Rhododendron Time in the North Carolina Mountains

Click any of the images below to a larger version as well as more photos from two short trips this spring to the Craggy Gardens area of the Blue Ridge Parkway and to the Balds of Roan Mountain on the NC-Tennessee border.

West Virginia -- the Mountains Near Marlinton

This thumbnail links to a few images from this late June trip -- 

A quick Trip to South Carolina - A Morning at Bear Island and an Afternoon Boat Trip

I started out July with a quick trip to South Carolina to take a little boat trip out of St Johns Island with  and also to make a quick visit to Mary's Pond at Bear Island Wildlife Management area.  The afternoon boat trip was to the Deveaux Banks, a 250 acre sand island set aside as a bird sanctuary at the mount of the North Edisto River.  The birds were not as active as I had hoped, so shots of skimming skimmers and bird fishing or in flight were not all that plentiful.  But the area is beautiful, the company was good, and we saw lots of birds and other good stuff.  I even came away with a few images.  Check out Horan's Low Country Wildlife Safaris website.  He offers a variety of 3 or 4 hour trips geared to birders and photographers.  The next morning I stopped by Bear Island Wildlife Management Area.  I had heard there might be some Spoonbills and Wood Storks there.  I saw neither, but had a great time photographing some immature Reddish Egrets and watching some baby Stilts putter around.  Each of the two thumbnails below takes you to a different set of images from this trip.

Autumn at Dolly Sods and the Canaan Valley

I returned to this area again this fall.  No snow this time, making for some different photo ops since the ferns and other low vegetation was not completely gone.  For a little more info on this area and on last year's trip, go to this link.  For a set of photos from this year's trip, just click the thumbnail below --