Fire Island National Seashore

While tens of thousands of us flock here for surf, sun, and sand, so too do even larger numbers of waterbirds for feeding and breeding. Walk the self-guiding barrier beach boardwalk at Smith Point for everything from pilot whales and dolphins to rare piping plovers, whelks, blue crabs and jellyfish.

Description: Fire Island National Seashore's 22 miles of barrier beach annually provides millions of visitors quality recreational experiences. In addition to visitor centers, wildlife viewing and interpretation; swimming, camping, food service, and marinas for boaters are available. Besides the more easily accessed sites described here, private boats or passenger ferries enable visits to Sailors Haven from Sayville and Watch Hill from Patchogue. At Smith Point, the Visitor Center with exhibits and interpretive programs is open weekends during the summer. A self-guiding boardwalk nature trail loop provides access from the parking lot to the ocean beach. At the William Floyd Estate, the grounds are open daily for hiking and wildlife viewing. Guided house tours are offered on weekends during the summer.

Viewing Information: The booklet that interprets Smith Point's self-guided trail provides an interesting description of the characteristic features of a barrier beach and the plants and animals that make their home there. Off shore, watch for dolphins and pilot whales. On the beach, the sanderling is the most common of the sandpipers. Visitors can easily identify all three of the common gull species here: herring, laughing, and great black-backed. The piping plover, federally-listed as Threatened, can occasionally be seen. Whelks, clams, blue crabs, and jellyfish occur on the beach and bayshore. Red foxes, gray catbirds, rufous-sided towhees, and Fowler's toads inhabit the swales and thickets. White-tailed deer and cottontail rabbits are here, too. Not on Fire Island, the William Floyd Estate is quite different from the barrier island. Fields, woods and ponds attract a variety of wildlife. A salt marsh bordering Moriches Bay is especially interesting. Great blue herons, great and snowy egrets, willets, and diamond- backed terrapin inhabit the salt marsh.

Directions: Smith Point and William Floyd Estate are located on the South shore of Long Island's Suffolk County. Smith Point: Take the William Floyd Parkway South across Smith Point Bridge to the pay parking lot at adjacent Smith Point County Park. William Floyd Estate: Take the William Floyd Parkway to Neighborhood Road's Eastern end; left onto Park Drive, four blocks to entrance.

Closest Town: Mastic and Shirley

Ownership: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

Telephone: (631) 289-4810

Size: 22 miles of barrier beach