News and Events for Nantucket Island
Many of us have been enjoying the mild autumn we’ve had on Nantucket this year with end-of-summer temperatures lingering well into the end of September. Forget “sweater weather”: it’s been more like shorts and t-shirts into October. Even now, in mid-November, we’ve had some 60-degree days and only recently had our first frost. It’s enough to think autumn has moved into winter’s territory.
There is a crispness in the air now as fall begins to settle in. Among the changing leaves and cooler temperatures, another change is happening. For our whitetailed deer population, fall is the most romantic time of the year: the rut.
The rut is the magical season when deer are breeding and more active than any other time of the year. Bucks have shed the velvet from their newly grown antlers and get aggressive with each other fighting for territory and female attention. The females go into estrus and everyone is “twitterpated.”
by Dr. Sarah Treanor Bois, PhDDirector of Research & Education at the Linda Loring Nature Foundation This September, Nantucket is once again celebrating Climate Change Awareness month. However, few people on Nantucket need to be made aware of climate change: erosion on the south and east coasts, storm surge, and […]
As the old proverb goes, “If you love something, set it free…” For nature and wild things, it should be edited to read “If you love something, let it be.” There can be a fine line between loving nature and over-loving nature. This is evident at some of the most popular National Parks like Yellowstone, Arches, or Joshua Tree. Some of these most famous natural areas are getting loved to death: overcrowding, trampling vegetation, garbage, etc.
The results of the 2021 Nantucket Land Council and Linda Loring Nature Foundation BioBlitz are in and we’re sharing some highlights and interesting observations from this highly successful exploration of nature on Nantucket!
For those who didn’t read the earlier article (yesterdaysisland.com/take-the- 2021-bioblitz-challenge/), a BioBliz is basically a mad dash in a specified area to catalog as many species as possible. The 2021 NLC/LLNF BioBlitz sought to document the biodiversity of Nantucket during the month of July—a perfect month for a BioBlitz.
According to the great authority known as social media, the Nantucket population at the onset of August was somewhere between 90,000 and 100,000 people. I cannot imagine that our island can hold that many people!
If you try finding a parking spot, a restaurant reservation, or a babysitter, you know that those numbers might be accurate. Reports of water use, electricity use, and empty shelves at the grocery store all point to lots and lots of people on the island.
A mysterious bird illness has been plaguing songbirds in the eastern US this summer. The specific cause and mode of spread are still unknown, but it has been spreading. State and federal wildlife officials, researchers, and birders are concerned, and investigations continue to find a cause. With many breeding songbirds on-island, local conservation groups are keeping an eye out for the mysterious illness that has yet to be reported in Massachusetts.
As an invasive species plant ecologist, I work a lot with non-native plants, their invasion history and how and why plants were transported to the island. One fascinating and little-known fact about invasions on Nantucket actually comes in the form of a small, cute mammal. One of the biggest invasive species problems Nantucket has ever faced was the black-tailed prairie dog.
