Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a…

Fall has arrived, and you know what that means. Actually, it means two things (probably more, but for our purposes here we’ll stick with two): the hardwoods are starting to change color and the snow birds are changing locals as they relocate south. Both activities you won’t want to miss — and won’t have to thanks to various North Carolina State Parks programs this weekend. Coast You know fall has…

Monday — never an easy time for the outdoors enthusiast. After a weekend of adventure, returning to the humdrum work-a-day world can make one melancholy. To help ease the transition, every Monday we feature a 90 Second Escape — essentially, a 90-second video or slide show of a place you’d probably rather be: a trail, a park, a greenway, a lake … anywhere as long as it’s not under a…

This weekend offers a reprieve from the recent run of summerlike weather. With highs no higher than 75 forecast statewide, the weather should be good for just about any pursuit, from birding at the coast, to hiking in the Piedmont to ride in the mountains. Coast We find the outdoor experience is enhanced when we know a little more about the outdoors we’re exploring. When we’re exploring the coast, which…

North Carolina is forecast to be rainy in the east, sunny in the west. Either way, we’ve found plenty of incentive to get out this weekend. Coast Normally, we don’t get excited about hundreds of thousands of temporary visitors settling in for the season at the coast. But when the season is winter and the visitors are tundra swans, snow geese and assorted ducks, it’s a different story. Come to…

Resolved to get out more in 2014 but need to ease into it? We’ve got two birding programs that promise a mix of mellow movement and awesome outdoor exposure. And if you’re looking to up your competitive resume in the year just begun, we’ve got a run in the mountains in a lesser-known natural area. Regardless of where you currently fit into the movement spectrum, it’s a good first weekend…

With the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in full swing we’ve got birds on the mind this weekend. For birders, amateurs and experienced alike, it’s an especially good time to do the count: Migrants from northern climes are descending upon the state, particularly the coastal part, to wait out the winter months, adding even more variety to the state’s mix. And, as it turns out, it’s an especially good time…

At the turn of the 20th century, it was a big deal to go out on Christmas Day and look for birds. At the time, though, the “looking”  involved bringing a shotgun. Frank Chapman was a fan of the custom, though not necessarily the gun part. So on Christmas Day 1899 he got the idea to go out and identify and count the birds, not shoot them. The idea caught…

As available sunlight goes, we hit our annual nadir on Saturday: the winter solstice, officially commencing at 12:11 p.m. The sun rises at 7:19 a.m. and sets at 5:06, with just 9 hours and 47 minutes of daylight in between. From Saturday on, gradually at first, the sun starts setting a little later every day incrementally increasing our daylight for play. But let us not dwell on the future (beyond…

If you’ve got good rain gear, you’re in for a great weekend. One of this week’s picks even comes with coffee! Coast Tis the season to check out the bird life at the coast, where waterfowl from various points north  are congregating to spend the winter. With the skies so full of feathers, wouldn’t it be nice to know who’s who? Learn to identify the year-round residents and snowbirds at…