Masonboro Island, N.C., Proves to Be Unhospitable to Shorebirds, Turtles

By Gareth McGrath, Star-News, Wilmington, N.C.

Jan. 4–Eight miles long and undeveloped, Masonboro Island should be an oasis for shorebirds and sea turtles looking for a peaceful beach to nest.

But last year not a single colonial shorebird successfully nested on the barrier island, snuggled between Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach, that’s managed by the N.C. Division of Coastal Management.

Part of the reason was a series of strong storms that hit just when nesting season started.

But a bigger problem was predators that stole eggs, killed birds and dug up sea turtle nests.

Anthony Snider, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and former manager of the state reserve site, said of particular worry is the red fox, a species introduced by British settlers for hunting in the 18th century.

Unlike raccoons, foxes will take eggs and birds. And they’re intelligent, easily adapting and overcoming predator-exclusion devices.

“Foxes are incredibly efficient killers,” Snider said. “There’s definitely a problem out there.”

Predators are just one of many threats facing the state’s imperiled coastal species.

Throw in rampant development and poor management practices, such as failing to establish effective buffers between human recreational activities and bird-nesting areas, and environmentalists said it’s little wonder that the latest census numbers paint a worrisome picture.

“Some of our species that nest on the beaches are having a tough time, a real tough time these days,” said Walker Golder, deputy director of Audubon North Carolina.

Provisional tallies for 2007 show nesting numbers for gull-billed terns and black skimmers declined 9 percent and 11 percent, respectively, from the last nesting count in 2004.

And the common tern is increasingly not so common in the Tar Heel state, recording a 13 percent decline in nest numbers.

The number of loggerhead sea turtle nests in 2007 was 25 percent lower than normal, although biologists aren’t sure whether this signifies a worrisome trend or is just part of a natural cycle.

But not all of the nesting news was bad.

North Carolina saw a 33 percent increase from 2006 in nesting pairs of the federally endangered piping plover, although the total count was still only 61 pairs and only one in four managed to successfully fledge a chick, said David Rabon, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Also seeing an increase in nesting numbers were least terns, which saw their nesting numbers jump 17 percent from 2004.

But that figure was a bit illusionary, Golder said.

Much of the increase was due to displaced terns trading oceanfront property for nesting on flat, pea-gravel-lined roofs of large buildings.

But as either buildings get knocked down or roofs get replaced with synthetic membranes, this nesting option could shrink.

“Least terns are highly adaptable,” Golder said. “But in the long term, that’s probably not sustainable.”

He said a more viable solution to the needs of the imperiled species is better management of the existing coastal resources.

“The northern end of Wrightsville Beach is an excellent example of local governments, nongovernmental groups, and state and federal agencies working together to manage an area of beach to make it suitable for birds and for human recreational activities,” Golder said.

A less successful attempt at balancing the needs of humans and animals is occurring along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, where several environmental groups have sued the National Park Service. The groups contend that the federal government isn’t doing enough to help beach-driving vehicles and nesting shorebirds coexist on the narrow ribbons of sand.

“They definitely could be doing more than they are doing now,” said Jason Rylander, an attorney with Defenders of Wildlife.

A call to the National Seashore wasn’t returned Thursday.

But officials said the top way to boost the state’s numbers of nesting shorebirds and turtles could be by controlling the coast’s booming fox population.

On Bald Head Island, officials are trying to educate the public about the dangers of feeding foxes and leaving trash in accessible locations.

Suzanne Dorsey, executive director of the Bald Head Island Conservancy, said foxes begging for food are easily spotted along some of the Brunswick County island’s main drags.

That leads the animals to connect food to humans and to be drawn to where they are, including the beach. It doesn’t take long for the foxes to then find the birds and the turtle nests.

“They are very quick to learn and pick up when and where they need to go to find food, especially high-quality food like eggs,” Dorsey said.

As they did on Masonboro Island, red foxes last year devastated the nesting shorebird population at the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area.

They also dug into at least half of the site’s turtle nests, in some cases digging under chicken-wire boxes dug several feet into the beach, said park Superintendent Matt Windsor.

Officials are removing trash cans from the beach, centralizing garbage disposal at the main gate, to try to discourage foxes from the oceanfront.

But Windsor doubts that will end the problem, which could leave officials with the “distasteful” step of looking at lethal means to control the foxes.

“We don’t necessarily like that,” he said, “but there don’t seem to be a lot of options right now.”

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