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Nantucket is an important stop on the Atlantic Migratory Flyway. Here are some local resources and info about birds and birding on Nantucket.
โWe have these giant stretches of relatively isolated beaches that are great for nesting birds. And it seems like every year we get more and more nests,โ says Danielle OโDell at the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. โThat whole Coatue to Great Point stretch is really, really amazing. The primary purpose of that property is for wildlife.โ
โWe also close off Eel Point to driving in the summertime, simply because we have so many nesting shorebirds out there. Smith's point is the same. For the most part, we spend our time thinking about oystercatchers, plovers, and least and common terns. We're just one of the property owners that do this on Nantucket. There are others as well โ the Nantucket Land Bank, the town of Nantucket, Mass Audubon, The Trustees, Linda Loring Nature Foundation.โ
โOut on Eel Point, we have three generations of Oystercatchers nesting within a few hundred feet of each other. They're returning to the same spot each year. There's just something so special about that to me.โ
โWe get lots and lots of other species on Coatue: whimbrel, black-bellied plovers, ruddy turnstones, least sandpipers. So many migratory birds. We protect the property through migration, even though I think the public wishes we would open the beaches a little bit earlier. It's a balance between wanting to make people happy and doing what's right for wildlife.โ
