Virginia’s southernmost barrier island includes about 1,850 acres of constantly shifting sand. Established as a refuge in 1969, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acquired the last 25 acres of land in 2000. It contains sensitive habitats critical for specific animals and plants, and accessible food, protective shrubs and thickets, and lack of human disturbance create ideal nesting areas for migratory birds. Brown Pelicans, Royal Terns, and American Oystercatchers nest in the dunes and on the beach, while thickets of black cherry and sassafras support rookeries of egrets, herons, and ibis. Habitat succession has produced vegetation communities able to survive the island’s harsh weather, including dunes, swales, and shrub thickets with black cherry, sassafras, wax myrtle, and bayberry.
