I have spent the last hour on the phone with my friend, Alta
VanLandingham, who is visiting her son on Ocracoke Island in the North
Carolina Outer Banks. All-in-all, Ocracoke has fared remarkably well
with both Hurricane Dennis and Hurricane Floyd. Highway 12 was a
problem with Dennis, but Floyd didn't do much there at all. In fact,
the residents who evacuated experienced worse conditions in the places
they evacuated to. Ocracoke has suffered mostly from trees falling over
due to the saturated ground. At this time, there is no standing water
on the island, but they're hoping not to get much more rainfall.
Hopefully, the rain we're presently getting in Florida from Harvey will
not be repeated in North Carolina.
Today, Alta, her friend Gina, and her son, Kirby spent a couple of hours
out on the beach. They collected in excess of 150 fresh-dead Scotch
Bonnets, _Phalium granulatum_! She said they were all over the beach,
just partially exposed in the sand. Almost all of them were empty, but
had no broken or chipped lips. In addition to these shells, they found
a fair number of _Polinices duplicatus_ and more than the average
numbers of whelks and a few fresh-dead bivalves. Also lots of purple
and yellow starfish were thrown up on the beach. Ocracoke seems to be a
good place to go after a major storm--IF you're interested in Scotch
Bonnets! Alta has told me similar tales after other major winter storms
there on the island.
Ocracoke has oftentimes made the claim that there were no snakes to be
found on the island. Today, Kirby found a dead rattlesnake on the
beach. They suspect it rode over from the mainland on debris. Since
the snake was dead, I guess there are STILL no snakes on Ocracoke! Ever
the collector, Alta had Kirby separate the EIGHT rattles from the snake
to take back to the house!
They're going collecting on another area of the island tomorrow--I will
report their findings if it's remarkable at all.
--
Karlynn Morgan
[log in to unmask]
Post Office Box 7606 / Naples, FL 34101-7606 / USA
FAX: (941) 649-8165
|
