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One of our white heronsThis has been an interesting winter.  It has been colder than normal on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina where we live.  We even had ice on much of the quiet water around the White Oak River's edges for several days.

That mean many of the herons who are accustomed to feeding in the shallows were locked out of their normal feeding spots.  Fortunately the weather was not so cold as to freeze all the water, but it did freeze enough of it to cause some heron squabbles.

The small spring fed pond behind our home stayed ice free so for a few days it was a heavily contested spot with both great blue and white herons jockeying for position.

This week with the ice gone, things have returned pretty much to normal.  We even have some of our wintering pelicans back in the gut.

You can put out bird seed for many song birds when the snows come in the mountains, but what do you do with the waters ice over on the coast?  I think I should have bought some herring and thrown them on the ice.

When you live on White Heron Lane, it is no surprise that you might have a few white herons in your back yard. That would especially be the case if your back yard is actually a channel leading out to a tidal river.

Our river is the White Oak which is well over a mile wide near us.  It is home to lots of fish, otherwise known as heron food.  In fact the small gut of water behind our home often is a boiling sea of finger mullet which I suspect is one of the herons' favorite foods.

We have a number of white herons and at least two great blue herons, but we only have one green heron as far as I can tell.  My green heron is one of the more cooperative herons in that he does not mind being photographed.

The blue herons can smell a camera and start flying as soon as you try to snap a picture.  The white herons are clever because they give you only their narrowest and least interesting profile.

That leaves me with the green heron who seem to be willing to even show me his long neck.

This is a nice series of green heron photos that I took one morning.

It has been a while since I got some good blue heron shots, and I had to find a more cooperative blue heron down the river near Swansboro.  These are my blue heron shots that I got that day.

I have managed plenty of white heron shots.  They seem to be around a lot which is why I guess we live on White Heron Lane.

While I often think of the inlet being my runway to the White Oak, the ICW, and Bogue Inlet maybe it is just a heron landing strip.

If you want a very good look at my favorite green heron, click on the thumbnail picture in the post.

Finger Mullet on DockFarming has changed massively over the years.  It is no longer unusual to see no-till farming.  The days of the moldboard plow have mostly drawn to a close here in coastal North Carolina.

Assuming the chemical used for weed kill are not so bad and that might be a big assumption, going to no till cultivation is a good way to stop erosion on slightly sloping land.  Stopping erosion means preventing topsoil from migration from land to river.

Our subdivision, Bluewater Cove, has been around less than ten years.  I know for a fact that the water behind and near my home was once nothing more than a mud filled swamp.  I once knew the volume of silt that was removed from the channels.  It was impressive.

Still it would have done no good without a proper drainage plan to slow future accumulations of silt.  Fortunately for us that was done and the area behind our home has gone from mud flats to nursery.

One throw with my cast net yielded all those finger mullet on my dock.  Our neighbors are white, blue, and green herons among other birds that love to wade the waters.

I am even proud of the bags of styrofoam pellets that are buried behind our home to filter the driveway stormwater that goes into the water behind the house.  I can see it as it enters the water.  It is crystal clear just like much of the water already here on the Crystal Coast.

Our area is truly all about the water, I feel good about living in a subdivision where keep silt and animal waste out of the water is a big priority.  We still have a ways to go on figuring out how to take care of our centipede grass without chemicals and how to control fireants, but we are making progress.

It is nice to know even new construction does not hurt our waters.  We would not want it any other way.

Morning spider webI have always spent a fair amount of time outside. Perhaps it started with growing up in the fifties and sixties when kids lived outside.  Maybe it has something to do with the eleven years that we farmed in Canada.  Or it could be that I just like the out of doors.

Recently I have noticed an interesting tendency among people looking to buy property.  They want a santized out doors or at least one which has no downside.

I can only think this comes from people who have spent very little time outside their living rooms.

Having lived in places as diverse as Cape Carteret, NC and Halifax, Nova Scotia, I can tell you that you take what you get with the outside world.  It is always changing, but you cannot eliminate all the bugs or take the hot days out of summer.

I spent a fair amount of my spare time when we lived in Roanoke, Va battling poison ivy along a trail that I kept up in the woods on the mountain behind our home.  It almost became a crusade, but I kept the poison ivy at bay as long as I patrolled the trail regularly.  I have not be on the trail in a few years so I am certain that it is sneaking back.

My efforts no more eliminated poison ivy from the area than one can eliminate thunderstorms from summer.

Yet I believe we have a significant number of people among us who would sanitize the outside world if they could.

My legs are a testiment to the work that I have done outside in the south.  There are scratches, bites, and old wounds galore.  I always figured what did not kill me made me stronger.

I am not sure what part the little spiders that make nests in my centipede grass play in the grand scheme of things, but I certainly do not mind sharing my front yard with them.  Likely if they tried to invade my house, I would launch an attack, but right now that are just part of that outside world which I enjoy.

I chose to live outside and hope that the battles I pick with mother nature are ones that need to be fought even if only for a time.

I know some like the one against the blackflies in Canada are unwinnable.  I am happy to live in a spot on the coast where by some quirk of nature we do not have to fight mosquitoes.

I hope that those who want to enjoy the warmth of southern winter without the heat of a southern summer realize that the only way to do that is to move to New England for the summer.

If you want the south without its bugs and snakes, you might want to consider what you are asking and try to find a nice city to live in for now until you figure out your relationship with mother nature.

I for one will rather take the benefits like a perfect beach day or a day on the water with whatever challenges there are rather than give up the great times.

While the White Oak River gets more pollution that I would like to see, it is minor compared to the pollution that I have read about going into NY harbor.

I am proud that a pollution study in our area found that we can improve the health of the White Oak by slowing the water flow into the river after storms.  That is not a major reordering of our world.

We are lucky to have no city to really pollute the river.  I love seeing the shrimp and mullet compete for space in our inlet.  At one time the inlet was filled with mud and decaying vegetation.  Today it is swarming with life.

With help from millions of oysters, we already have very clean water, and we can make it cleaner.

It would be nice to have a fish management plan to go along with the plan to improve the water.

I think if there were fewer gill nets, we might see a resurgence of fishing.

I wounder if the oysters or crabs will eventually own the river?  They are both survivors.

More information on NC's CRystal Coat can be found at the Crystal Coast Living Blog.