Masonboro Island IBA
Masonboro Island is an undeveloped barrier island 13 km (8 miles) long, located between Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach. Its 4,831 acres are one of the few remaining undeveloped and relatively undisturbed barrier islands along North Carolina’s coast.
A jetty built to maintain a navigable channel in Masonboro Inlet is one of the few places in North Carolina with wintering Purple Sandpipers and often a Great Cormorant or two. Last year, a few Harlequin Ducks, a species that does not usually come this far south, excited local birders by wintering at the inlet. At the same time, the jetty causes accelerated erosion on the beachfront, which must receive dredged sand periodically to replace sand lost to erosion.
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