The Habitat Committee, now a sub-committee of the Conservancy, is completing the second year of a project that has revitalized much of the Parade Ground and Airport area, by replacing invasive plants with native grasses. The results have been dramatic in this sixty-five acre area, which is the largest grassland on Fishers Island. The grassland had been choked with vines and scrub and was depleted of wildlife. It is now covered with beautiful native grasses teeming with butterflies and grasshoppers and birds.
Visitors are welcome – paths have been mowed to allow easy access from Equestrian Avenue. A rare sedge wren was heard on the grounds this Summer; and most recently, there are reports of whippoorwill calls. Ground-nesting whippoorwills have not been heard or sighted on Fishers in years. Keep your eyes and ears open.
This work was begun in the Fall of 2010 by the ad hoc Habitat Committee, led by Joe Henderson. Joe enlisted a broad group of dedicated Fishers Island individuals and organizations, who banded together to create a project that demonstrates what can be done throughout the Island to beat back the invasives that have choked out so much of the Island’s natural wildlife.
The Ferry District adopted a three-year-plan with the objectives of: (i) restoring a grassland habitat that can be managed in a cost-effective way; (ii) increasing the safety of the Airport and Parade Ground by improving aircraft visibility and controlling access to airport runways and Fort Wright concrete structures; and (iii) increasing public access to the improved habitat by enlarging the walking path system throughout the Parade Ground and creating directed access to Race Point.
The Fishers Island Fire Department has carried out the burns essential to maintaining the grasslands.
The Fishers Island Conservancy joined the Ferry District in funding heavy concrete and stone removal in 2011, and native grass seeding.
The Fishers Island Sportsmen’s Club provided specialized mowing, disking and reseeding machinery.
The Fishers Island Club helped propel the effort and reseeded the school athletic field. Donnie Beck, Larry Horn, Jimmy Ski, Greg Cypherd, J.R. Edwards, Louie Horn, Don Murray, Don Brown, Dave Mcintyre and others worked tirelessly and selflessly, clearing the invasive scrub, mowing and seeding the first half of the sixty-five acres in 2010-2011 and then the second half in 2011-2012.
Milkweed for butterflies, wild iris, native warm season grasses and cool season grasses are seen in the “After” pictures above, providing a sustainable multi-culture grassland habitat for nature’s creatures. The work continues. The Conservancy has given the effort permanence by adopting the Habitat Committee as a standing, ongoing sub-committee.
A battle has been won at the Parade Ground and Airport, but the war continues. This is an encouraging demonstration that we can restore our island working together. The Habitat Committee is in discussions to expand its efforts to other areas of the Island.
The Conservancy plans to prepare and distribute instructional materials describing how the techniques demonstrated on these grounds can be used by individual landowners to stop the spread of invasives and reclaim their property.
A Battle Won, in the War Against Invasive Plants
Conservancy News, NewsThe Habitat Committee, now a sub-committee of the Conservancy, is completing the second year of a project that has revitalized much of the Parade Ground and Airport area, by replacing invasive plants with native grasses. The results have been dramatic in this sixty-five acre area, which is the largest grassland on Fishers Island. The grassland had been choked with vines and scrub and was depleted of wildlife. It is now covered with beautiful native grasses teeming with butterflies and grasshoppers and birds.
Visitors are welcome – paths have been mowed to allow easy access from Equestrian Avenue. A rare sedge wren was heard on the grounds this Summer; and most recently, there are reports of whippoorwill calls. Ground-nesting whippoorwills have not been heard or sighted on Fishers in years. Keep your eyes and ears open.
This work was begun in the Fall of 2010 by the ad hoc Habitat Committee, led by Joe Henderson. Joe enlisted a broad group of dedicated Fishers Island individuals and organizations, who banded together to create a project that demonstrates what can be done throughout the Island to beat back the invasives that have choked out so much of the Island’s natural wildlife.
The Ferry District adopted a three-year-plan with the objectives of: (i) restoring a grassland habitat that can be managed in a cost-effective way; (ii) increasing the safety of the Airport and Parade Ground by improving aircraft visibility and controlling access to airport runways and Fort Wright concrete structures; and (iii) increasing public access to the improved habitat by enlarging the walking path system throughout the Parade Ground and creating directed access to Race Point.
The Fishers Island Fire Department has carried out the burns essential to maintaining the grasslands.
The Fishers Island Conservancy joined the Ferry District in funding heavy concrete and stone removal in 2011, and native grass seeding.
The Fishers Island Sportsmen’s Club provided specialized mowing, disking and reseeding machinery.
The Fishers Island Club helped propel the effort and reseeded the school athletic field. Donnie Beck, Larry Horn, Jimmy Ski, Greg Cypherd, J.R. Edwards, Louie Horn, Don Murray, Don Brown, Dave Mcintyre and others worked tirelessly and selflessly, clearing the invasive scrub, mowing and seeding the first half of the sixty-five acres in 2010-2011 and then the second half in 2011-2012.
