Dawn’s thin line traces the horizon, giving faint shape to the twin swells of wave and dune, separating the night sky from the waking world of Wrightsville Beach. The gardens at Trailborn Surf & Sound stay dark. Shapes here are shrubs, stones, shadows.

Pink light stains each wave crest and spike of sea oat crowning the dunes. Once it reaches the uppermost boughs of a pine, the first bird of the morning starts its song: two pleasant notes and a car-alarm trill, set on repeat. The grass glitters with dew, marred only by a single line of tracks stretching from a copse of landscaping into the wide-open lawn.

At the end of those tracks, a lone rabbit sniffs the air before bowing its head for a nibble.

As the sun climbs, surfers claim the first waves of today’s “dawn patrol,” and the growing light reveals more rabbits on Trailborn’s lawn. On ocean-facing balconies, grown-ups wrapped in robes and kids in pajamas peer over and through the rail at the scene below.

Between the hotel and the beach, lush gardens are a feast for the senses — and the rabbits. photograph by Matt Ray Photography

The lone rabbit has become three more — no, four. Five more. Six. There, a stone in the landscape has sprouted ears, stretched its rocky head forward, and taken a hop.

Marsh rabbits — Sylvilagus palustris — reside in marshy wetlands and live in the landscaping of Wrightsville Beach and Middle Island. And there are a lot of them — some 200 to 300.

Some call them “bluetails” for the blue-gray fur on their bellies and rumps. In other places, people call them “cane cutters” for their habit of eating switch cane, in addition to roots, bulbs, tubers, woody stems, flowers, berries, and just about any other foliage or fruit they can work between their teeth. The marshes offer plenty of food, but gardens are a buffet.

“They absolutely love people with grassy yards and a well-kept garden,” says Shannon Slocum, park ranger for the Town of Wrightsville Beach, “and if they like what you’ve planted, they can be quite destructive.”

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The landscaping at Trailborn Surf & Sound surprises first-time visitors. The last thing they expect at the beach is a lush lawn and a garden bursting with blooms. Still, there it is, hidden behind a seven-story hotel on one side, a wall of dunes and grasses on the other.

“I’ve had folks call it an oasis or even compare it to the Garden of Eden,” says William “Pep” Peper, groundskeeper for Trailborn and its predecessor, the Blockade Runner Beach Resort. “But it’s taken time to get this landscaping as ‘rabbit-proof’ as it is now.”

Groundskeeper William “Pep” Peper has learned to coexist with the beach bunnies … photograph by Matt Ray Photography

It’s got to be rabbit-proof, or reasonably so. This is a gathering spot for Trailborn guests, and the crown jewel of one of the only surf-to-sound resorts on the East Coast. Barefoot kids play here. At the hotel’s Italy-meets-Carolina restaurant, La Duna Paradiso, you can dine al fresco, sitting in a sea of native and tropical plants. At night, adults sip cocktails by the firepit, teens retreat to far corners away from their parents, and the rabbits browse the verge for dinner.

Peper’s plantings are thoughtfully, carefully planned to send the rabbits elsewhere for a bite. Ornamental plants like cabbage and kale look lovely in cool-weather pots and plots, but the rabbits chew these tasty morsels to the ground. Showy flowers like zinnias, cosmos, morning glory vines, and snapdragons rarely get to bloom thanks to these fuzzy, hopping mowers. Flowering and fruiting shrubs like quince and rose are as delicious to the rabbits as they are beautiful to us.

… he chooses plants like Cestrum that are both beautiful and rabbit-resistant. photograph by Matt Ray Photography

What don’t they eat?

“They don’t like lantana — they won’t touch it — or lilies,” Peper says. “Alliums, marigolds, and geraniums must not sit well with them.

“Oh,” he adds. “They don’t eat the prickly pear cactus or anything with thorns or stickers. Guess they prefer an easier bite to eat.”

The rabbits make a little extra work for the groundskeeping staff, he acknowledges. “But they absolutely delight our guests. Kids and adults are surprised seeing them. Meeting a rabbit at a beach resort? Who expects rabbits at the beach?”

