Great Outer Banks Surf

Earlier this year, National Geographic chose the Outer Banks to be included on its list of “Drives of a Lifetime,” and now the OBX has landed on N.G.’s list of the Top 100 American Adventures.

Here’s piece of the praise for the OBX:

“North Carolina’s Outer Banks represent what the eastern seaboard used to look like before all the development and jetties. Left to the whims of the wind and tide, the barrier islands and their dunes change shape from year to year. That makes for an ideal place for beach sports ranging from surfing to striper fishing.”

You can read the full article here.

Outer Banks recycling facts:

1. It is illegal to put aluminum cans, plastic water bottles/other plastic containers and oyster shells in North Carolina landfills.
2. Establishments that sell alcoholic beverages are mandated by state law to recycle all of their glass.
3. Dare County is the only North Carolina county that has its own glass crusher. The crushed glass can be picked up free and used for landscaping, driveway surfaces, etc. Look at the sparkling entrance to Jockey’s Ridge.
4. Out of 100 North Carolina counties, Dare County ranked No. 1 last year for per-capita recycling. This ranking is somewhat skewed because it is based on the weight of recyclables per year-round resident and does not count seasonal population numbers.
5. Recycling is the easiest way to reduce waste in our landfills. Considering the environment of the Outer Banks, you might wonder why recycling is not mandatory.  The Towns of Duck and Southern Shores provide curbside recycling service. Other Dare County towns have recycling “centers” and have contracted with a vendor to provide curbside service to those who voluntarily pay for it.

There is still so much more we can do to increase and improve recycling on the Outer Banks and your help is needed.  BlueGreen Outer Banks – Tomorrow Matters Inc. has worked with East Carolina University’s Center for Sustainable Tourism to develop a survey to find out what Outer Banks residents and visitors think about recycling.

The BlueGreen Recycling Survey – click here.

The new provision will ban plastic bags of any weight — flimsy or not — from being used by any business on the Outer Banks beginning on Oct. 1.  The goal of the ban is to help protect the OBX water and wildlife and reduce litter along the Outer Banks.

Purple Martin

Wikipedia:  The Purple Martin is the largest North American swallow. These aerial acrobats have speed and agility in flight, and when approaching their housing, will dive from the sky at great speeds with their wings tucked.

That is a pretty interesting description; a large swallow that is fast and agile and will dive at high speeds towards its housing…plus, it’s a purple bird!  Now, create a mental image of 100,00 of these large, fast birds diving with wings tucked towards a shared housing location.  Pretty cool.

The Outer Banks is best known for gorgeous beaches, a wide variety of historical relevance, and natural wonders.  However, some of the natural wonders area  bit hidden from the beaten paths near the beach, and the fascinating roost of purple martins at William B. Umstead Memorial (“Old Manns Harbor”) Bridge is one of these hidden treasures.  The roost takes a little effort to get to, but it is worth the trip.

It is difficult to believe the sight when you are witnessing it with you own eyes, never mind trying to convey the spectacle in written words.  100,000 (this is not an exaggeration!) martins converge on the bridge every night from July through August (the roost is active from mid-June to mid-September but with fewer birds present).

After nesting, some martins may travel up to 150 miles from their breeding colonies to reach this location! Arriving at sunset, they sleep under the bridge. At sunrise they depart to feed for the day, building up fat stores in preparation for their annual 2,600 mile migration back to Brazil.

The Mann’s Harbor Bridge roost is so large that the bird’s morning departure can be seen on Doppler radar!

Outer Banks Purple Martin Doppler

The martins have selected their OBX home because of the abundant insects made available by the vast agricultural fields, national wildlife refuges and wetlands of North Carolina’s coastal plain.   They roost under the bridge (only along the western end) on its many support structures, I-beam girders and cables because martins prefer to roost over water where there are fewer predators to contend with.

There are boat tours available, or you can venture to the bridge on your own around sundown to see an amazing display of nature.

Outer Banks Sea Turtle

The 2010 sea turtle nesting season is off to a great start on the Outer Banks.

NEST (Network for Endangered Sea Turtles) is reporting that they have already confirmed two nests.  This is the earliest nesting on the OBX in about seven years.

One of the nests is from a Loggerhead, and a NEST volunteer had the pleasure of discovering the nest as the mother turtle was covering the eggs; it’s relatively rare to catch a glimpse of the mother.  After covering the nest, Mama returned back to the Atlantic.

The second nest provided an even bigger surprise.  The next morning, a rare Kemp’s Ridley mother climbed ashore to nest.  Kemp’s are known to migrate through the North Carolina waters, and some have washed ashore, but it is very rare for one to nest on the NC beaches; only two Kemp’s Ridley nests have been documented on North Carolina beaches, and none along the Outer Banks.

This is a great indication that the Kemp’s Ridley are fighting their way back from the brink of extinction with the help of great programs like NEST.

Outer Banks Sunrise

AOL Travel has named the Outer Banks one of the top ten “secret beaches,” or quieter locations for beach-goers looking to avoid the crowds of popular shore destinations.

The OBX, specifically Carova Beach, was selected for its unpaved roads, 4×4 driving, wild horses, wildlife preservation, and close proximity to all the great attractions of the Outer Banks as a whole.

