If you have taken a night time walk on the beach during your vacation, chances are you’ve seen hundreds of crabs moving towards the water. These are ghost crabs, also known as sand crabs.  Ghost crabs are named as such because of their translucent appearance and quick scuttling getaways in to the sand. Ghost crabs have rotating eyes that sport an impressive 360 degree vision.  They can run up to 10 mph and dig tunnels four feet in to the sand. These interesting crabs live on land, only walking to the shore at night to wash their gills with ocean water for necessary oxygen.  And in the summer, female crabs will release eggs in to the water. Over our...

I will never forget the first time we saw a fox behind our Corolla beach house.  A deer was standing near the brush, thumping his foot in warning at some kind of creature that was obviously nearby.  Eventually the deer ran, irritated at some unknown intrusion. We patiently waited and watched until a strange four legged creature emerged from the brush.  This animal was partly gray and partly red.  Its shape was fox-like, yet from a distance it was hard to confirm what we strongly suspected. Days later we were happily surprised to see a fox fairly close to the house just at dusk.  Over the years we have seen many more, either with gray fur, red or a mix of b...

Sadly, whales have been injured or killed and washed ashore over the years in the Outer Banks.  In 2004 a dead Right Whale washed ashore in Corolla, just down the beach from our home. The Stranded Response Team from the Virginia Aquarium arrived to study the unfortunate whale and perform a necropsy.  The whale was identified as a Right Whale, and sadly, was pregnant with a calf. Right whales are named as such because they were the “right whales to kill.”  A right whale moves slowly, has a high yield of oil, swims in warmer waters and floats when it is killed.  The Right whale can weigh up to 220,000 pounds and is one of the rarest mammals in the North Atl...

The Outer Banks still calls itself home to wild North Carolina deer.  It is common for Outer Banks vacationers to spot deer roaming behind beach houses or near the beach dunes. Deer are usually spotted in the early morning hours or at twilight, enjoying fresh beach grasses or ripe wild persimmons.   And if you are lucky, you may just see a baby deer or two happily trotting behind a proud but wary mother. It is not uncommon to find deer that have been hit by vacationers rushing in and out of the area.  With beaches on their minds, deer are an unexpected sight for tourists, especially along the sandy main roads.  Deer are especially plentiful along the roads...