Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards: The 2018 Shore Bird Nesting Season BEGINS

The postings are up at the south end of Wrightsville Beach and the FREE weekly Audubon Bird Walks started on Monday, April 30! We had a great group of new volunteers as well as interested guests join us to kick off our season.

The first thing people notice as they walk in access 43 by the gazebo are the Wrightsville Beach 5th grade student's signs and then the decoys (they think they are live birds).

Least Tern and Black Skimmer decoys are already attracting birds to the area.

The birds are just arriving -- flying up the Atlantic coast and stopping at inlets along the way as a rest stop and for fast food (lots of bait fish in the inlet!). Masonboro Inlet (SWB) is a favorite place as well as Mason Inlet (NWB) in our area. We anticipated their arrival to our area by placing the posting so that when they are in our area, they will have a place to feed and then rest without disturbance. If they are not disturbed, the birds will decide this is a good place to nest.

Signs, scopes, and books of pictures help share the activity in the posting area.
(photos by Garold Carlisle)

In the past after a dredging project, we had over 200 Least Terns and Black Skimmers nesting in the large sandy space by the gazebo and along the "highway". There may be less successful nesting on the inlet side because of the high tides...but birds will hang out there and cool off and meet up. We saw some courtship activity this week by the inlet.

Nesting is just a little delayed because of the project and tides, but the birds will be roosting by the inlet and cooling by the water. There were 220 Black Skimmers in the inlet last Sunday.

The advantage of the potential nesting by the gazebo is that people who are unable to walk a mile on sand will be able to do some bird watching in the gazebo....and enjoy the breezes and shade.