North Carolina’s Caswell Beach welcomes special, seldom-seen visitors

        North Carolina’s Caswell Beach has some very special visitors on a regular basis. They’re seldom seen, but female loggerheads and the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles that come onshore to lay their eggs are very welcome.
        The big turtles come at night, emerging from the Atlantic Ocean and making their way across the beach, typically to a spot above the high tides and often at the edge of the seagrasses of a barrier dune.
        Caswell Beach Turtle Watch coordinators Jamie Lloyd and Teresa Putnam lead a corps of 125 volunteers who know when they’ve arrived. Early every morning from May 1 through the first week of August, a team of three volunteers scouts the entire four miles of beach, looking for evidence of a newly laid turtle nest.
        Those big female turtles leave an obvious trail – a crawl, they call it – that tells the story. Most commonly on Caswell, it’s the big loggerhead turtle, also an endangered species. These giants – the typical shell of a mature female measures four feet in length – will leave a unique track that’s deep and wide, while the smaller Kemp’s ridley is more shallow and distinctively narrower. When they find a crawl and confirm a new nest, the Turtle Watch volunteers will clearly stake and sign it to protect it from human disturbance.
        Even at those wee hours of the morning, there will be other people on the beach, walking, running and drinking in the sight and sound of waves rolling onshore. They pass the Oak Island Lighthouse, an unmistakable landmark on Oak Island and the most prominent manmade feature on a beach that’s considered the quietest on Oak Island, which sports a number of very popular beautiful beaches.
        The quiet works in favor of the turtles, as does the more turtle-friendly shoreline.
        “There are much fewer nests at neighboring Oak Island beach,” Jamie Lloyd said. She noted that beach features a pier and a vibrant beach scene that is less desirable for the sea turtles.
        “Last year we had 95 nests – 105 in 2019,” Lloyd said. “The turtles prefer Caswell Beach because the houses are back further from the dunes, away from the beach.”
        That means disturbance is less likely and development is less intrusive, allowing for a healthier dune environment. Local ordinances strictly confine activity to elevated dune-friendly boardwalks that provide access to the beach.
        There’s a lot to love about Caswell Beach – all the beaches and towns of Oak Island for that matter. Family-friendly attractions and dining abound, and there are many different ways to enjoy the ocean, the Cape Fear River and Intracoastal Waterway that separate Oak Island from the mainland – fishing charters, jet skis, sunset cruises, lighthouse tours, bicycles, you name it. Birders will find much to their liking, including squadrons of brown pelicans and white ibis on the hunt for food for their young.
        There are action and games when you want that, and places to get away and enjoy quiet sunrises and sets. And then there’s the mystique of turtles that come and go in the night.
        For more information visit Brunswick Islands, Brunswick County Tourism at ncbrunswick.com. For more information on the sea turtles of Oak Island visit Caswell Beach Turtle Watch at caswellturtlewatch.org, which also has links to more turtle information. The Watch is a non-profit volunteer organization that relies on donations and souvenir sales to defray its costs.