Battery Island 



A home for all birds 



Each year, beginning in April, about 10,000 feathery 

 travelers arrive at Battery Island — a chunk of marsh 

 rising out of the Cape Fear River, just across from 

 Southport in Brunswick County. The birds build simple 

 stick platform nests in a dense thicket of red cedar, yaupon, 

 wax myrtle and live oak. Throughout the summer they nest 

 and raise their young. When autumn arrives, most of the 

 birds fly away to parts unknown. 



Battery Island is a popular summer home for birds. Its 

 population includes representatives of almost all the heron, 

 egret and ibis species found in North Carolina, and the 

 island is home to the state's largest population of white 

 ibises. So far, the birds have been returning each year in 

 equal or greater numbers than the year before. 



In 1982 the state and the National Audubon Society 

 agreed to a partnership. The state would lease Battery 

 Island to Audubon as a sanctuary which would be managed 

 through the University of North Carolina at Wilmington 



Tricolored heron perches in a thicket 



(UNC-W). James Parnell and his graduate students would 

 oversee the project. (The state originally acquired Battery 

 Island in 1978 as part of a greater tract of land donated by 

 the N.C. Nature Conservancy.) 



State officials say it's a novel approach to maintaining a 

 site just for birds. "It's the first time that the state of North 

 Carolina has entered into an agreement like this," says Tom 

 Wells, a consultant and management planner for the state's 

 Division of Parks and Recreation. "It's a joint venture 

 management plan, primarily for the benefit of the birds." 



Parnell and Audubon officials are quick to point out that 

 Battery Island is more than the usual bird sanctuary, where 

 protection is the primary goal. "Audubon wants to do that 

 here. But in addition, this sanctuary is the site for some 

 management research as well as a place to protect the 

 birds," says Parnell. 



The Audubon Society wants to learn how to manage 

 wading bird colonies, says Donald McCrimmon, a research 

 biologist with the National Audubon Society. Not an easy 

 task with herons, egrets and ibises, he adds. 



Parnell explains: "The birds, in the process of nesting and 

 raising their young, actually damage their own habitat. 

 They produce so much excrement that they overfertilize the 

 vegetation." 



The result is a die-back of the vegetation in which the 

 birds nest. (While seabirds nest on the ground, wading 

 birds prefer thickets of bushes and trees.) Consequently, the 

 island is no longer as desirable a nesting ground, says Par- 

 nell. "As long as there are plenty of places to nest, they just 

 move on," says Parnell. "But, if you're going to try to 

 manage them, you don't want the birds to leave. We're try- 

 ing to learn how to make a place like Battery Island usable 

 for a long period of time." 



Parnell learned the importance of Battery Island in 1976 

 and 1977 in a Sea Grant project when he censused the 

 colonial waterbird nesting populations of the North 

 Carolina estuaries. Then, he found 1,831 nests on Battery. 

 (Parnell says one nest translates into two adults and at least 

 one young bird.) In his report, Parnell said the colony had 

 been stable for the past four years, the thickets where the 

 nesting took place appeared healthy, and there appeared to 

 be room for colony expansion. 



But since then, the populations have grown to over 5,000 

 nests. While bird lovers rejoice the expansion in the colony, 

 Parnell and the Audubon Society want to make sure the 

 island can remain a viable nesting ground. 



Parnell says the work on Battery Island will be a long- 

 term project. He and his students will be looking at the 

 birds' reproductive biology, nest-site characteristics and 

 population dynamics. They'll be planting vegetation to see 

 what can best withstand the heavy doses of nitrogen in the 



