Island Explorer’s Guidebook

Bring this book with you as you explore Bald Head Island’s ecosystems!
Hello explorers! Let’s see what we can discover around the island! We have many
different ecosystems on Bald Head, with the maritime forest, the salt marsh, and the
dunes and beaches. Within each ecosystem, many animals find habitats with food,
shelter, and living spaces.

An ecosystem is all the living A habitat is the natural

and nonliving things home of a plant or animal,
interacting together in an with food, water, shelter,
area. and space.

Shelter is protection from

weather or danger.
 Look around the island!
Can you find….

A Painted Bunting A Hawk’s Nest

A Hollow Oak A Swallowtail Butterfly

A Lined Skink A Green Heron

A Whelk Shell Smilax Vine

Sea Oats A Cardinal

A Great Egret An Alligator

Sea Oxeye Daisy A Large Tide Pool

An Osprey Platform A Turtle Nest

Let’s head out to the Salt Marsh on the Kent Mitchell Trail!

Many birds search for food in

the marsh. Can you find a big,
white Egret, a curved-beaked
Ibis, and a black-headed
Laughing Gull?

Look at the periwinkle snails

on the needle rush plants.
How many can you find?

Hold a periwinkle snail up to your neck. The movement from your voice might bring
it out of its shell!
 Both Fiddler Crabs and Square Back Crabs scurry along the ground in the marsh. See if you can find
them beside the boardwalks!

Can you find 3 ways in which they are similar?

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Can you find 3 ways in which they are different?

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Marsh Madness Crossword

Across
1. This is the sharp plant that
periwinkles climb on
7. This colorful bird rests on hammock
islands
10. This daisy can be seen in marshes
and on dunes

Down
2. This green plant can
survive in the salty water
3. This tree can be used as
insect repellant
4. This bird grouping
includes Great Blue, Green,
Tricolored, and Little Blue
5. This bird of prey swoops
down to catch fish
6. This white, log-necked
bird hunts in the water at
low tide
8. This bird has a curved
beak and black wingtips
9. This snail uses plant
Word Bank movements to tell when the
Periwinkle Heron Ibis tide rises
Egret Osprey PaintedBunting
SeaOxeye WaxMyrtle
SmoothCordgrass Needlerush
 Welcome to the fantastic Forest!
There are so many trees and other plants to see!

Wax Myrtle Live Oak

 Short tree or bush  Tall tree with wavy branches

 Long, thin leaves  Oval leaves
 Can be used as insect repellant  Has roots up to 90 ft deep

Yaupon Holly Red Cedar

 Small evergreen with red fruits  Medium sized tree with stringy bark
 Oval, slightly serrated leaves  Scaly, forked leaves
 Provides food for birds, small  Has blue, berry-like cones
mammals, and butterflies
Wonderful Webs
Many spiders make their home in the forest: Orb weavers, garden spiders, and many others build
large webs. Draw some of the webs that you see. Can you find the spiders that made them?

Stop And Smell The Flowers!

Close your eyes for a moment and explore with your other senses.

What can you hear?

What can you feel?

What can you smell?

Each tree can be habitat for other plants and animals. See if you can find 3 things
living on or in the Timmons Oak!
 There’s much to see on Bald Head’s Beaches!

Matching

A. Sea Oats C. Pelican E. Hermit Crab G. Least Tern

B. Whelk D. Sea Star F. Sand Dollar H. Ghost Crab

Sandy Scramble
Dune plants face much more extreme conditions than forest plants, having to survive wind, dry
soil, harsh sunlight, and salt spray. They have many adaptations to deal with these harsh forces.

Dune plants have x w a y l a e e v s to resist salt and hold in moisture.

The leaves o l r l inward to decrease the area of the plant that is hit by Adaptations are
spray, and are also e t r v I a l c to keep from being hit by the harsh sun. changes made to
help something
Tiny s i r a h along the leaves trap water. survive in its
Their t s e s m are l i b x l e e f so that they can bend rather than break surroundings.
in the wind.

Lastly, their s o t o r are deep to n a c r h o them and get hard-to-reach

water and nutrients.

waxy leaves roll, vertical hairs stems, flexible roots, anchor

Erosion is the
wearing away of
dirt or rock from
an area.

Walking on the beach dunes

causes sand erosion and damage
to dune plants. Without the plants,
all the sand would be blown or
washed away, and we wouldn’t
have our dunes anymore.

Look along the dunes and beach for crab holes of all shapes and sizes. Count how
many you spot!
 Let’s take a look at the Pond at the Overlook!

Barn Swallow

Night Heron

Look carefully at the

trees over the water.
Can you see any birds
resting on the
branches? Now look
into the water. What
can you see swimming Little Blue Heron
in the pond?

Green Heron

Yellow-Bellied Slider

American Alligator
Bluegill
Critter Connect the Dots
Connect the dots to find a reptile that lives in freshwater ponds, eating small fish and insects when
young, then switching to aquatic plants as an adult.

Frog Calls
Take a look in the frog tubes behind the sign. See if you can identify anything in there. Then come back
at night, and see if you can hear anything.

Meep, meep! Meeeeah!

Sounds like: Sounds like:

alien spaceship insects buzzing
Green Tree Frog Narrow-mouthed Toad

Rock, rock, rock! Riiiiiiiiiiilll!

Sounds like: a Sounds like:
duck quacking laser beam
Squirrel Tree Frog
Southern Toad

We have so many amazing amphibians and reptiles on the island. See if you can
find the alligator nest!
 BHI Bucket List
Climb Old Baldy
Pick up litter
to keep the Find every nature box on the Loop Trail
island Recycle
Discover the hammock islands on the Kent Mitchell Trail rather than
beautiful.
Swim in the ocean throwing
things away.
Watch the Sunset

Climb the tower at Bald Head Commons

Find the Old Boathouse

Turn off lights Kayak in the Saltmarsh

Stay on
or pull shades Find seashells and pick up litter trails to
near the prevent
beaches. Also Eat italian ice at Mike’s Bites
erosion.
turn off lights Visit the baby turtles at BHI Conservancy
when not in
use.

Fill in holes on Tell your

the beach so friends about
turtles don’t what you’ve
get stuck. learned.
Notes

Saltmarsh habitat – Let’s head out to the marsh on the Kent Mitchell Trail

 eating like a bird?

 A grass bed – oysters, crabs, smooth cordgrass crossword (see Underwater Meadows)
 To do: Count the number of periwinkles, square backs, fiddler crabs
 To do: Hold periwinkle close to your neck, voice vibrations might bring it out
 Find 5 differences between the Fiddler and Squareback crabs

Maritime forest habitat

 food web?
 Match animal to description (Marsh Dewllers)
 To do: Live oaks, holly, resurrection fern, wax myrtle, spanish moss, Redbay, red cedar, count
how many of each species
 Differences between vines
 To do: What do you hear? Activity Birds, bugs, frogs
 To do: Wonderful webs Find and draw a spider web.

Dune habitat

 dune plant adaptations – scrambled word captions, create a dune plant?

 look at leaves
 draw sea oat roots, dune stabilization
 seashells….
 To do: Find a flower, flower id


Freshwater pond – At the Overlook

 find in the picture

 slider connect the dots
 To do: can you find the alligator nest? Can you tell whether the turtles are male or female
(females are bigger!)?
 To do: Look in the frog tubes. How can you help frogs close to your home?

Birds – look at bird cards, draw out great migration game

Bats – how to build a bat box instructions

Match animal to their habitat