Wrightsville Beach Bird Stewards

In the gap between the crowded development of Wrightsville Beach and the blue waters of Masonboro Inlet sits a patch of open bare sand, a habitat vital to our beach-nesting coastal birds.   

The 4-acre sanctuary is the most accessible and visible throughout our network of coastal sanctuaries, which makes monitoring for disturbances during nesting season even more important.  

Every summer, Audubon North Carolina recruits volunteers to educate beachgoers about the birds on the south end of Wrightsville Beach. They show visitors newborn chicks in spotting scopes and explain how even brief disturbances cause parent birds to flush, exposing eggs and young to heat stress and predators. The stewards take this responsibility seriously while also having fun fostering excitement and appreciation for bird conservation among residents and visitors. 

Equipped with their binoculars and spotting scopes, stewards show thousands of visitors how well eggs are camouflaged in simple nests made of sand and how important it is to observe the symbolic fencing that protects these bird nurseries. 

How You Can Help!

• Stay back from the posting if birds are responding to you. Calling, flying overhead, and even swooping at you means you're too close for comfort. Move back or down the beach until they settle down.
• Take all your trash and food waste with you to avoid attracting gulls and other predators. Pick up fishing line as well.
• Talk to the Bird Stewards. Look for volunteers in blue shirts to learn more about the birds nesting here, and share what you learn with your friends and family. Help everyone you know share the shore with these special birds!

If you’d like to get a closer look at our nesting birds in the company of an expert, free, guided bird walks begin in May and occur every Monday morning at 9 am until August 15 on the south end of Wrightsville Beach. 
 

Photo: Renee Sauer (left); Black Skimmers. Photo: Cynthia Herrick/Audubon Photography Awards (right)