Other secret beaches named were Ferry Beach, in Maine; Sunset Cliffs, San Diego, California; Guemes Island, Anacortes, Washington; Estral Beach, Monroe County, Michigan; Kaihalulu Beach, Maui, Hawaii; Enderts Beach, Redwoods National Park, California; Dry Tortugas, Florida; and Cumberland Island, Georgia.

Here’s what AOL Travel had to say about the Outer Banks & Carova Beach: 

Part of the country’s first designated National Seashore, this barrier island, caught between the Atlantic and Currituck Sound, remains blissfully undeveloped, with communities refusing to permit paved roads. Past “bustling” Carolla north to the Virginia border, the 11 miles of beaches are only accessible via four-wheel drive, with dirt tracks dancing in and out of scrub pine forest. Much of the area is protected wetlands and wildlife reserve, offering sensational bird, dolphin and sea turtle watching. Activities along the coast range from kayaking to kite boarding. Kitty Hawk, home to the Wright Brothers museum and the world’s largest hang-gliding school, is also close by. It’s one of the premier mid-Atlantic spots to glimpse wild horses, descendants of shipwrecked colonial Spanish mustangs, galloping amid the surf and dunes.

2010 International Surfing Day

Location:

Worldwide

Date: June 20th

Get Involved: Grab your board and get in the water!

It’s time for ISD to start ripping. Six years ago, the Surfrider Foundation and SURFING Magazine felt the surf world was missing something. A day to encourage all surfers to do a few, simple things: paddle out, catch a wave, spread ocean awareness and clean their beaches. So as we approach the big day — which lands on Father’s Day this year — grab dad and the rest of your friends and family and kick off the summer in the water and on the sand so you can get the most out of the longest day of the year.

In the past six years, ISD has managed to influence some major players, clean tons of trash off the beach and score some amazing waves. There have been meetings with Governor Arnold Shwarzenegger. Massive benefit concerts in Japan and Florida. Thousands of pounds of trash removed from our beaches. Thousands of new Surfrider members and close to 100 participating chapters worldwide. And, on top of all this, many memorable sessions in classic conditions.

Wind Turbine

Wind is an everyday occurrence on the Outer Banks, and the winds can play a large role in daily activities.  Storms come and go, surf rises and falls, water temperature adjusts, all with the help of the wind, and these days energy bills can be affected as well. 

The OBX has recently been the focus of an effort to put large energy generating wind turbines in the Sound, and potentially in the Atlantic.  These efforts have not been approved yet, but smaller wind turbines are being erected.    

The Outer Banks Brewing Station has had a wind turbine for a few years, and just recently, a 60-foot-high wind turbine was built near the visitor center at Jockey’s Ridge State Park.  Construction of the turbine was completed in late May and park officials anticipate it will begin generating electricity in June.

The turbine will be connected to the power grid via Dominion North Carolina Power, and park officials anticipate its power generation will offset most of the cost of supplying the visitor center, which includes an exhibit hall, an auditorium and park offices.

Park staff conducted studies with a mobile lift to assess any negative visual impact the turbine might have, and the staff and biologists also conducted a year-long study to ensure the turbine would not have any negative impact on coastal or migratory birds. The monopole-style structure, which doesn’t require guy wires, was chosen to reduce effects on birds in flight.  The turbine also includes an outdoor exhibits that explains its operation to park visitors.

Outer Banks Wide Open Spaces

The Charlotte Observer recently ran an article that highlights the beauty, and science, of the Outer Banks.  

The Outer Banks is a chain of barrier islands that stretches for miles down the coast of North Carolina.  The beauty of the OBX is clear as soon as you set foot in the natural habitat, but the science behind the beauty is not always as evident.

Barrier Islands are found all over the world, but they are most noticeable down the East Coast of the US.  Scientists are not quite sure how these islands were formed, but experts have made the the educated guess that some of these islands were formed about 18,000 yers ago at the end of the last Ice Age as a result of rises in sea levels.

Scientists classify three different habitats for barrier islands, and the OBX has beautiful examples of all three:  

The Beach:
Consists of plant life like algae and bacteria that gets lodged in between grains of sand. Animal life consists of creatures known as burrowing animals. Examples of these creatures are moles crabs and clams. Many shorebirds occupy this habitat as well.

The Dunes:
Much like the beach habitat, the dunes have little freshwater to support many organisms. Plantlife such sea oats make the dunes a more stable habitat. The root systems of the sea oats keep the sand held together. Sea gulls often call the dunes home

Salt Marshes:
These areas are also referred to as barrier flats and are found behind dunes. Wildlife is abundandt in this area.

Outer Banks Wild Horses - Mare & Two Foals

As an update to a previous post entitled Outer Banks Wild Horses to be Named State Horse, the general assembly ratified a bill last week to name the Outer Banks Wild Horses the state horse of North Carolina.

These horses are believed to be the decendants of Spanish mustangs that would have first arrived to the OBX in the 1500s. The estimated population of wild horses is somewhere around 100 mustangs in Corolla, and about 140 in Carteret County.  

People who have studied these amazing animals have realized that the group that is located in Corolla splits into smaller groups of a lead stallion, a few mares and a young horse.  These horses have become one of the top attractions of tourists to the Outer Banks. 

The great idea to name these majestic animals the state horse was thought of by students at Shawboro Elementary School in Currituck County.  The governor is expected to sign the bill into law soon.