Battery Island, located just down the Cape Fear River from Wilmington NC, is home to the largest White Ibis nesting population in southeastern North Carolina. For many years, this 100-acre Audubon Sanctuary has been the site of North Carolina’s largest gathering of breeding wading birds. Herons, egrets, and ibises flock to the island by the thousands each spring. Since 1982, the island has been guarded and protected by the National Audubon Society.
Each year, between 9,000 and 15,000 breeding pairs of white ibises, nearly all that nest in the state, as well as hundreds of breeding pairs of herons and egrets, descend on the Sanctuary to nest and raise their young. The island has always been vital to North Carolina’s wading bird population and, recently, was designated as “globally important” for the great numbers of white ibises that nest on the island every year. (Approximately 12% of the global white ibis population nests at Battery Island.)
In 1996 the Cape Fear Garden Club of Wilmington, NC stepped forward to officially adopt the sanctuary and assist with the protection and management of the island. Since that time, the Cape Fear Garden Club has donated more than $20,000 in support of this Audubon Sanctuary.
Battery Island is posted and patrolled throughout the year, and is off-limits to visitors. Protecting the island, the nesting birds and their habitats is essential to conserving wading birds in North Carolina. The Cape Fear Garden Club offers a guided boat tour of the sanctuary every spring, check their website for more details.
