On the Road

Here I am again, on the road with just Ulrich. I left work late in the afternoon, stopping by Alligator River Wildlife Refuge along the way.


Patrick over at Terrierman wanted to know if there were any groundhogs to be found. According to the rangers, there are no groundhogs, and if the terriers found a den, it would probably be one of a Red Wolf, a coyote, or a bear.


Very bad for the dogs. Sorry Patrick.

The fact of the matter is, the water table this far east in North Carolina is just too high for groundhogs to den consistantly. If you look at a distribution map of the state, groundhogs just stop an hour east of I-95. And you don't see them at all to the south of us, which stinks if you enjoy terrierwork!

I then cruised down 17 towards Jacksonville, NC. Hawks were everywhere. Harriers were cruising low and slow over the uncut fields, and redtails sat in pairs, scanning everything from their lofty perches.

I saw three bald eagles. Two were mature, White heads and all, sitting on the ground next to a large lake, another sat perched in a tree watching the water of another pond.

A coopers hawk flew in front of my car at an intersection .

I didn't get any pictures, as I was driving, but I did come across a band of black vultures working over some roadkill on a side road.




These birds are less common than the turkey vulture, but can be easily identified by their greater likelyhood to flap while they are soaring.

We got to the hotel around 8:00.


So now it is Ulrich and me, sitting in another hotel room, practicing our flying.