Places We Protect

Sunray Beach Preserve

New Jersey

Sunray Beach at the Delaware Bayshores.
Sunray Beach Sunray Beach at the Delaware Bayshores. © Damon Noe/TNC
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Sunray Beach Preserve boasts a mile of beachfront and extraordinary coastal dunes.

Viewing

Overview

Description

Why Is This Land Special?

Picturesque Sunray Beach Preserve boasts a sweeping 1,600-foot beachfront and extraordinary coastal dunes on the Delaware Bay, backed by woodlands, salt marsh and freshwater wetlands. The various habitats in the preserve are used as resting and feeding areas by migratory shorebirds each spring.

Sunray Beach's coastal dune community represents one of the best of its kind in the state. The virtually unchanged landscape at Sunray Beach, amid burgeoning development in the region, echoes the Cape May County of years past. Its extensive coastal dunes remain much the same since first viewed by European immigrants arriving to settle the area.

Access

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Highlights

Shorebird migration

Size

Over 100 acres

Explore our work in this region

Visit Sunray Beach in May and June to witness the annual horseshoe crab and shorebird phenomenon, when thousands of shorebirds descend on the beaches of the Bayshores to feed on horseshoe crab eggs.

The preserve is open from dawn until dusk; however, no parking facilities currently exist.