With Nantucket’s first real stretch of cold this winter and even some recent snow fall, it leads one to wonder about how wildlife survive constant exposure to wicked coastal New England weather. Even the most cynical wildlife biologist might find themselves “feeling badly” for the critters. How do they survive the bitter cold and windy…
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Spotted turtles are a relatively uncommon species of freshwater turtle in Massachusetts but Nantucket has fairly sizable and robust populations. Still, they are seldom seen, certainly not as frequently as their cousins, the other resident shelled reptilians, snapping and painted turtles. Spotted turtles are secretive and very picky about the kinds of habitat they prefer.…
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Every year at the end of October, we at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation celebrate International Bat Week along with our batty colleagues the world over as a way to highlight the important role that bats play in nature and to counter the narrative that bats are just spooky creatures associated with Halloween. This year, we…
Read MoreIf the fog would ever lift this summer, the view of the eastern Middle Moors from Altar Rock might look a little strange at the moment. Large swaths of scrub oak in the Moors have been completely defoliated for the third year in a row. The culprit is an outbreak of a native species called…
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Written by: Danielle O’Dell, Ecologist/Field Supervisor Ordinarily, at this time of year as we begin preparing for the upcoming field season, I like to share a summary of the bat-related work that we at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation have conducted, what we’ve learned and what our plans are for the year ahead. However, 2020 has…
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By: Danielle O’Dell, Ecologist/Field Supervisor This may not be the time of year that you would typically think would be great for finding bats but we are hopeful that we might get a few reports from the Nantucket community! During the winter, Northern long-eared bats hibernate. In other parts of the Northeast, they are known…
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by: Danielle O’Dell, Ecologist/Field Supervisor The Science and Stewardship staff have continued to delve deeper and deeper in to the Northern long-eared Bat world! This season, we added a new member to our bat crew! Neil Foley, our long-time Coatue Ranger and Shorebird Monitor, got his rabies vaccination, and with all of his experience removing…
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As if we all needed another reason and reminder to slow down a little bit, warmer weather has arrived finally and June is high time for turtles to start moving out of wetlands in search of nesting locations and summer habitat. Unfortunately, these slow moving creatures often have to cross busy roads to get from…
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This winter, there have been several unusual winter wildlife sightings on Nantucket. Most of these sightings are of creatures that ought to have migrated well south of us by now. A lone Piping Plover was spotted at Smith’s Point during the annual Christmas bird count on December 30th. Typically, these summer denizens of Nantucket’s beaches…
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Since the discovery of a population of Northern long-eared bats on Nantucket in 2015, the Foundation’s Science and Stewardship Department has been working hard to understand how these bats use habitat here. Because this species is at a high risk of extinction throughout much of the rest of the northeast, we feel it is critically…
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