The Algonquin Indians identified this habitat as a "pocosin", meaning "swamp on a hill". Bald cypress loom overhead, feeding the narrow creeks with tannins giving the water a mysterious black coloration. The winding creeks lead to mirror-image lakes where alligators can be seen as they sun on the floating grass fields (slough grass) or a protruding cypress stump. This refuge is home to the world's only wild population of red wolves, which we sometimes hear on our wolf howlings. Last year we also had sightings of river otter, bobcat, black bear, American bittern, barred owl, and colonies of egret and ibis. This refuge is a must see. Just 20 minutes from Nags Head, down old Buffalo City Road we set out on these black waters to learn of a time when loggers and moonshiners called this place home. There is little evidence of Buffalo City or the moonshine known as East Lake Dew today, but you will get a glimpse of what it must have been like in the logging and prohibition days.