It?s now mid-August, and Cape Point is still closed to off-road vehicles.
It?s been closed since April 9. And it will apparently be closed at least another week.
In fact, pedestrian access to Cape Point is also closed unless you wade in the shorebreak for a quarter mile or so around a bird closure.
The Point itself is not closed. It?s just hard to get there.
It?s hard to get there because of shorebird chicks on the ground ? not federally protected birds but birds listed by the state as of special concern.
The holdup in granting full access to ORVs and pedestrians to get to Cape Point apparently comes down to two American oystercatcher chicks and four least tern chicks.
The two oystercatcher chicks officially fledged last Saturday, Aug. 10, according to Randy Swilling, natural resources program manager for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
However, he said, they are using all of the Point area to the east and the west to forage, and their parents are still bringing them food.
It must be the bird equivalent of your kid graduates from college and then comes back home to live with you.
The Park Service?s ORV plan and final rule says that an ORV route cannot reopen to vehicles until two weeks after the oystercatcher chicks fledge ? so that would be Saturday, Aug. 24 ? if no additional resource protections interfere. The two-week after fledging protection is offered to oystercatchers only.
The area between Ramp 44 and the Point could have reopened to pedestrians after the oystercatchers fledged.
However, a short stretch remains closed because there are four least tern chicks on the beach that have not fledged. The buffer for them is 200 meters, so that area remains closed to ORV and pedestrian access.
Piping plover nesting has ended and pre-nesting closures were removed July 31.
Seven piping plover chicks fledged this year, which is fewer than in the past couple years.
Park officials noted in a status conference on the consent decree in federal court a few weeks ago that there were fewer fledged chicks because of an early season tropical storm. Swilling has said that five nests and/or broods were lost in that weather event.
I find it interesting that early season storms are noted as the cause for decreased shorebird nesting success, but weather is seldom mentioned by park officials or environmental groups when nesting is more successful.
You seldom if ever hear them say that nesting is up because the weather has been good. In fact, the environmental groups say that nesting is up only because of the ORV restrictions.
American oystercatcher fledglings number about the same as last year. Fourteen fledged this year, compared to 15 last year.
However, Swilling notes that there were a greater number of nests this year, so fewer chicks per nest have fledged.
This year, there were 42 nests, compared to 30 last year ? yet about the same number of birds have fledged.
Swilling said that the oystercatchers suffered from predation this year. In one big predation event between Ramps 27 and 30, a single red fox took out four nests on a one-mile stretch of beach over a period of two days.
The perpetrator was caught, Swilling said, and presumably will not be around to raid any more nests.
The miles open to ORVs is down to 6.98 on Hatteras and 4.49 on Ocracoke because of turtle nests that have been expanded to the ocean and that are so close to the dunes that there is no room for vehicles to travel behind them.
That?s a total of 11.47 miles of beach open to ORVs along the 64 miles of shoreline in the seashore. That must be an all-time low.
Turtle nesting broke another record on the seashore this year. As of Tuesday, Aug. 13, there were 233 sea turtle nests, breaking last year?s record of 222 nests.
Environmental groups will also claim credit for another record year.
However, the truth is that it?s another great year for turtle nesting along the entire southeast coast ? not just in the seashore because of ORV restrictions.
According to Matthew Godfrey, biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the state had recorded 1,148 turtle nests as of Aug. 13, surpassing the record of 1,140 in 1999.
He said Georgia has seen a record of 2,243 turtle nests, and South Carolina has recorded 4,890, the highest since 1982.
Record sea turtle nesting is good news.
The not-so-good news for beach access is that sea turtle nesting started later in the season this year than in previous years. Swilling said nesting has been running about two weeks behind last year all summer.
That means that nests will be hatching and will be expanded to the waterline well into fall.
The average incubation period for turtle eggs is 60 days, Swilling said. The nests hatch sooner in warmer weather and later in cooler weather. So far, he said nests are hatching at about 58 days.
At 50 to 55 days, depending on the weather, the nests are ?expanded? to the waterline to help the hatchlings get to the ocean. Three days after the nest hatches, it is excavated by park biologists to free any hatchlings still alive that didn?t make it out and count the eggs that did not hatch.
Only after the excavation is the area opened back up to ORVs and pedestrians. Yes, the expanded nest area to the ocean closes the area off to pedestrians also. They are supposed to walk behind the nests, but many don?t.
Restrictions on night driving are lifted on some beaches on Sept. 16, but expanded turtle nests will probably cut off some access until well after that date.
