Winter Birding
Wrightsville Beach to Fort Fisher, NC.
February 1, 2025
Register by clicking the ‘book now’ button, or by contacting the Ventures office. We accept credit cards for an additional fee (2.9% for MC, Visa, Discover; 3.9% for AmEx), but you may also pay by bank transfer, cash, check, or money order. This Venture is limited to 10 participants.
Meet time, Johnnie Mercer's Fishing Pier (entrance): 0730 AM: 23 E Salisbury Street, Wrightsville Beach NC 28480 (34.213N 77.786W). Please note, there is a pay and display car park at access point #16 directly in front of the pier entrance on Salisbury Street. Please see link for tariff details Parking Cost: $60
The southern tip of North Carolina, which extends south from the City of Wilmington is arguably one of the best winter birding locations in the State. Due to the great winter weather and productive habitats that include estuarine marshes, dune systems, coastal woodlands and vast expanses of beach, it is an awesome place to look for winter visitors to the region.
We start the day at Johnnie Mercer’s Fishing Pier (Wrightsville Beach, 34.213900,-77.787845) where we hope to see auks, grebes, terns, gulls, gannets and wildfowl. Sometimes, birds are viewed very close as they feed around the pier structure; it is also a great vantage point from which to observe species moving from roosting sites along the coast if arriving at dawn. We will also check the beach for shorebirds before leaving this site.
From the car park, we'll walk to South Point to check out Masonboro Inlet, Greenville Sound and Shinn Creek for shorebirds, wildfowl, loons and raptors. We will have at least two hours here to really go through all the birds feeding and roosting within this large expanse of water.
The outstanding area around the Fort Fisher Historic Site will be our first stop. From here, we’ll check out the beach for wildfowl and shorebirds, and then the tree cover around the old fort buildings for Orange-crowned, Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers and other passerines that may be taking shelter.
This final stop is an excellent place to watch birds. The ‘Rocks at Fort Fisher’ and the ‘Battery Buchanan’ situated on the southern end of the peninsula provides fantastic views of the Cape Fear Estuary. Here we will look for Lesser Scaup, Surf Scoter, Black Scoter, Great Cormorant, American Oystercatcher, Piping Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, Marbled Godwit, Long-tailed Duck, Lesser Scaup, Tricolored Heron, Merlin, plus Horned Grebe and Common, Red-throated and with a little luck, Pacific loon too! We will also search the salt marshes for Clapper Rail, and also Nelson’s (rare), Saltmarsh and Seaside Sparrow and Marsh Wren. We will continue birding around the point until c.5PM.