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Ocracoke Wild 



Sea Grant education specialist Lundie 

 Spence reviews "Ocracoke Wild: 

 A Naturalist's Year on an Outer 

 Banks Island. " 



Pat Garber did what many of us 

 wish we could have done or still want to 

 do: take off some time to enjoy a sim- 

 pler life, keep a journal and slow down. 

 Garber visited Ocracoke and felt the 

 need to stay for her own well-being. 

 Five years later in 1991, she returned to 

 live on this tiny Outer Banks barrier 

 island. Ocracoke, the island, the village, 

 and the people, must have left a strong 

 impression on her. 



"Ocracoke Wild: A Naturalist's 

 Year on an Outer Banks Island" is a 

 collection of columns published over 

 the years in the coastal publication 

 Island Breeze. But it reads like a journal 

 of her experiences. Garber combines 

 snippets of natural history, twining her 

 observations with local lore, science 

 and speculations. Open the book to any 

 chapter — about seals, frogs, loons, 

 mosquitoes or fiddler crabs — and 

 you'll learn a little bit about each crea- 

 ture in its island context and how 

 Garber got to know it. Her stories aren't 

 the most scientifically accurate, but she 

 opens a door for us to look into her 

 personal experience. If we want to 

 know more, there are field guides and 

 more comprehensive books. 



The chapter on brown pelicans is a 

 good example of Garber' s style. She 

 tells a story of when she and a group 

 of Ocracoke volunteers joined research- 

 ers from the Smithsonian Institution, 

 N.C. State University and the Audubon 

 Society to band pelicans on Beacon 

 Island in Ocracoke Inlet. Wearing 

 heavy clothing, the teams worked in the 

 sizzling summer heat to capture "in- 

 credibly ugly baby pelican chicks" — 

 so ugly they're cute. You ask, like 

 Garber did, why the full cover on a 

 searing July day? After her description 



of how one of the 400 chicks regurgi- 

 tated its breakfast of fish on her shirt 

 and another volunteer received the splat 

 from an overhead laughing gull, the 

 answer is perfectly clear. 



Garber writes that her formal 

 training is in environmental anthropol- 

 ogy. She teases us with sparse introduc- 

 tions to the people of this island envi- 

 ronment. Her interactions with local 

 people, in her sailboat or kayak, reveal 

 the charm of the village. I admired her 

 investment of time and physical energy 

 to learn the local trades: oystering, 

 clamming, shrimping and floundering. 

 I also admired her empathy with the 

 wild creatures and the perils we humans 

 have advanced. As a trained and certi- 

 fied wildlife rehabilitator, Garber has 

 learned how to make a difference to 

 many animals, including a young green 

 heron probably wounded by a car. She 

 shares stories about how other volun- 

 teers with proper certification have 

 helped with dolphin strandings. 

 Garber's animal stories don't always 

 have happy endings. She makes the 

 point that most injured wild animals 

 can't be saved, but trained volunteers 

 can make a difference. 



If book reviews need to include the 

 critical perspective, then I suggest that 

 the science in this book could use some 

 fine-tuning. For example, diatoms are 

 not protozoans. They are microscopic, 



single-celled plants called phytoplank- 

 ton. And the calcareous part of 

 Ocracoke' s sands are from shells that 

 lived not in the depths of the ocean but 

 most probably in the shallow sounds 

 and coastal waters. Most beach shells 

 are recent: remnants of meals from 

 crabs and whelks. However, Garber is 

 correct that black shells are typically 

 fossils once buried beneath the migrat- 

 ing islands. The Spanish blood of the 

 Ocracoke ponies may be very thin, but 

 the legend is strong that these animals 

 are pure descendants. I was not sure 

 whether Garber wanted to leave us with 

 an enhanced story or bare the less than 

 romantic truth. 



If you have ever walked a beach 

 after a storm, you'll appreciate the spirit 

 of Garber's writings. The dried sea 

 horse she found in the strand line would 

 lead anyone to ask curious questions 

 about its lifestyle. She used another bit 

 of flotsam, a starfish, to adorn her 

 Christmas tree. This reflects that she is 

 not a collector of the living animal just 

 for its shell, but does admire and accept 

 the gifts that the waves and winds bring 

 to the island. 



"Ocracoke Wild" is fun to read. Its 

 seasonal divisions and short narrative 

 chapters provide insight to the natural 

 history of the Outer Banks. The writing 

 style is like a personal diary. It is obvi- 

 ous that Garber loves the island and the 

 sound and wants to do what she can to 

 protect its integrity. Throughout the 

 book, her message to the reader is that 

 we share in this responsibility to protect 

 the wildlife, marshes, beaches and 

 quality of the natural island system. 

 These are the real treasures. 



The 1 66-page paperback book costs 

 $13.95. It is available in bookstores or 

 from the publisher, Down Home Press, 

 P.O. Box 4126, Asheboro, NC 27204, 

 910/672-6889 (phone), 910/672-2003 

 (fax). If ordering from the publisher, 

 add $2 for shipping. North Carolina 

 residents also add 84 cents sales tax. □ 



24 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1995 



