Category Archives: Stuff We Love

A Gold Star Project

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Hillary T.

We recently received this letter from a Colleen Kiely, a young Mass Audubon member from Western Massachusetts. Colleen spent her summer at the Cape Cod National Seashore teaching visitors about piping plover conservation as part of her Girl Scouts Gold Scout Award Project. We were so inspired by her story that we wanted to share it far and wide. 

Colleen Kiely

My name is Colleen Kiely and I am a senior at Wahconah Regional High School in Berkshire County Massachusetts. My father and I have been members of Mass Audubon for 10 years and enjoy birdwatching and hiking at Pleasant Valley and Canoe Meadows, two beautiful sanctuaries in the Berkshires. Our experiences with Mass Audubon have inspired me to become an environmental activist and protect endangered birds and their habitats.

I have been a Girl Scout for seven years and this year, as an Ambassador Girl Scout, I am completing my Girl Scout Gold Award Project. Last year I volunteered at the Cape Cod National Seashore, teaching vacationers about the protected birds with a Shorebird Exhibit. For my project, “Protecting the Piping Plovers,” I talked to over five hundred vacationers this year at the National Seashore about the shorebird’s conditions, how climate change is affecting the birds, and what they can do to help the Piping Plovers.

Prior to my work on the Cape, I researched the Piping Plovers endangered species status as well as made a new Piping Plover bird model, and included a coloring page for kids, for the Shorebird Exhibit. I also continued my research on the birds throughout the summer to stay up to date on how the shorebirds are doing this year. Through writing this letter, my hope is to spread awareness of the Piping Plovers and encourage others to take action in protecting the birds.

The ways in which you can help include:

  • staying out of all marked off areas of the beach
  • keeping your pets on a leash
  • throwing away all trash

Thank you,

Colleen Kiely

You can learn more about Mass Audubon’s work to protect piping plovers through our Coastal Waterbird Program.

Announcing the July 2015 Issue of Connections

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Rosemary

july2015ConxThe latest issue of our quarterly member newsletter Connections is out. Highlights include:

  • A collection of beloved places on our wildlife sanctuaries as described by our Sanctuary Directors.
  • Carnivorous plants and how to spot them.
  • A volunteer who reads a children’s book to an owl—and why she does so.
  • Our calendar of seasonal outdoor phenomena.

…and much more. Members received a copy in their mailboxes, and you can read a PDF version online.

Reader Maury Eldridge was happy to see the photo of an ebony jewelwing damselfly on page 10, because it helped him identify a creature he’d seen on a walk, He sent us a photo of the insect and a poem that it inspired. We hope you’ll be similarly inspired by this issue of Connections.

Ebony Jewelwing © Maury Eldridge

Ebony Jewelwing © Maury Eldridge

Summer Grace
By Maury Eldridge

Honeysuckle on my tongue,
Beneath the pure sky
And building clouds of a summer afternoon,
Lilies open their saffron hearts
To a still green lake.
The birdsong, less fervent with their mating done,
Is ever so sweet.
Butterflies waver between nectars,
Mountain laurel blossoms beneath quiet pines,
A long walk
Puts any wakening gloom back to sleep,
And even in the shade, an ebony jewelwing
Emits a turquoise iridescence.
Hot sun and sixty-five years
Slow my stride.
Distant objects never quite come
Fully into focus, but just possibly
I see even more
In my gratitude simply
To be here.