Bad Hair Day

Bad Hair Day

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This seemed like an appropriate picture for a Monday morning.

Last week in NC, we got a brief reprieve from stifling heat and the tides were just right, so we took our kayaks down to Shell Point on Harker’s Island for one of our favorite trips out to Cape Lookout.

The ‘interestingness’ factor is almost always high on the route, and we keep an eye out for loggerhead turtles, dolphins, a vast array of bird life, and the famous wild ponies of Shackleford Banks. It is suspected that the ponies first arrived on Shack’ from Spain via Hispaniola in the 16th century, swimming ashore from shipwrecked boats that ran afoul of Cape Lookout.

While we didn’t see any dolphins on this trip (Flipper, or Flip Her), as soon as we rounded the end of the Banks, we noticed a small herd of wild ponies walking along the sand flats caused by the low tide. This gave me the opportunity to approach within a reasonable but respectful distance, using my long lens to capture this and other shots that you’ll see coming up in the near future. The group included a young foal, and the adults in the group always seemed to position themselves to protect the young one.

This pony seemed to be the dominant male of the group, and when I shuffled one step closer, he dropped his head low, pawed the ground once, and let me know that I should back away slowly, which I did.

Hand-held single exposure, Nikon D7000, Nikkor 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at f/5.6, 1/640, 300mm

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