I visited several biologists in North and South Carolina this week for the purpose of discussing shorebird projects, but I also took a ride into the North Carolina countryside. I had hoped to find some access to the wooded bottomlands of the Cape Fear River north of Wilmington, NC. Being in a car predetermined the outcome. I could only find one access, a combination boat ramp and fishing pier not on the river but with the river bottom in sight. Arriving just after the sun reached it’s zenith, a hot and humid wind blew off the water onto a empty parking lot.
I spent most of the day trying to find a place to light. I drove northeast from Wilmington up Topsail island to Snead’s Ferry. Finding no public place to sit and view the ocean or bay ( unless I wanted to join the many beach bathers) I headed northwest inland into the Pine flatwoods hoping to find public access to the many rivers in the area for no other reason than to enjoy the scene. I spent the entire day in this endeavor and gave up at the boat access.
My restive search for a suitable rest stop compares to what awaits Arctic-nesting shorebirds on their way to wintering areas. They are just now starting to arrive on the east coast. Some go on, like the red knot to Tierra del Fuego, others go to the Gulf of Mexico or to northeast Brazil. Some stay in the area. All need good stopovers — rest stops that provide crucial resources that rebuild energy and mass. Unfortunately good coastal rest stops are few and far between. Topsail, NC, for example ends in an inlet that very likely could provide weary shorebird travelers abundant invertebrate food like clam and mussels. Unfortunately, the beach is full of people. 
Bayside beach at Topsail looking south at the inlet
Topsail needn’t be singled out because, with a few exceptions, every beach between Cape Cod Massachusetts and Key West Florida is full of people during the same period as the southbound shorebird migration. When you think about it, if there was a secluded beach anywhere in the mid-Atlantic or southern coast, you’d want to be there, its what I was hoping for in my own search. Even the remote beaches are filled with boaters.
If you look at the ocean coast on a map you might think I am exaggerating. There are only two states that protect large sections of beach, Virginia and Georgia. These southern states protect enough coastal-island habitat to make birds-in-passage safe. But Florida, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts provide few resources or habitat to migrating shorebirds. North Carolina commands large sections of unpopulated coast, like the Cape Hatteras National Seashore but provide little protection from disturbance especially for migrant shorebirds. Birds must navigate crowds of bathers who use the beach in the most ingenious ways – kite surfing, wind surfing, skim boarding. And if there is no pedestrian access then trucks roam the beaches in numbers that make you wonder where all the money comes from for these behemoth vehicles. And if you can’t four-wheel your way down the beach, there are no shortage of boats that land on the few unpopulated beaches to take advantage of the space and beauty.
Kite surfers in Florida
But what happens when a bird flies nonstop 7,000 miles from South America and lands in the midst of this people-truck-boat mayhem. What I see is not pretty. Birds are pushed off of their roosts, from productive feeding areas at the waterline, chased to take pictures or just for the fun of it. The truth is, if the bird isn’t federally listed then it’s fair game for anyone who wants to make a bird’s life miserable.
Red knots aren’t alone. Most Arctic-nesting shorebirds are in decline, and the breeding areas aren’t the problem. Some species, like the semipalmated sandpiper, suffer direct mortality in wintering areas, but most South American wintering areas are truly remote with few proximate threats. The main threat for these birds is their perilous passage through the US east coast on north- and south-bound migration.
In my next post I will ask the question why is it this way and what should be done?
