Sandy Point: Getting Back to Sharing the Shore

 

by Beth Sullivan

American Oystercatchers 
Photo credit: Rick Newton

There is so much going on right now. There is so much beauty at this moment in time. Such life and rejuvenation, birth and growth, freedom and the ability to breathe more openly and hopefully.   I am quite sure that this spring seems extra special because of the year we have all been through.   We have holed up, curled in and in many cases, kept our heads down.   It is time now to grow outward and explore and remind ourselves how lucky we all are.

Nature has provided solace and sustenance for so many of us over the last year and a half.   It is time now to look at where we have been and see how we can restore and support some of our natural areas. To give back a bit.   As stewards we have begun getting back onto the preserves and working as teams, to maintain and monitor.  Over the summer we will make the rounds and I will report on what is happening.

Sandy Point: One Island, Two States

The first update is about Sandy Point Island: Avalonia’s gem of a wildlife refuge in Little Narragansett
Bay, between Stonington and Napatree Point in Rhode Island.  The history of the island and Avalonia’s ownership can be found in earlier blogs and on our website.  Its primary purpose is as a nature preserve.  It is acres and miles of shifting sand and beach grasses and shrubs. The island itself has shifted dramatically over the decades, a fact which can be seen easily on a series of aerial maps and Google Earth.   But even with the movements of the land over time, the island has remained a historical nesting and refuge area for a wide variety of very special species.

If you find a tagged horseshoe crab,
take a photo and report it
Photo Credit: Beth Sullivan

The most ancient of these species is the horseshoe crab: Limulus polyphemus.  These relics of the dinosaur era return to the same areas of sand at the edges of the oceans around the world, somehow following some magnetic compass in their own bodies, to come ashore during the full and new moons of May and June at the high tides, to mate and lay their eggs.  For almost a decade, Avalonia volunteers made multiple trips each season, usually at night and by kayak, out to the island to count and tag the horseshoe crabs. This was part of Project Limulus, a study conducted by Sacred Heart University. The tagging part of the project is completed, different parts of the study continue, and the crabs continue to return to the sandy island each late spring into summer.  If you find a tagged horseshoe crab, take a photo of the information on the tag, and report it on the website link below.   

https://www.sacredheart.edu/academics/colleges--schools/college-of-arts--sciences/departments/biology/project-limulus/

 

Piping Plovers
Photo Credit: Rick Newton

The island is also an important nesting site for several threatened or endangered species of birds.  Piping plovers, American oystercatchers and least terns make their homes and raise their young on this strip of sandy island.   All these species make very simple scrape nests on the sand, amid the pebbles and shells on the beach. They are very vulnerable to all kinds of dangers. High storm tides can wash the nests away, there are predators that target the eggs and the young, including the gulls that also nest there, and crows.   Sadly, some of the worst disruption is human caused.    The island is much loved by many people for its beauty, beaches, and wildlife.   But people and wildlife do not always mix well.   Our simple presence near a nest can cause a parent to abandon the nest or eggs.  People can inadvertently step on, or land their boat on, a nest or eggs.    When the chicks hatch, they can run but they cannot fly so they must get to the water’s edge to feed by finding their way through whatever obstacles there may be on the shore. On busy summer weekends, that can be people, blankets, chairs, kids and coolers.  Dogs are not allowed on the island at all, even on leash, because their mere presence terrorizes the birds.

They have a narrow window of time, when they nest, incubate their eggs then have the young wandering around like toddlers; vulnerable to all sorts of dangers and hard to control!

Signage is provided for all visitors
Photo credit: Beth Sullivan

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has provided an amazing partnership with Avalonia to monitor the
wildlife, provide fencing to help remind visitors to avoid nesting sites, create educational signage and offer trained biologists to be on the island to teach visitors about the importance of the habitat.   For permits and passes which are required, please visit https://rhodeislandpermits.recaccess.com/

We are at the Solstice.  The longest days of the most lovely of seasons. We all want to enjoy our new freedom to get back out in nature with our friends. Please remember that wildlife on all our preserves, needs to be protected. At Sandy Point the protection is critical to the survival of 3 species. Please help us, and the wildlife, by observing the guidelines and looking out for and enjoying the other beings that use the island.