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They’re not just here in Trailborn’s secret garden but also across Waynick Boulevard at Soundside, where guests launch stand-up paddleboards and one-man sailboats into Banks Channel. “They can swim, you know,” Peper says.

Slocum’s seen and heard of rabbits going for a swim, too. “It’s weird. You don’t expect to see a rabbit in the water, but there they are, swimming in Banks Channel, in the town’s retention pond, or at the edge of the marsh.”

In fact, marsh rabbits are skilled swimmers. Less fur and longer nails on their hind legs — plus smaller, more streamlined ears — make them more suited to coastal environments than their cottontail cousins. To escape predators, forage for aquatic plants, or simply navigate their watery world, they’ll wade out, with only their ears, eyes, and noses visible.

Trailborn Surf & Sound offers an array of experiences, including cruises, yoga classes, and surf lessons. But a favorite pastime is simply sitting on the lawn and watching the in-house entertainment. photograph by Matt Ray Photography

Slocum thinks of himself and his fellow rangers as ambassadors for Wrightsville Beach. Year-round, they patrol the shore in their Jeeps and ATVs, reminding visitors there’s no glass on the beach and answering questions like, “Did I really see a rabbit earlier today?”

In his 25 years with Wrightsville Beach, Slocum’s responded to all sorts of wildlife calls — “corn snakes on the beach, a raccoon or opossum attracted to an oyster roast, once a black bear in the business district” — but not one related to rabbits.

Instead, he fields questions about them from curious visitors, new residents, and even Wrightsville natives.

“Maybe they’re the best ambassadors,” he says. “They’re certainly a memorable part of visiting our part of the coast. Can you imagine going home and saying to your friends, ‘You won’t believe what I saw at Wrightsville Beach …’?”

• • •

Marsh rabbits don’t travel in skipping cartoon bounds, forepaws held high and tight to the chest as if clutching some candy-laden basket, or in a brash Bugs Bunny stroll. They move more like herbivorous cats. They slink with sly steps, creeping one foot at a time to the next bit of tasty greenery, or with short, confident bounds, or in an all-out sprint, ears streamlined against the skull, muscled haunches pistoning.

When it’s morning proper and the temperature hangs between beach-breeze pleasant and humid summer day, the rabbits come alive. Heavy-bodied adults browse the verge for the best morsels. Sleek-furred juveniles keep themselves busy with play. Three race around the firepit in a game of Duck, Duck, Goose. Some leap through a sprinkler’s spray, their passage splitting the mist into a cloud of miniature rainbows. The youngest watch from the protective shade of a lawn-size Connect Four.

The resort has been an icon of the North Carolina coast since 1964, when it opened as the Blockade Runner Motor Hotel. photograph by Matt Ray Photography

The high, sweet timbre of a young girl’s voice freezes the fluffle of rabbits. Aswim in a too-big coverup, eyes hidden behind oversize sunglasses the color of an electrified blueberry, she clutches her grandfather’s hand and tows him past the pool, onto the boardwalk to the beach.

“C’mon, it’s beeeeach time,” she says in her singsong voice. “Beeeeeach time, beeeeeeach time.”

She’s full of excitement and the possibility of a pancake breakfast in her future, happily plunging into the second verse of her beach song, when she spots the rabbit in the garden and stops in her tracks. Her grandfather nearly bowls her over.

In the early morning hours, rabbits find breakfast around the lawn and gardens at Trailborn Surf & Sound. photograph by Matt Ray Photography

Moving from bloom to bloom with delicate hops, the rabbit inches closer to the boardwalk. The girl prances in place, unable to contain her excitement. Her grandfather squats beside her, whispering something — no doubt, “Be quiet and still, and we’ll watch the bunny.” Her song tapers off. The rabbit approaches. She freezes.

Taking her quiet as a sign of safety, the rabbit makes a furtive half-hop onto the boardwalk. Its little claws scritch against the wooden planks as it turns to the beach, the lawn, the girl, and moves. It hops toward her and she backs up. It sniffs the air, makes another hop. But then she squeals, and the rabbit is off like a shot, streaking across a corner of the grass and disappearing, once again, into a tunnel in the shrubbery.

Trailborn Surf & Sound
275 Waynick Boulevard
Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480
(888) 598-3257
trailborn.com/surf-sound