The 67th Nantucket Christmas Count took place on January 2, 2022. Our island was divided up into 8 sections with a team assigned to each one with the common goal of counting all the birds within a 24-hour period. The response to the call was tremendous with over 60 participants joining in on the fun,…
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Nantucket is fortunate to have several species of native wintergreens that retain their foliage through the winter. They are actually easiest to learn to identify during the colder months when most other plants have dropped their leaves and it is easier to see through the understory.
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Christmas Bird Count (CBC), one of the longest running citizen science projects in the world, is organized by the National Audubon Society. It was originally started in 1900’s by ornithologist Frank Chapman, who thought it was better to count the birds instead of hunting them on Christmas Day. This year, the Christmas Bird Count will…
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By Dr. Jen Karberg, Research Program Supervisor This November, Nantucket Conservation Foundation, in collaboration with the Town of Nantucket Natural Resource Department, completed the final step in a 2 year long restoration project to create a new oyster reef in Polpis Harbor. The first reef of it’s kind in Massachusetts, this project will show one…
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Looking for some interesting and informative events to participate in during early November on Nantucket?? The 9th biennial Nantucket Biodiversity Research Conference will take place from November 4-6, 2021, and all of the conference events are open to the public. We hope that you will consider joining us to learn more about Nantucket’s unique biodiversity!…
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Autumn Lore by Kathleen Jenks As autumn returns to earth’s northern hemisphere, and day and night are briefly, but perfectly, balanced at the equinox, may we remember anew how fragile life is — human life, surely, but also the lives of all other creatures, trees and plants, waters and winds. May we make wise choices…
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Nantucket Conservation Foundation has begun a new and exciting project. We have created and opened our own bird banding station! There are many bird banding stations all over the world, including the two MAPS bird banding Stations, (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship), on Nantucket and Tuckernuck. The MAPS bird banding stations focus on the breeding…
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Last November I reported on the beginning stages of a big “Landscaping Makeover” at the NCF office at 118 Cliff Road. This long-awaited renovation allowed us to incorporate areas with more formal plantings hosting a variety of native shrubs and grasses around the entrance to our office, designed by NCF board member, Dave Champoux. Nursery…
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Although the calendar says that we still have a few days of summer left, fall is definitely in the air. The days are shorter, the nights are cooler, the humidity is lower, there is a touch of fall color in the foliage and the stores are full of apples, pumpkins and other fall produce. It’s…
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In 2013, NCF’s Science and Stewardship Department started down the road of a wetland restoration project in Madequecham Valley that at the time seemed incredibly daunting. We idealistically set out to eradicate a 0.6 acre patch of an incredibly invasive plant, Phragmites australis, the common reed. Phragmites australis is a large, perennial grass, that has…
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