Explore your wild side

What if a beach could be a great place for people and an important place for birds, too?

That’s the idea behind Hilton Head Island’s Wildlife Beach Area, a small stretch of Fish Haul Beach that provides important habitat for shorebirds while remaining a place where visitors can walk, explore and connect with the island’s wildlife.

Fish Haul Beach and the nearby Mitchellville mudflats are already recognized by biologists and local conservation organizations as some of the most important wildlife habitats on Hilton Head Island. The shoreline and mudflats support piping plovers, red knots, Wilson’s plovers, American oystercatchers, black skimmers, least terns and many other birds that depend on quiet places to rest and feed.

At Fish Haul, the Wildlife Beach Area helps highlight this special habitat and gives residents and visitors another opportunity to learn about and celebrate the wildlife that depends on it. It may be a small stretch of shoreline, but it supports an amazing amount of life. Migrating shorebirds use the area to rest and refuel, while other birds spend the winter along the South Carolina coast.

Among them are federally threatened piping plovers, which arrive on Hilton Head Island in late summer and remain through early spring. They rely on quiet beaches and mudflats to rest and feed before beginning their journeys north to their breeding grounds.

Federally threatened rufa red knots also depend on coastal stopover areas like this one. During migration, these remarkable birds travel between South America and the Arctic, stopping along the coast to feed and regain the energy they need to continue their journeys.

The Wildlife Beach Area is a reminder that protecting wildlife doesn’t necessarily mean keeping people away. It is a place where people can enjoy the shoreline, experience wildlife firsthand and learn how a little awareness and consideration can help birds complete their extraordinary journeys.

Plan a visit!

Bring your binoculars and a little curiosity: You might spot tiny plovers feeding at the water’s edge or watch a flock of shorebirds move together over the water. Enjoy watching birds from a comfortable distance, giving them room to feed and rest. If birds stop what they’re doing or move away as you approach, give them a little more space.

The Town of Hilton Head Island’s new regulations state that dogs are not permitted on the sandbar or along the shoreline south of the pier.

Dog owners can help by choosing the many other stretches of shoreline where dogs are permitted, giving birds and other wildlife a little extra space in this small but important habitat. As signage is installed, please look for posted information about local restrictions.

Lastly, keep an eye out for future bird walks on www.HiltonHeadAudubon.org.