By Peter Vankevich
Island residents Karen Rhodes and Matt Janson present a photographic and narrative journey through the Ocracoke’s ecosystem in their 160-page coffee table book “Ocracoke Untamed: A Photographic peek into the island’s birds, wildlife and ecosystems” (South Point Press 2026).
Ocracoke is a barrier island of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, 16 miles long and very narrow —most of it no more than one mile wide and often less. As this book proves, it has a surprising number of birds that can be seen throughout the year.
Rather than taxonomic order that most bird books follow, this tome is loosely structured around the four seasons, starting with winter.
Rhodes, who holds a degree in illustration and communication arts design from Virginia Commonwealth University, took more than 350 photographs of birds and other wildlife for the book and designed the layout.
Janson, who has a degree in environmental and sustainability sciences from Cornell University, wrote the text.
Many know Rhodes from her many posts on the Birds of Ocracoke Facebook page and as a contributor to nature stories published in the Ocracoke Observer. During her daily walks and a very active bird feeder at her house, she has photographed an amazing number of more than 200 species on the island.
The aftermath of Hurricane Dorian in 2019 brought Rhodes a new appreciation for both birds and photography.
“Living near a canal after being displaced by flooding, I spent hours watching green herons, night herons and egrets. I bought a small Fuji camera and started photographing them,” she said.
“What began as an interest in photography soon grew into a fascination with bird behavior, identification, and the natural world.”
Janson founded the Carolina Young Birders Club when he was 15 and was involved in the early stages of the North Carolina Breeding Bird Survey. At Cornell, he worked on the Merlin app used by many birders to identify bird calls and songs, and he posts frequently on eBirds.
In 2013, he visited Ocracoke to see a wintering Snowy Owl and over the past several years he and Rhodes have been team leaders in the annual Christmas Bird Count that takes place at end of December. These counts typically record between 80 and 90 species, although the last two counts have logged more than 100 species. Since 1982, a total of 182 bird species have been recorded during the Ocracoke Christmas Bird Count.
Dozens of shorebird species either spend the winter on Ocracoke or pause here to rest and replenish before continuing their migrations to their breeding grounds in the Arctic. Ocracoke Untamed showcases the Black-bellied Plover, Ruddy Turnstone and Red Knot as they molt from their muted winter plumage into the brilliant colors of the breeding season.
While “Ocracoke Untamed” was not designed to cover all of Ocracoke’s bird species, readers will likely see many of their favorites.
A dramatic close-up of a Tricolored Heron graces the book’s cover.
Included is a Brown-headed Nuthatch; to my knowledge, Rhodes was the first to photograph one on the island.
Among the sparrows is the wintering Ipswich Sparrow, a subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow that breeds almost exclusively on Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia.
Ocracoke has an interesting Eastern Towhee population, with three variable eye colors and they are all depicted.
Ocracoke’s wading birds, including the Roseate Spoonbill, a rare visitor, and the animated Reddish Egret, fill the center pages.
Drawing on his deep knowledge of Ocracoke’s ecology and wildlife, Janson writes with both accuracy and clarity, at one point describing the island’s “lanky Yellowlegs, dumpy Dunlin, regal Godwits, and conspicuous Killdeer.”
As promised by the title, the book extends beyond birds. In the section titled Critters, Janson explains that ecology teaches no species exists in isolation, and that he would be remiss not to include Ocracoke’s non-feathered wildlife. “Birds feed on, evade, and coexist with these animals, all of which share the island’s landscape.”
This section provides a striking photograph of a ghost crab, an opportunistic predator of shorebird chicks, sea turtle eggs and hatchlings. Other “critters” include some of the island’s butterflies, spiders, and dragonflies, reptiles and amphibians such as the eastern box turtle, glass lizard, and Fowler’s toad.
Many may be surprised to learn that Ocracoke supports a small population of white-tailed deer and here is proof. Other mammals are raccoons, river otters, eastern cottontail rabbits and nutria.
In 2025, at least one coyote, never photographed, was suspected of contributing to the nesting failures of black skimmers and other colonial beach-nesting birds, a reminder of the complex ecological relationships that shape life on the island.
The collaboration of Rhodes and Janson makes this book a delight to read and provides an education about Ocracoke’s evolving wildlife and ecosystem.
“Ocracoke Untamed” can be purchased at Books to Be Red, The Village Craftsmen and the Ocracoke Preservation Society gift shop.
