Join us for a week of conservation and preservation activities including music, tours, movie screenings, round table discussions, paint & sip, field lessons with experts and much more!
Learn, Help, Great Family Fun!
Wednesday August 9
9am: Oyster Farm Tour: Includes Pond and Hatchery (16 or Older)
10am: Island Naturalist Exploration: Justine Kibbe will be taking a group on an adventure in the Sanctuary of Sands. Ages 8-12 with or without an adult to meet at the corner of Airport Rd. (Limited space)
4pm: Round Table with Chris Finan and the Utlity Co. Let’s talk water!
7pm: Movie Screening: A Plastic Ocean
Thursday August 10
10am Recreational Path Tour: Start your morning exploring the path with guide Alex Williams, learning the differences between native and invasive vegetation. Meet at 9:45am at the Ballfield to carpool to the Gatehouse.
2pm: Pond Life: Hosted by the Dennison Pequot Museum: We’ll explore the pond, with dip nets and buckets, collecting and observing the local ponds of Fishers Island. Discover unique species of pond life including fish, frogs, and aquatic insects. Children under 6 accompanied by an adult.
6pm: Paint & Sip: Explore your inner artists while sharing a laugh with friends as you transform a blank canvas into a beautiful nature scene. Painting supplies included. BYOB at Community Center, art room upstairs. (Limited space)
7pm: Movie Screening: Ocean Warriors with Katie Carpenter & Crew
Friday August 11
9am-12pm: Beach and Marine Debris Clean Up: Come and help out! Prizes awarded for most collected and heaviest haul. Photo by Justine Kibbe
1pm: The Importance of Eelgrass: Soren Dahl from Long Island Nature Conservancy will be sharing the importance of eelgrass, and why its conservation is so imperative, especially along Fishers Island’s coast. Community Center, upstairs in big meeting room.
2pm: Symmetry in Nature: Hosted by the Dennison Pequot Museum there are patterns in nature! Meet live animals and take a nature hike through the Demonstration Garden focusing on symmetry found right in our own backyard.
5pm Plum Island Talk and Aerial Presentation: Presented by Louise Harrison from Save the Sound will be giving a talk on the island; see it all from a different angle and learn it’s past and future.
7pm: Movie Screening: Chasing Coral, an epic adventure to capture our changing oceans
Saturday August 12
9am-12pm: IPP Craft Fair: Come visit our table for t-shirts, hoodies, hats, and Naturalist photo greetings cards. FIC Hosts vocalist Maria Sangiola: Enjoy an uplifting musical performance, boasting of nature’s gifts and beauty.
11am: Prof. Doug Tallamy Parade Ground Tour: Stroll through the parade grounds with acclaimed University of Delaware professor, Doug Tallamy. (Meet at sign board entrance.)
4pm: Meet Prof. Doug Tallamy and Adam Mitchell at the Community Center for a wine and cheese reception. Learn about the Conservancy’s successful Parade Grounds grassland restoration project, its history, and the healthy ecosystems that have been reinvigorated in this area.
Sunday August 13
11am: Prof. Doug Tallamy Parade Ground Tour: Stroll the Parade Grounds with acclaimed University of Delaware entomologist and author Douglas W. Tallamy, Ph.D. Meet at Sign Board entrance.
**Email Kristen Peterson to sign up for activities or to volunteer at [email protected]. We will also be scheduling private walkabouts with Prof. Tallamy at your residence, times are filling up very quickly so please let us know if this is something you’re interested in.
Fishers Island Conservancy 2017 Nature Days
Events, NewsJoin us for a week of conservation and preservation activities including music, tours, movie screenings, round table discussions, paint & sip, field lessons with experts and much more!
Learn, Help, Great Family Fun!
Wednesday August 9
9am: Oyster Farm Tour: Includes Pond and Hatchery (16 or Older)
10am: Island Naturalist Exploration: Justine Kibbe will be taking a group on an adventure in the Sanctuary of Sands. Ages 8-12 with or without an adult to meet at the corner of Airport Rd. (Limited space)
4pm: Round Table with Chris Finan and the Utlity Co. Let’s talk water!
7pm: Movie Screening: A Plastic Ocean
Thursday August 10
10am Recreational Path Tour: Start your morning exploring the path with guide Alex Williams, learning the differences between native and invasive vegetation. Meet at 9:45am at the Ballfield to carpool to the Gatehouse.
2pm: Pond Life: Hosted by the Dennison Pequot Museum: We’ll explore the pond, with dip nets and buckets, collecting and observing the local ponds of Fishers Island. Discover unique species of pond life including fish, frogs, and aquatic insects. Children under 6 accompanied by an adult.