Milkweed for butterflies, wild iris, native warm season grasses and cool season grasses are seen in the “After” pictures above, providing a sustainable multi-culture grassland habitat for nature’s creatures. The work continues. The Conservancy has given the effort permanence by adopting the Habitat Committee as a standing, ongoing sub-committee.
A battle has been won at the Parade Ground and Airport, but the war continues. This is an encouraging demonstration that we can restore our island working together. The Habitat Committee is in discussions to expand its efforts to other areas of the Island.
The Conservancy plans to prepare and distribute instructional materials describing how the techniques demonstrated on these grounds can be used by individual landowners to stop the spread of invasives and reclaim their property.
Hunkering Birds
Field NotesWednesday October 10 around noontime: Winds have picked up considerably and rain whips sideways from the north. While surveying South beach I note the beach is vacant of any sea going birds .The neighborhood crows peck away at low tide’s tidbits This is the time of year when flocks of Herring Gulls and Great Black-Backed Gulls hunker down on the Golf Course sand traps and putting greens awaiting a vigorous round of “Gullf”
Message in a Bottle
Field NotesSome of us dream of finding a message in a bottle, you imagine during your life’s journeys along countless beaches of perhaps finding one. You imagine your reaction will be a joyous burst of laughter, that you will look upwards and thank the universe aloud for a nudge to journey on and the “hug” that reminds you of being in just the right place at the right time….and then I realize I am not imagining.
On this day of discovery I am in awe of the extraordinary coincidence of finding a message in a bottle thrown into the sea from Long Island only 4 minutes after receiving a text from Long Island.
I send along a hand written letter via postal mail to 12 year old Colton Barrett of Westbrook, CT who two weeks ago launched his message while on Long Island.
Strike a Banana Pose
Field NotesSaturday October 6: It is a spectacular fall morning, the sky putting on its bright and bluest face. One of those days when you look south across to Block Island you imagine that Island’s Salt Pond stretches for miles, or that there are actually two islands, and that sandy cliffs are a stone’s throw…all illusion without binoculars.
I try at least a couple times a month to venture along the outer coast of West Harbor, rock hopping precariously when the tides are extremely low.
Today I spy 14 Harbor Seals clumped together on the Big & Little “Clumps” off to the north side towards Noank, CT. The low tide and warm boulders provide a perfect haul-out for the seals to bask on- in their familiar “banana” pose.
King Fishers are abundant this year-chattering while they escort me deeper into West Harbor. There were particularly strong winds this past week so I am curious to see what debris the blankets of eel grass have draped ashore. After an hour or so of surveying the field of old boat remains, buoys, plastic bottles, ropes, beer cans, Bic lighters, deflated birthday balloons, tangled ribbon, fishing line, lures, flip-flops, etc, etc. I decide to go home. So much trash-but alas a treasure……
8:21am:
Stretching from log to rock then to boulders, I must be positioned perfectly because I receive connectivity from my cell phone (I rarely do out in the field) and smile at a beautiful text sent from a loved one in Long Island.
Spiderweb at Middle Farms
Field NotesMonarch Butterfly
Field NotesSeptember 17 Evening @ Race Point: The Monarch butterflies are still very prevalent in numbers here. The Golden Rod seems to be a flower of choice this warm eve. Sunlight and shadows this time of month are my favorite. I am learning different seaweed types and note that the Irish moss, Sea Lettuce and Knotted Wrack appear healthy here.
Sea Turtle on Chocomount
Field NotesSeptember 8 @ 12:35pm: I Came upon a washed up, dead Leatherback sea turtle on Chocomount beach this afternoon. I was, dare I say pleasantly surprised. It was Interesting to see a beachgoer walk right past it-going unnoticed. I took photos and sent along data to Mystic Aquarium as part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. I am happy to find out that fellow Islanders Joe & Carol Hirshfield are also on this Network team.
Coyote Scat
Field NotesFriday August 24 @ 12:25 pm: Observed first Coyote on back dirt road by Burr Residence. Very wolf like about 75lbs.Stopped in middle of the dirt road, had eye contact and returned to bushes on left. No doubt the noon whistle disturbed a summer’s nap in time for lunch
Large Snapping Turtle
Field NotesOn a mid August evening, while sitting upon a large rock to the right on Chocomount overlooking the Wreck of the Thelma Pheobe I observe two Ospreys dive with torpedo -like precision. One snatches a Porgy and heads west overhead.
I also see what appears to be a bobbing piece of driftwood. Then I think, no it’s a wee baby Sand shark with a swish of its fin. I walk waist deep into the surf and discover a Snapping turtle. An unusual sight I’m thinking. The turtle stretches its neck to get a better view of the shore. It swims and crawls upon the first seaweed covered rock perhaps heading for the brackish pond beyond… “ahh Terra Firma” I announce in a congratulatory way…or is that “Terrapin Firma”!
Dead Harbor Seal
Field Notes