Tag Archives: coastal birds

Long Legs and Filmy Filigree: A Visit to Kettle Island

Colonial-nesting waterbirds are always fascinating, and because so many species nest on remote or hard-to-get-to islands, a visit to a colony typically represents an adventure.  And so it was when six intrepid staff members and volunteer bird counters visited Mass Audubon’s Kettle Island (a Massachusetts Important Bird Area) off the coast of Manchester-by-the-Sea last week.  A 17 acre uninhabited rocky island approximately a mile offshore, much of the island is vegetated with a dense cover of low trees, shrubs, thorns, and copious amounts of poison ivy. One can view the island’s birdlife from a boat, but landing is prohibited in order not to disturb this important colonial waterbird nesting site.

Kettle Island bird team ©Craig Gibson

The purpose of the island visit was to census and survey the breeding long-legged wading birds that have nested on the island for several decades.  The visit was part of a survey project initiated last year to assess the overall status and ecology of a number of islands off the Essex County coast, and also part of a greater coastal waterbird survey being jointly conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Mass Wildlife.  One of the largest colonies in the Commonwealth, Kettle Island currently hosts Great Egrets (194 pairs), Snowy Egrets (99 pairs), Little Blue Herons (4 pairs), Black-crowned Night-Herons (30 pairs), and Glossy Ibises (9 pairs).  In addition, the island sanctuary is currently home to 2 pairs of American Oystercatchers, 51 pairs of Herring Gulls, and 79 pairs of Great Black-backed Gulls.

Little Blue Heron ©Craig Gibson

One of the magical aspects of visiting a breeding island at this season is seeing some of our most spectacular breeding species in their full breeding plumage—plumages that brought many species virtually to their knees in the heyday of the millinery trade during the late 1800s and early 1900s when their feathery filigree was central to the egregious fashion industry of the day.  Not only did the excesses of this worldwide feather lust bring the founding mothers of Mass Audubon to rise up in outrage in 1896, but it was this same excessive slaughter of egrets, herons, and other birds that ultimately led to the establishment of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act 100 years ago this year.

Great Egrets ©Craig Gibson

Thanks to these two historic conservation milestones, today bird watchers, photographers, artists, and everyone who enjoys beautiful living things is able to see these handsome species seasonally inhabiting the coastlines and salt marshes of Massachusetts when they are not nesting on their remote island colonies.

Great Egret chicks ©Craig Gibson

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Coastal Waterbird Program 2017 Field Recap

Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program protected threatened coastal birds through management and education at 194 sites along 162 miles of the Massachusetts coastline in 2017.  A staff of 56 shorebird monitors and trainees installed protective fencing and signage, monitored nesting activity, provided educational opportunities for beachgoers, and engaged landowners in coastal habitat protection.

Piping Plover and chick © Matt Filosa

Protecting Piping Plovers

State abundance of Piping Plover increased to 657 pairs (preliminary data) in 2017 (649 pairs in 2016). Reproductive success throughout the state was poor, and lower than 2016, with a statewide average of approximately 1.0 chicks fledged per nesting pair compared to 1.44 chicks fledged/pair in 2016.  The estimate for sustainable reproduction in Piping Plovers is 1.24 fledged chicks/pair per year. Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program protected 216 pairs of Piping Plovers (about 33% of the MA population, and roughly 12% of the Atlantic Coast Population estimated at 1,800 pairs).  Predation, both avian and mammalian, limited productivity on Mass Audubon monitored beaches this season (51% of all known egg losses were attributed to predation), making this the greatest known cause of egg loss.  Overwash was the second highest cause of known egg loss at 38%.

American Oystercatcher with chick © Phil Sorrentino

Terns and Oystercatchers Too

A total of 132 sites were surveyed for tern species; 1,132 pairs of Least Terns (38% of the MA breeding population in 2017) were protected by the Coastal Waterbird Program on 41 sites.  American Oystercatcher abundance in Massachusetts decreased slightly to approximately 186 breeding pairs (approximately 190 in 2016). Forty-five pairs were observed breeding on Mass Audubon protected sites, approximately 24% of the state population, and 47% of nesting attempts were successful in hatching eggs.

Least Tern on nest © Brad Dinerman

The Coastal Waterbird Program continued its work on staging Roseate Terns conducting a prey abundance study at several sites on the outer Cape in late summer.  Our work shows the importance of Cape Cod staging sites in the annual cycle of endangered Roseate Terns—especially in providing habitat to newly-fledged birds undergoing their first 5,000 mile migration to South America.

The Treasure Islands of Essex County

by Chris Leahy, Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology emeritus

Halfway Rock © Chris Leahy

There is something about islands. Their remoteness generates a certain mystique.  Even islands inhabited by people have an aura of “away-ness,” and uninhabited ones stimulate visions of hidden treasures of one kind or another. There is also an ecological significance to islands: their plants and animal communities are often different from those of even nearby mainlands; their isolation from other populations promote evolutionary change; and they may act as refuges for certain species because they are hard to reach by predators.

The coastal waters of Essex County from Nahant Bay to Cape Ann are dotted with more than 50 islands ranging in size from small rocky “skerries” which are nearly submerged at high tide to the well-wooded 83-acre Great Misery Island, two of them populated at least seasonally. In 2002 these were formally designated as the Essex County Coastal Birds Islands Important Bird Area*, due to their breeding populations of water birds that rarely nest on the mainland, including a number of rare or uncommon species.

Straitsmouth Island © Chris Leahy

This summer Mass Audubon’s Conservation Science Department, supported by a grant from the Nuttall Ornithological Club, and the help of several generous private boat owners began a survey of these islands with the following basic objectives:

  • Developing a comprehensive understanding of past and current bird survey efforts, data sources, and management activities.
  • Completing an assessment of current breeding bird activity on the islands.
  • Identifying existing stresses such as human use, presence of rats and other predators, vegetation change, and climate vulnerability.
  • Developing recommendations for future management in support of the breeding birds.
  • Raising public awareness of the importance of these islands through programming and networking with state and regional conservation entities.

The survey has already turned up a number of previously unrecorded breeding sites for wading birds and American Oystercatcher.  We will be publishing more detailed results in the near future.

 

*An Important Bird Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed upon set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. The program was developed and sites are identified by Birdlife International based in Cambridge, England. Currently there are over 12,000 IBAs worldwide and 79 in Massachusetts.

 

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