*Note: this article was originally written in September 2017 and printed in the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror in the November 30, 2017 issue Fall is finally here. The air is cooling down and drying out, the tupelo trees are turning red and the goldenrods and blazing stars are blooming in all their yellow and purple…
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Nantucket’s fauna is very unique – maybe more so for what is not here than for what we have. Numerous species that are common elsewhere in New England are missing from our assemblage of terrestrial wildlife, including chipmunks, possums, raccoons, skunks, fox, woodchucks, and coyotes. What we do have on Nantucket are several species of…
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by Elizabeth C. Buck It may seem like August has just arrived, and there is still plenty of summertime to be enjoyed by all, but our shorebirds are already thinking about fall migration. Nantucket is home to many nesting shorebirds that now have young fledglings ready to make their journey south to their wintering grounds.…
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*Please note, this blog post was originally published in The Inquirer and Mirror on December 1st, 2016 in the article series called Island Ecology. The Foundation’s Science staff will be regularly contributing to our local newspaper and reprinting articles here the following week.* Earlier this summer in our Island Ecology column, we reported on the…
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The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative (NBI) is a collaboration of scientists from local conservation organizations, government agencies, and educational institutions. One of our main goals is to support and facilitate biodiversity research on Nantucket, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Islands and surrounding waters and share results with the scientific community and the general public. Each year, the NBI…
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*Please note, this blog post was originally published in The Inquirer and Mirror on July 21th 2016 pg 6B in the article series Island Ecology. The Foundation’s Science staff will be regularly contributing to our local newspaper and reprinting articles here the following week.* As we all know, Nantucket is unique in so many ways…
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by: Libby Buck, NCF Shorebird Monitor For the past three seasons, there has been resident pair of Ospreys nesting on the ground at Eel Point. This is a very rare occurrence, since Ospreys typically nest off the ground in an old dead tree, an artificial structure such as utility pole, or a human constructed Osprey…
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The first American Oystercatchers have arrived back to Jetties Beach, mourning doves are building nests right outside the Conservation Foundation office windows, and the increase of early morning bird song surely means that spring is on its way, whether it feels like it to the humans or not! But as one who likes to scamper among the wetter…
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Early spring is here: now’s the time to find male American Woodcocks (Scolopax minor) putting on impressive aerial displays to attract a mate. There are a number of locations around the island where you can catch a glimpse of this rite of spring. A calm night — even better, a calm night flooded with moonlight —…
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Over the last several winter seasons, Cape Cod has been experiencing record numbers of sea turtle strandings on their beaches. Last year in particular was a doozey with nearly 1,250 turtles rescued from Cape beaches. The previous record was in 2012 with close to 400 turtles. A string of early season strandings have already occurred…
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