The Battery Island Committee of the Cape Fear Garden Club supports Audubon NC with scheduled clean ups on Battery Island in the Spring before nesting season begins and the Fall after the nesting season is complete. Our main concern is to remove the debris that floats onto the island from the Cape Fear River. The most critical debris to remove from the island is fishing line (monofilament) because of the danger of entanglement of Brown Pelicans and other shorebirds.
The Cape Fear Garden Club has over a 20-year relationship working closely with Audubon NC’s Coastal Office and its biologists to maintain safe habitats for the migratory birds and specifically the islands located in the Lower Cape Fear River where they nest. Battery Island is considered a “Globally Important Bird Area” because of the large numbers of White Ibis that nest on the island each spring.
Our fall cleanup of Battery Island took place on November 17, 2018, approximately two months after Hurricane Florence. We carpooled to Southport, NC, to travel by boat to the island with the Audubon Biologist and a Biologist from the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission. Twenty-one members of the Battery Island Committee joined together for this clean up and collected 1,040 pounds of debris that was taken to the landfill by the Audubon NC Biologist, Anna Parot.
For its second cleanup, seventeen members of the Battery Island Committee went by boat to the island on March 9, 2019, with Lindsay Addison, Audubon NC’s Coastal Biologist. The Battery Island Committee traveled to Southport, NC, and met the Audubon Biologist who trailers a boat to the Southport Marina to take club members to the island. Battery Island is a federally protected habitat, and no one is allowed on the island unless accompanied by the appropriate Audubon or government official.
The spring cleanup was extremely successful as the Battery Island Committee members collected 360 pounds of debris including two floating dock supports. After removal of this debris from the island by boat, we loaded up the Audubon pickup truck and the Audubon biologists took it to the landfill.
In addition to island clean ups twice a year, the Battery Island Committee assists Audubon NC’s Coast Office by sponsoring a fundraiser entitled a “Cruise to the Bird Islands of the Lower Cape Fear River”. The educational cruise and fundraiser has taken place annually since 1996. The May 19, 2019, cruise sold out with the maximum 118 guests aboard the HENRIETTA riverboat leaving from downtown Wilmington.
The Battery Island Committee does all of the detailed planning & coordination for the cruise which happens on a Sunday afternoon in May during nesting season. Committee member involvement includes ticket sales, greeting guests and speakers, coordinating boarding, raffle ticket sales, creating note cards to sell, photography, and light snack & beverage sales.
The cruise is an educational opportunity for the public. We were pleased to have aboard three experts who shared their knowledge and experience with us and narrated the cruise and viewing:
- James Parnell, Professor Emeritus of UNCW and North Carolina’s top ornithologist.
- Walker Golder, National Audubon Society’s Director of Eastern Flyway Coasts
- Lindsay Addison, Audubon North Carolina’s Coastal Biologist who spoke about her work to monitor the nesting colonies on the six bird islands in the Cape Fear River including Battery Island.
All expenses for the bird cruise are funded by ticket sales and donations with the profit from the cruise donated to Audubon NC’s Coast Office. The 2019 Spring Cruise to the Bird Islands of the Lower Cape Fear River raised $2,078 to support the efforts of the Audubon NC biologists monitoring the bird islands in the lower Cape Fear River.