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On Friday morning, April 15, Cape Hatteras National Seashore staffers installed a corridor for off-road vehicles south of Ramp 44.

The corridor allows passage near an American oystercatcher nest and access to Cape Point.

The corridor starts about 0.17 miles south of the ramp.

Pedestrian access to the south-facing beach is available down Bypass Road. The distance from the entrance to Bypass Road to open beach is around 0.20 miles.

The national seashore’s April 15 message reports that due to the decreased size of the Cape Point area, it is likely that the southern tip of Cape Point will close in 24-30 days when the American oystercatcher nest hatches.

Last year, the corridor was installed April 5, 10 days earlier than this year.

The seashore’s resource management field summary shows five active American oystercatcher nests along the beach. One nest is at Cape Point, two nests are somewhere else on Hatteras Island and two nests are on Ocracoke.

The field summary shows no other shorebird nests or sea turtle nests. The field summary is posted on Thursdays at nps.gov/caha/learn/field-summary.htm and tracks the beach nests of American oystercatchers, colonial waterbirds, piping plover, Wilson’s plover and sea turtles.

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