To the Editor:

It is a unique experience to go on safari and see the “big five.“ It’s so unique that most of us will never do it. However, Eastern North Carolina, the area dominated by the Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, its contributing streams and wetlands, pocosins and swamps, is the geographic, geologic and biologic home of a large variety of wildlife and offers its own safari experience. It neither takes much effort, time nor treasure to experience it, whether we visit our great wildlife refuges or just our back yards to observe plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals of an infinite variety of color, size and behavior.
It is easy to educate ourselves about what these critters need in their surroundings so they will visit — or possibly even become our neighbors. The National Wildlife Federation, with its state and local branch (Pamlico Albemarle Wildlife Conservationists), offers detailed information and, if we are so inclined, will provide a plaque, proclaiming our yard a “Certified Wildlife Habitat.”
For the amount of viewing pleasure, the effort is minuscule. Whether we measure time by the clock or the calendar, whether we make observing the critters our own solitary experience or share it with relatives and friends, the amounts of “Oohs” and “Aahs” soon become too numerous to count. Together with my 3-year-old twin granddaughters or my 93-year-old mother-in-law, we stand for hours by the window and watch the birds, or go “gaga” when the little anoles scurry along the railing, puff up their throats or change color altogether. Raccoons and possums also like bird-food, though they prefer the dark hours of the night for their raids. With a little patience, they too can be observed from the comfort of our den.

Ulrich Alsentzer

Belhaven