6pm: Paint & Sip: Explore your inner artists while sharing a laugh with friends as you transform a blank canvas into a beautiful nature scene. Painting supplies included. BYOB at Community Center, art room upstairs. (Limited space)
7pm: Movie Screening: Ocean Warriors with Katie Carpenter & Crew
Friday August 11
9am-12pm: Beach and Marine Debris Clean Up: Come and help out! Prizes awarded for most collected and heaviest haul. Photo by Justine Kibbe
1pm: The Importance of Eelgrass: Soren Dahl from Long Island Nature Conservancy will be sharing the importance of eelgrass, and why its conservation is so imperative, especially along Fishers Island’s coast. Community Center, upstairs in big meeting room.
2pm: Symmetry in Nature: Hosted by the Dennison Pequot Museum there are patterns in nature! Meet live animals and take a nature hike through the Demonstration Garden focusing on symmetry found right in our own backyard.
5pm Plum Island Talk and Aerial Presentation: Presented by Louise Harrison from Save the Sound will be giving a talk on the island; see it all from a different angle and learn it’s past and future.
7pm: Movie Screening: Chasing Coral, an epic adventure to capture our changing oceans
Saturday August 12
9am-12pm: IPP Craft Fair: Come visit our table for t-shirts, hoodies, hats, and Naturalist photo greetings cards. FIC Hosts vocalist Maria Sangiola: Enjoy an uplifting musical performance, boasting of nature’s gifts and beauty.
11am: Prof. Doug Tallamy Parade Ground Tour: Stroll through the parade grounds with acclaimed University of Delaware professor, Doug Tallamy. (Meet at sign board entrance.)
4pm: Meet Prof. Doug Tallamy and Adam Mitchell at the Community Center for a wine and cheese reception. Learn about the Conservancy’s successful Parade Grounds grassland restoration project, its history, and the healthy ecosystems that have been reinvigorated in this area.
Sunday August 13
11am: Prof. Doug Tallamy Parade Ground Tour: Stroll the Parade Grounds with acclaimed University of Delaware entomologist and author Douglas W. Tallamy, Ph.D. Meet at Sign Board entrance.
**Email Kristen Peterson to sign up for activities or to volunteer at [email protected]. We will also be scheduling private walkabouts with Prof. Tallamy at your residence, times are filling up very quickly so please let us know if this is something you’re interested in.
The Real Summer on Parade
Field Notes, From the Field– Field Note by Justine Kibbe July 17, 2017.
Upon Firewheel petals within a Garden’s Demonstrate*;
bees soldier on and pollinate.
Side by side this stretch of Fort, within Summer’s marching on –
“Stop here” for just a moment, and standing at attention,
Hear Fog horn’s call to arms.
That very sound in sequence that passing ships know well to thank –
Listen too, as young Bob White’s call does find its very own rank.
*Fishers Island Conservancy Demonstration Garden
The Tick Threat Is Serious This Year
NewsBy Melinda Wenner Moyer – a science writer based in Cold Spring, New York, and is Slate’s parenting advice columnist.
The ticks have arrived. So many, so tiny, so hungry. Friends from New York to Wisconsin are freaking out, pulling ticks off themselves daily, asking me how to keep these blood-sucking, disease-spreading menaces away. They turn to me because I’m a tick fiend: I’ve interviewed dozens of tick researchers and been to tick-borne disease conferences; I’ve covered the tick beat for Nature and Scientific American. I even started a tick Facebook group (called Tick Talk, of course). A scientist once told me to “think like a tick,” and that’s exactly what I do, because I live in one of the most tick-dense, Lyme disease–plagued regions of the United States, and I want to keep my family safe.
Read full article on slate.com
Caution: Wet Paint
Field Notes, From the Field– Field Note by Justine Kibbe June 17 2017.
I can always tell when perhaps I am paying too close attention to my own life on an Island – the way I “feel” it rather than “the way I see it” as a Naturalist. Kind of an inside joke between me and Nature but it often comes across in my photo moments out in the field.
Up east at Oyster Pond, ranging a bit from my neck of the woods on Silver Eel Cove, I met this Green Heron(plumage of the species is actually more slate blue) while on my bicycle. It was early eve, both of us blanketed under June’s shroud of fog-the utter stillness, well, it felt surreal. I got home to discover the image indeed almost looks like an artist’s painting.
The canvas that is Fishers Island though is constantly changing. My job taking note, documenting, and journaling natural history over time; it’s no secret diary (except of course how I feel about my Significant Otter!).
And it appears so quickly – this ever evolving natural environment impacted with our human alterations and transitions; it’s not at all like watching paint dry.
