'Bird Island' Population: 8,000 Birds, 0 Humans

Thursday, Jul 12, 2007 - 06:30 AM Updated: 07:52 AM
By Stacy Peterson
Online Producer
NBC17 WNCN
http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.PrintView.-content-articles-NCN-2007-07-11-0015.html
and http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20070712/MULTIMEDIA03/70712004/.com

SOUTH PELICAN ISLAND, N.C. -- Under a blue summer sky where the clouds seem like giant stretched balls of cotton, thousands of migratory birds hover over an island all their own.

Discuss This Story

Nearly motionless, the countless birds hover against the wind almost like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds.” They all sing and squawk like a symphony of childhood laughter.

Welcome to what some in the area call “bird island.”

Situated in the Intercoastal Waterway in the middle of Fort Fisher, Southport, Kure Beach and the Brunswick nuclear facility, this seven-acre island is a protected hatching ground and habitat for several species of colonial water birds.

Gathering in the natural grasses and sea oats, nearly 4,000 pairs of birds have claimed this protected island all to themselves.

There is the oddly majestic brown pelican with its seven-foot wingspan living alongside the smaller laughing gulls, oyster catchers and the sandwich and royal terns.

There are baby pelicans resting under the cover of their mothers, just waiting to stretch their wings to learn to fly.

The birds all live here in harmony away from humans, predatory animals and mostly away from the widespread development that has occurred over much of the coast.

“It is absolutely critical to maintain this island,” said Walker Golder, deputy director of Audubon North Carolina. As he spoke, the birds flew above and around him.

On a rare visit to an island where humans usually aren’t welcomed, Golder and two representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers point out the areas where the different varieties of birds hatch their young. Golder drives the boat on a 30-minute journey from the Carolina Beach State Park.

The history of “bird island” started in the 1960s when the Corps of Engineers dredged the waterway for the harbor. Then, in the early 1970s, Dr. James F. Parnell, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, noticed that migratory birds were taking advantage of the areas for safe nesting.

It made sense because the southeastern coastal areas were a prime habitat for the birds. The small areas offered a much needed protection.

So the Corps of Engineers literally created islands in the middle of the waterway. The vegetation naturally followed and so did more and more birds.

Sifting a handful of rocky sand through his hands, Hugh Hine, a biologist from the Corps of Engineers, showed how the soil from the bottom of the channel waters made a prime environment for hatching.

Around him there were pieces of strewn fish, feathers, areas of bird droppings mingled in with beautiful undisturbed sea shells.

“With all of the development that has taken place along the coast these areas are posted and protected ,” Hine said. “It’s for that very purpose.”

Between April 1 and Aug. 31, no one is allowed on or near the island. In fact, boat traffic is limited as to not disturb or scare the young birds out into the water too early.

It didn’t take long for the numbers of birds to multiply. Today, there are as many as 8,000 individual birds on the island. In fact, 25 percent of all brown pelicans in North Carolina are here.

While many migrate, others return over and over.

Monitoring the island and the success of the hatchings takes a lot of work. In fact more than a half dozen state and federal agencies work to together to protect the island.

From the state department of parks and recreation and the division of coastal management to water resources and the Audubon Society, all the groups work in concert for the birds.

In fact although the state owns the island, the Audubon Society maintains it because of the birds.

Every five or six years, more sand is added to the island to ensure that the island stays in tact.

“If they didn’t do it the birds wouldn’t be here quite simply,” Golder said.

Dressed in a white shirt and khaki pants, Golder is clearly passionate about the project. In the past he has visited early in the morning to capture photos of this rite of passage of the birds.

At the same time Golder also likes to see them thrive and continue on their journey, wherever it might take them.

“It’s nice to see the success when the birds fly away from the island,” he said.

It’s also nice to see more come to stay a while.

Go Back

Contact Us
WNCN - NBC17
Terms & Conditions
Copyright ? 2007 Media General, Inc. All Rights Reserved