Every year the shorebird breeding season has its challenges and 2020 was no different. Fortunately for us, the shorebirds were unaware of Covid-19 and still continued to nest at their respective beaches across the island. From the 2020 preliminary data for Nantucket which includes Tuckernuck and Muskeget Islands, there was a total of 57 breeding…
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This year, everyone’s favorite dream job on island went to an enthusiastic young ecologist, Rachel Brubaker! Hear her tell the story that brought her here this season. By Rachel Brubaker I genuinely wish I had a warm backstory about how I was always interested in the natural world when I was a child and spent…
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These days, it seems like everything we took for granted as normal is getting cancelled, closed or postponed due to COVID-19. From a socio-economic perspective, it is apparent that this coming summer will be nothing like recent seasons here on Nantucket. For those of us who love nature and the outdoors, the ongoing rhythm of…
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by: Libby Buck, Ecological Stewardship & Research Technician It is August and the days are slowly growing shorter and the end of summer is approaching. The shorebirds on Nantucket are getting ready to start their long journey south. I am happy to report our efforts to protect the endangered & threatened species this year have yielded some…
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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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Spring is the time of year when there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the work day for our Science and Stewardship Department’s full-time staff. There are winter writing projects that need to be wrapped up, early season field work to fit in when Nantucket’s fickle spring weather is cooperative, preparations to be…
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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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The Foundation has always strived to manage its properties to provide for public access and protect rare ecological resources. These goals can often be at cross purposes, so succeeding at both requires a great deal of strategic planning. Developing property conservation management plans that achieve this balance is one of the primary tasks of the…
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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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By Libby Buck, Shorebird Monitor and Invasive Species Field Assistant I have a very unique position at Nantucket Conservation Foundation. For the first part of the season I was the Shorebird Monitor and as the shorebird season wound down, I became the Invasive Plant Species Field Assistant. I was able to be immersed literally in…
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