It’s a tough learning curve- being cautious -not letting my own feelings get in the mix. It’s difficult not getting swept away with the surge of cars and folks that swells from 200 or so of us to 2,000 of us in less than 48 hours-just a Memorial Day weekend.
I try not to feel blue as bright red helicopters scream “touch down”, and brighter yellow hovercrafts hover over Black-crowned night herons snoozing under the ferry dock.
Newly installed sliding glass doors at The Village Market slowly got my green light-more speedily than the nearly official traffic light up at Gate House.
And it sure feels like no joke this climate change, wearing my gloves this late, soaking wet spring-June just could be the new April-no fooling!
But some things never change; I still feel grateful to live on an Island.
Mother’s Day Bluebird
From the Field, Video SnippetsA female Eastern Bluebird feeds (this time looks like a spider for dinner) her brood on Fishers Island. Happy news! Bluebirds documented throughout winter 2017, it appears some have decided to call here “home”.
Move Over For The Piping Plover
From the Field, Video SnippetsTreasured nest and eggs found along Conservancy’s Sanctuary of Sands, parallel Elizabeth Field Runway. Please tread respectfully, leash all dogs, and take pride in our Island’s unique environment and wildlife.
Father Bluebird’s Mother’s Day Gift
From the Field, Video Snippets– A Snippet from The Field by Justine Kibbe May 15, 2017.
Male Eastern Bluebird serves up Mother’s Day dinner for mate and brood here in a peaceful meadow, eastern Fishers Island.
Once Upon A Rock: This Spring Once Again**
Field Notes, From the Field– Field Note by Justine Kibbe May 9, 2017.
There once was a seal from Tiree, and with second sight voyaged the sea.
Swirling and sweeping in fathoms still keeping; all along its dreams did see.
Like tumult of wave pooled within tidal crag upon ancient cliffs off shore, this once wee flipperling finds rest to calmly reflect its lore.
Beneath night’s constellations glides this sojourner, within the constant of the mighty Milky Way…
Eavesdropping alongside wooden hulls, revealing to soaring gulls- those tales Clan warriors had to say.
And so it is our own life’s stories too – woven within the waves, but forever linked as the stars above; afar off as isles of our days.
** Fishers Island Harbor Seals readying for Annual haul-off, Fishers Island students learning the art of Storytelling & Local Traditional Knowledge
When My Stewardship Comes In
Field Notes, From the Field, Stewardship– Field Note by Justine Kibbe April 30, 2017.
It was always a sweet spot of mine-this Sanctuary of Sands as I call it. The same tidal pools are here, where as a kid, I tipped barnacled rocks years ago with my neighbors. We spent hours searching for crabs to fill our buckets-bait for catching blackfish. It was also the best viewing for the Friday landings of Jock Whitney’s Jet. Oh, it even could be I recollect sneaking a kiss or three here during my early teenage years; we “west- enders” of summer and all those bonfire nights.
But I also remember Fishers Island’s premier Naturalist Ed Horning – seeing him here with his binoculars spying various species of sandpipers from the dune grasses. It was probably a sweet spot for him too; actually Southold has documented notes of his, that it really was his favorite for observing shorebirds feeding within salted kelp and eelgrass berms.
Now decades later, the same three tiny coves parallel to the Elizabeth Field Runway, with sands that have shifted and sifted these past years after Hurricane Sandy have become the spot where at long last my ship has come in- Stewardship.
If I were to name this ship it would be christened Atukan- Akun or “We Are One” honoring my Unungan tribe of the Bering Sea. It’s an Island environment, the Aleuts taught me, that can uniquely exemplify this universal “gift” of knowing AND seeing we truly are ONE. An opportunity to live and breathe the Natural world of sea and sand, the rhythm of sun and moon, wind and wave; where its wildlife and habitat naturally brings out the unity in community-or tribe.
Atukan- Akun, embracing the integral qualities of tribe is an even sweeter spot not unlike a very unique classroom; placed upon the hearts of students here on Fishers Island. We are together Leaders and followers, Teachers and learners, all striving to glean the local traditional knowledge of our native land and preserve it.
And so with sails set and trimmed this Spring, signs have been placed throughout this Sanctuary to help steer Island stewards as we stand watch over our precious cargo-treading lightly, respectfully, and navigating this voyage with a certain hopefulness; taking the helm towards “future history” of our Island.
Another Gray Seal Pup Ashore
From the Field, Video SnippetsI received word from Bruce Hubert’s Crew of a Gray Seal pup north side up east-documented, and actively in touch with Mystic Aquarium Stranding Network-so grateful for Island Community “keeping watch” – its Fishers Island stewardship!