Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Christmas Bird Count

Yesterday Lou Ann and I joined fifteen other folks for a boat ride to Portsmouth Island and the annual Christmas season bird count. It was chilly out in the sound, but warmer in the village. Being on Portsmouth in the winter is a wonderful experience. As many of our readers know, Portsmouth village has been deserted for more than thirty-five years. When Henry Pigott died in 1971, Marion Babb and Elma Dixon, Portsmouth's last remaining residents, reluctantly moved to the mainland. Today, the Methodist Church, US Life Saving Station, Schoolhouse, Post Office, and several dozen houses and other structures are silent memorials to the thousands of people who have called Portsmouth Island home since 1753. You can read more about Portsmouth Island here.

Lou Ann will be writing an article about the bird count in the next week or so. Look for that in an upcoming post.

Out latest Ocracoke Newsletter celebrates the majestic live oaks on Ocracoke Island. You can read it here.

To read about Philip's new book, Digging up Uncle Evans, History, Ghost Tales, & Stories from Ocracoke Island, please click here.

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