Charles Island,
Milford, Connecticut

Charles Island is located about half a mile out in Long Island Sound from Milford, Connecticut. At low tide this 14 acre bird sanctuary is accessible by foot along a very rocky sandbar. Birds are the priority here, and visitors are restricted to the beach areas of the island. Access is available at low tide. Use the Interactive Tide Chart, select Connecticut, then select Bridgeport.

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View from the shoreline towards the island at low tide.

About halfway out to the island. The sandbar is more like a 'rockbar,' footing is not very good. The story I'm told is that it's fill. A power company at one time had thoughts of building a power plant on the island, and this was to be a railway bed. That idea never worked out.

Cattle Egret (Common Egret) on the north shore of the island.

Canade Goose nesting on the southwest shore.

Sunset.

View back towards the mainland. The sandbar is not S-shaped; the perspective of this shot causes that effect.

View from the west end of Silver Beach.

January 2000

Everything everywhere looks very different in the winter so I took a walk out to the island to take some pics. 35F and 30MPH steady offshore wind but I was dressed properly and warm as toast. Saw two white tail deer in the interior of the island but wasn't quick enough to grab a pic.

Lots of seagulls hanging around. A few terns walking along the edge of the sandbar but they ran away very quickly when I came around.

The mainland shore looks a lot farther than a half mile away.

Now this is a very strange image. It was actually one of the first pics I took in this series. Perhaps the digital camera was a little confused by the bright light and was still adjusting the brightness. Unfortunately the horizon is a little off-horizontal but I include it here because it's so interesting and unearthly.

Other links related to Charles Island...

• Silver Beach by dm95mazz@aol.com
• A Milford Mirror article, "This island's for the birds"