The Beach

Amazingly, this remarkable birding hotspot did not even exist two decades ago! Once the southern portion of North (or Nauset) Beach, which runs south from the town or Orleans into Chatham, South Beach achieved its own identity in January 1987 when a severe winter storm broke through the barrier beach directly east of Chatham Light, creating a broad inlet that remains today. Initially an island, the northern tip of the beach soon re-connected to the mainland just south of Chatham Light, making it accessible by foot. The southern end of the spit has been expanding steadily southward, growing by well over a mile since the 1987 break, such that the beach now measures at least five miles in length. Most of the island is composed of dune habitats, sparsely vegetated with beach grass (Ammophila) and a few stunted shrubs (mostly bayberry). Additionally – and most significantly – extensive tidal flats are present on the west (inner) side of the beach, particularly along the southern third or so. In some areas, the inner portions of the flats are developing into small patches of salt marsh.

Free of vehicle traffic since the 1987 break, the beach still attracts considerable boat and foot traffic during the summer but, for the most part – and especially in comparison to other such areas on Cape Cod – is largely undisturbed and pristine. The avifauna has responded to this new-found seclusion and the expanding, food-rich flats. The concentrations of shorebirds, terns, gulls, and seabirds is now unsurpassed anywhere in the Northeast, typically far exceeding those found even on South Beach's renowned neighbor to the west, Monomoy.

Scientists studying the geomorphology of this area predict that the northern end of the beach will gradually erode southward over the next few decades, while the southern end expands and eventually connects to Monomoy. Local birders are watching this geological metamorphosis with great interest, eager to see how the area's abundant avifauna adapts to the inexorable changes in this dynamic and ephemeral corner of the world.