You can't see my first experience with a National Wildlife Refuge
(NWR) because it is under water, but I'll tell you where it used to be. Hatteras Island, North Carolina. It was called Pea Island Campground and it was on Pea Island. I confess that it eludes me as to why the NWR is called Pea Island when it is on Hatteras Island and there is no Pea Island, but let's forget this mystery and move on.
First get to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Then, if you drive south across the Bonner bridge at Oregon Inlet from Bodie Island to Hatteras Island, as you approach the south end of the bridge (Hatteras Island) and traffic will allow a safe look, glance to the left (ocean). If you see any land at all, imagine it covered with the same scrubby bushes you've seen on the drive south through Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Imagine a lot more land jutting out into what is now ocean or inlet. Imagine a primitive campground including picnic tables and old stinky pit toilets. My wife and I camped there several times long ago in our VW camper with flowers on it, thumbing our noses at those who chose the upscale Oregon Inlet campground (paved road, flush toilets, lifeguards) across the inlet. It was called Pea Island Campground.
That old Pea Island campground has been submerged for many years, unable to withstand the ocean's desire for an inlet. Even the Coast Guard had to retreat from its station behind the Pea Island campground because the inlet keeps growing southward. But there is plenty of Pea Island NWR left on Hatteras Island for the birds and other wildlife that are protected there by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Except for the ticks (eeeyewwww!), Pea Island NWR is a great place to go birdwatching, particularly along the path between its two most visible freshwater impoundments (big artificial shallow lakes). You may also see big, thick, slithery black snakes sunning in bushes along this path. W!
Pea Island NWR, 5,915 acres including ocean beach, barrier dunes, salt marshes, fresh and brackish water ponds and impoundments, tidal creeks and bays, and 25,700 acres of Pamlico Sound supports 265 species of "regular" birds, 50 "accidental bird visitors," and a baker's half dozen (that's 7) mammals, according to a FWS web page .
Pea Island is only one of many National Wildlife Refuges you can
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