Conservationist Robbie Fearn has been the center’s director since 2013, a century after the lodge was built. photograph by Baxter Miller

Ospreys soar over an old hunting lodge and dive into the waters of Currituck Sound in pursuit of a seafood dinner. Bevies of tundra swans glide across the same waters toward the shore. Thousands of chuck-will’s-widows build nests along the floor of the maritime forest and fill summer nights with their mating call. At the Donal C. O’Brien Jr. Sanctuary and Audubon Center in Corolla, nature and the efforts to protect it are constantly in motion.

“The Outer Banks landscape is ever-changing,” says Robbie Fearn, the center’s director. The sanctuary itself is no exception. At various points in its history, this 2,600-acre parcel of marshland and maritime forest has been, by turns, completely underwater; a wild, roadless region; and prime duck hunting land. Visit today for a hike or a paddle, and you’ll happen upon an epicenter of conservation efforts.

In the late 1970s, North Carolina real estate developer Earl Slick donated the land to the National Audubon Society. The newly crowned bird sanctuary was named for Donal C. O’Brien Jr., a former Audubon Center board chair, avid conservationist, and one of Slick’s most frequent guests at the historic lodge that’s on-site — one of many relics of the sanctuary’s past that lingers on this land.

The lodge at the Donal C. O’Brien Jr. Sanctuary has stood in Corolla since 1913. photograph by Baxter Miller

Built in 1913, the lodge is one of the oldest still-standing duck hunting clubs in the United States. Its interior is filled with antique furniture and decor, all sourced from the 1950s and earlier. From a set of large hanging tapestries left by the Slicks to decades-old kitchen gadgets like an antique cheese grater, the furnishings are meant to foster moments of discovery and connection with the past.

The sanctuary’s 300-year-old boat dock is a similar piece of history. Today, it’s a launch for kayak tours and conservation efforts, but before the hunt club was established, it was visitors’ only point of access to Currituck’s prime duck hunting land. At that time, passage into the area required showing proof of land ownership to a guard stationed at the start of the dirt road that ran from Corolla to Duck — the same dirt road that’s now a nature trail snaking through the forest on sanctuary lands.

Behind the abundant wildlife and activity at the sanctuary is a dedicated push for conservation. The center conducts research and works on preservation initiatives that ensure there will always be an Outer Banks for wildlife to call home.

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The landscape of the sanctuary is among the top 2 percent of sites in the country deemed critical for bird survival in the face of climate change according to the National Audubon Society. This is due to the central role it plays in the migration patterns of so many species. Currituck Sound and its many islands provide a natural buffet of catbrier and Virginia creeper berries, among other forest goodies, for migrating songbirds to stop and fuel up on their routes farther south. Black and wood ducks spend their summers in cooler Northern climates — but each year, those ducks and their offspring return to the sound for the winter.

Humans, Fearn says, tend to be very linear, moving along one timeline from here to there. But in nature, everything is built on a cyclical, never-ending system of coming and going — from migration patterns to the very land on which the sanctuary now sits. “By providing a healthy place for the wildlife to return to,” Fearn says, “we ensure that the system continues.”

In practice, that involves crafting solutions based on nature’s patterns. The center projects that there will be more marshland in eastern North Carolina 100 years from now, with the flatlands and forest around the Alligator River and the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula expected to take on the landscape that now makes up Currituck Sound. But there’s also expected to be a pinch point: The current marshes may be lost before the new land fully develops.

The center’s conservation efforts aim to protect the long-term geological cycle without disrupting the systems already in place that help wildlife to thrive. For example, the center has planned its wildflower fields to bloom when monarch butterflies begin migrating south, feasting on the flowers’ nectar as they pass. Audubon’s long-term conservation plan for the sanctuary’s marshlands includes the creation of a “quiet zone” behind a breakwater made from recycled Christmas trees. This protective shield will reduce wave energy headed toward the shore, mitigating erosion.

Today, the lodge is full of antiques that hark back to its heyday. photograph by Baxter Miller

The other key to conservation is us. Humans have long been characters in the story of this place, and Fearn hopes to preserve that, too. The more people immerse themselves in natural spaces, the more they’ll appreciate them and the need to protect them. Fearn encourages visitors to lean into unstructured moments with nature and toward the flashes of inspiration that come while sitting under a live oak tree or trekking through briars to find a wildflower. This little corner of Currituck Sound is full of discoveries like these.

When people invest in this place, Fearn says, ospreys that roost in the lodge chimney will continue to nest here. The four bobcats that stalk the marshes will always have a home. And the humans working to preserve the sanctity of this land can protect nature’s endless cycle.

Donal C. O’Brien JR. Sanctuary and Audubon Center
300 Audubon Drive
Corolla, NC 27927
(252) 453-0603
pineisland.audubon.org