 

USFWS biologists monitor the nesting sites
and roped off areas.
Photo credit: Rick Newton

All creatures seem to be drawn to the 
gentle, shifting shoreline of Sandy Point.
Photo credit: Beth Sullivan

When young shorebirds need to run to the
water, they can encounter many obstacles.
Photo credit: Beth Sullivan

 

 

A Season of Changes on Sandy Point

By Beth Sullivan

It seems like summer just began. We were just waiting for the Plovers and Horseshoe crabs to arrive on Sandy Point. And now they are ready to leave!

It was an interesting season on Sandy Point. It was the first summer that the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) was formally able to become the keepers of the lovely Island. As a transition year the COMO continued to issue permits but no longer supplied stewards to collect daily fees and do periodic patrols. Instead, this year we had dedicated, environmentally educated, interns and stewards out on the island as time and funding allowed. Instead of merely collecting fees, they informed people about their purpose and presence.

USFWS has erected informational kiosks for to explain our goals for conservation.

Education is often the very best way to get cooperation. When they encountered a violation, a dog on the shore for example, these stewards were able to give a real reason WHY a dog is such danger to the nesting birds (real or perceived predator). They spent many hours early in the season putting up roping to delineate where the nesting birds had set up housekeeping. But the stewards, this year, could also explain WHY the protected area needed to go all the way down to the water. (Young birds need access to water’s edge for feeding before they can fly). Visitors who understand this may be more willing to set their umbrellas and blankets away from these areas.

We can all learn to share the island with the species that need our protection.

The pebbles, shells, and sand are all the birds need to build their nests.

Kiosks explain the rules

The USFWS also erected two informational kiosks with photos and graphics to illustrate our combined efforts for conservation on the island. Now if only everyone would read them. On several occasions we were out monitoring, only to find people set up with campfires and their dogs, right under the signs!

According to Ryan Kleinert, the USFWS Biologist leading the team out there, the State-listed American Oystercatchers did very well. We had 8 pairs arrive early, get down to business and fledged 13 chicks. The Piping Plovers had a harder time. Ten pairs arrived on the island, but their efforts were greatly impacted by Gulls that chose to move into their nesting areas and aggressively take over, and crows that were predators on eggs and young. Those 10 pairs attempted 14 nests, and only 1 Piping Plover chick survived to fledge. Next year the stewards will try a new tactic to protect nests and deter the predators.

American Oystercatchers forage along the beach. Photograph by Rick Newton.

The Piping Plovers were challenged this year by Gulls and Crows. Photograph by Victoria Limi, Plover Intern 2013 USFWS.

Horseshoe crabs tagged again

We tagged Horseshoe crabs again this year. The Project Limulus Study group had fewer tags to hand out; we only had 200 to use. We did tag that number, and we could have done more, but there were nowhere near as many Horseshoe crabs out there as in earlier years -another change. We did count recaptures, those that had tags on them from previous efforts. One female crab we encountered nesting was originally tagged in 2009! Reporting those tag numbers is still important data for collection.

The tagged Horseshoe crabs provide important data on the range and travels of the species. Photograph by Rick Newton.

While this was a year to educate, we can expect that there will be more enforcement of the rules next year. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone who enjoys the island, was willing to take a bit more responsibility to obey the rules, think about the species that depend on this place for their survival and act as stewards as well?

There's no better place to be at sunset.

Even those Horseshoe crabs recognize Sandy Point as special place, to call home and are now further protected by new stewards from the Fish and Wildlife Service. Let’s hope all the rest of the visitors to our Island can offer the same protections to all the species that call it home.

Photographs by Beth Sullivan unless otherwise indicated.