed Bug nymphs? They were moving very fast, looked like
fire ants at first. |
Milkweed Bug nymph with the beginnings of black wing pads |
Two Milkweed Bug nymphs, representing two instars |
Two Milkweed Bug nymphs on another plant, moving very little.
More little black wing pads. |
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| Male
Sand Fiddler Crab (Uca pugilator) |
Monarch
butterfly |
Leafcutter bee (Megachilidae family) |
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| Carolina
Saddlebags |
Eastern Mud Turtle, about 2 inches long |
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Near Visitors Center 3/8/09
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Red-headed Woodpecker, near Visitor Center, 3/8 |
Outdoors trail, part of Aquarium 6/26/08
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| Male
Golden-winged Skimmer |
Male
Golden-winged Skimmer. Photo taken by Karl D. Gottschalk. |
Four-spotted
Pennant (Brachymesia gravida) |
Blue Dasher |
Young adult male
Eastern Pondhawk |
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| Very young
Yellowbelly Slider, sitting on top of a faded, upended Lotus flower. |
Male
Boat-tailed Grackle |
Cuckoo Wasp |
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Cape Fear River 1/7/08
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| Red-winged
Blackbird |
European
Starlings, non-breeding adults |
Great Blue Heron |
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Beach and Basin Trail 12/3/07
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| Tricolored Heron |
Willet |
Immature Great Black-backed Gull, according to Jeff Pippen.
According to Sibley (2003), it was in its first winter. |
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| Fruit flies (Senopterina genus), Ft. Fisher Recreational Area, New
Hanover County, NC, 6/22/06. Note the black triangles on the
otherwise translucent wings. |
Robber Fly
(Efferia albibarbis), Fort Fisher
Basin Trail, New Hanover County, NC, 6/22/06 |
Crablike Spiny Orb Weaver, Fort Fisher Basin
Trail, New Hanover County, NC, 6/22/06 |
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| Cicada nymph skin, discarded by adult
cicada. Ft. Fisher Basin Trail, New Hanover County, NC, 6/22/06 |
Female Yellow-and-Black Argiope, Fort
Fisher, New Hanover County, NC, 6/22/06 |
Red-banded Hairstreak, Ft. Fisher Recreational
Area, New Hanover County, NC, 6/22/06 |
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Queen (Danaus
gilippus), 8/27/03 |
The same
Queen |
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| Male Needham's Skimmer (Libellula
needhami), Fort Fisher, 7/16/04. About five of these red
dragonflies showed up together at the beginning of the Basin Trail, but
I've never seen any of this species before or since. Randy Emmitt
and Josh Rose provided this ID. |
This female Needham's Skinner was
flying all around the Ft. Fisher Basin Trail on 10/18/05, but never
landed. |
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| Great Egret
(Ardea alba), Fort Fisher Basin
Trail, NC, 9/29/04. |
White Ibis, Fort Fisher State
Recreational Area, New Hanover County, NC, 12/20/06 |
American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), Ft. Fisher State
Recreational Area, New Hanover County, NC, 12/19/06. ID thanks to
Ritch Lilly. |
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| 11/17/04 Fort Fisher Basin Trail, New Hanover County, NC |
Ft. Fisher Basin Trail, 10/18/05. |
Same place and day. |
Copyright © 2007-2019 Dorothy E. Pugh
SHARE:
Map of Fort Fisher Recreation Area: The pointer shows the entrance to the parking lot for the main beach and the
entrance to the Basin Trail. The Ramsgate Trail is also known as the Basin
Trail. Fort Fisher Boulevard South leads to the Southport Ferry station
and, at the very end, the Battery Buchanan Tour Stop with its famous
oyster-gathering jetty. The beach on the east/right extends southward all
the way to Bald Head Island; it is a very long distance!
View Larger Map
