July 20 Parade Ground Tours & Property Walk-Throughs

Early summer at the Parade Grounds. Justine Kibbe Photo

This coming weekend is an exciting one for FIConservancy! Join us for tours of our successful grassland restoration areas Saturday at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., and Sunday at 10 a.m. Meet at the main entrance to the Parade Grounds across from Officers’ Row. Tours will last approximately one hour and will be led by Adam Mitchell, Ph.D.*

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, Dr. Mitchell will conduct walk-throughs of private property identifying invasive vegetation and making suggestions for successful incorporation of native plantings into landscapes. If you are interested in a review of your property, email Tom Sargent (tsargent@waterwaycapllc.com), Joe Henderson (abmgt@aol.com), Kristen Peterson (kmpfic@gmail.com) or Adam Mitchell (mitchell.adam.b@gmail.com).

Sunset on the Beach, our popular annual fundraiser at the Fishers Island Club Beach Club, will be Saturday 6-8 p.m. If you have not yet purchased tickets, they will be available when you arrive at the event. The weather forecast is perfect. See you there!

*Dr. Mitchell is Assistant Professor of Entomology, Department of Wildlife, Sustainability, and Ecosystem Sciences, Tarleton State University, a Member of the Texas A&M University System.

Coyote Territory

Leslie Conant captured this image of a coyote trotting across her backyard July 16 on the north side of Fishers Island.

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Mourning’s Light

Mourning Dove is wide awake within this early morning’s light.

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Gone Fishing

Long Island Sound is home to over 100 species of fish. July days bring recreational fishing off Fishers Island’s South beach, hoping to reel in summer flounder, striped bass and bluefish.

FIConservancy works with New York and Connecticut to conserve some 400 acres of precious Eelgrass meadows that provide vital “nursery” habitat for fish, as well as foraging for sea birds, shore birds and marine mammals.

Observation and photo by FIConservancy Naturalist Justine Kibbe

A Pocketful of Plovers

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For the first time ever, I saw 8-10 piping plovers (adult and growing chicks) scurrying around “together” on Sanctuary of Sands.

Fishers Island’s piping plover chicks were born in two separate hatchings on Sanctuary of Sands and near the Race Point Parking area in late May.

In 2014 and 2015, I spotted only a single piping plover at the Big Club Beach and had documented none on the West End. How exciting to see “our” piping plover community expanding!

The New York Times recently reported that Fire Island’s piping plover population has nearly doubled since Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012. Sand and seawater washed over the island during the storm, and the combination of new sand flats and coastal repair increased plover habitat by 50 percent. (Piping plovers like to nest on dry flat sand close to the shoreline.)

From the Field, Field Note Justine Kibbe June 26, 2019

“Take Back The Harbor” Screening July 14

Working on the Harbor School’s Billion Oyster Project to restore oysters in New York Harbor. Harbor School Photo

Don’t miss, “Take Back the Harbor” at 5 p.m. July 14 at the Movie Theater. The 39-minute documentary follows students from the Harbor School in New York City as they work in the harbor and travel to Fishers Island to learn about growing oysters as part of the Billion Oyster Project, an unprecedented program to restore once-bountiful oysters to New York Harbor.

Murray Fisher, who grew up summering on Fishers Island, founded the Harbor School in 2002 to teach waterway stewardship, along with a full high school curriculum. He and Pete Malinowski, whose family owns and runs Fishers Island Oyster Farm, started the Billion Oyster Project with the hope of restoring oyster reefs to New York Harbor through public education initiatives.

“Oysters are good for New York Harbor, because they filter gallons and gallons of pollutants,” Fisher said. “Planting a billion oysters in the harbor by 2035 seems so big and so impossible, but we wanted to build a movement.”

Two award-winning filmmakers, Kristi Jacobson and Roger Ross Williams, captured the students, teachers and Billion Oyster team as they built reefs, monitored growth and performed marine bio research over the course of a year. Cameras were there to capture the dedication of these students as they marked victories and also faced setbacks in their journey to install the largest reef in New York City with 50,000 oysters in Jamaica Bay.

A Harbor School student, Nicholas, expressed thoughts that underline the goals and ultimate success of the Fisher/Malinowski program: “To me, the only way to have hope in restoring the harbor, and really the planet as a whole, is to make hope, Nothing is going to happen unless someone does it. And that someone might as well be me.”

Stay for reception and Q & A session following film.

Sunset on the Beach

“Sunset on the Beach” July 20

The Fishers Island Conservancy’s 2019 Sunset on the Beach will be held Saturday July 20th, from 6-8 pm on the Big Club Beach. Join us for a celebration of Fishers Island’s natural resources!

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The Clearing Continues

Pictures do not do justice to the amazing transformation along South Beach Road approaching the Parcourse FitCircuit. Individual stops along the circuit are now visible, as is access to South Beach in the distance.

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Standing Up to Phragmites

Phragmites: A relentless enemy.  The towering reeds grow an inch apart and are choking the Island’s tidal marshes, overtaking native vegetation and leaving no room for ducks, herons and egrets to land. FIConservancy plans to fight back, starting in November.

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Alone No More!

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I am so happy to have seen a spotted sandpiper pair south of the airport runway on Sanctuary of Sands. A lone sandpiper has arrived every spring since 2015, and now there are a pair of these exquisite shorebirds!

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

The spotted sandpiper occurs across North America. It has richly spotted breeding plumage, a teetering gait, stuttering wingbeats and showy courtship dances.

Female spotted sandpipers arrive at breeding grounds early to establish and defend territory. Females also may mate with four different males at a time, but it is the male that incubates the eggs and cares for the young.

From the Field, Field Note Justine Kibbe June 3, 2019