The islands are made of coarse sand that drains well when it rains so eggs don’t bog down in puddles, support any mammals that would eat eggs or chicks, and with their large dome shape, are safely above storm tides. Without realizing it, when making dredged-material islands, people were making tern habitat. They look for open, sandy habitat that is free of vegetation and hopefully far removed from mammalian predators like raccoons. Royal and Sandwich Terns nest in large, dense groups called colonies. Though the story of the naming of islands is amusing, it underscores their importance to species that nest in coastal North Carolina. When later it was discovered by Brown Pelicans, it got a new name. In fact, South Pelican was originally called Old Royal Tern Island because it attracted so many of them. Though they were originally just a convenient place to put dredged-up sand during a 1970s-era project, soon after their creation Ferry Slip Island and South Pelican Island became indispensable to nesting birds, including Royal Terns and Sandwich Terns. Two of these dredged-material islands are of importance for a wholly unintended and unexpected reason. As the river was dredged deeper to create a channel that could accommodate commercial ships, the sand and mud that was removed accumulated at spoil sites became islands.
What most of them have in common is that they were created by people.
This stretch of river is dotted with islands, some low and marshy, some sandy and hill-like and others covered with mature trees. Below the Port of Wilmington, the Cape Fear River widens as it nears the Atlantic Ocean.
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