Rarities Appear at West Island

Long renown as a nesting location where the Lloyd Center protects and monitors the endangered Piping Plover, West Island in Fairhaven is also a haven for a large diversity of waterbirds. The small network of wetland microhabitats which we monitored for a salt marsh restoration project years ago, and added to our monitoring regime during plover season, oftentimes also yields rare sightings.

Starting in the spring when the beaches were quiet, a Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) spent the afternoon of April 9 soaring over the salt marsh and dunes offering superb looks. The owls are present in small numbers during the winter and linger into spring before dispersing back to nesting grounds. Similar to the Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius) the owls inhabit open country and soar and teeter over the salt marsh and dunes in search of rodent prey. The species is one of the few owls visible during daylight hours and is listed under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act.    

During the summer migration and the week of the “Massachusetts Shorebird Blitz”, a special treat was visible in the lagoon of the estuary. On August 10th and 11th, a male American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana) in breeding plumage was seen feeding at low tide probing for invertebrates. The species is common in shallow wetlands in the Midwest but only a rare “vagrant” to our region.  Unlike the other rarities reported in an earlier sighting, this bird is more at home in secluded shallow wetlands such as the West Island lagoon, than along the beaches. Upon seeing the report on Ebird, many birders visited the island in search of the Avocet, a strong indicator of prime waterbird habitat.

Another especially unique sighting drew our attention offshore, where a variety of marine wildlife may drift north with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream every late summer season. On July 27, a Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta), listed under the federal and state endangered species acts as “threatened”, washed ashore on the Town Beach. Marine Fisheries personnel claim a vessel strike likely caused the mortality, this being a common threat for offshore marine wildlife. Loggerheads live 40-50 years, have large heads equipped for foraging on hard-shelled prey, live in shallow coastal waters, and make extensive migrations from nesting grounds to our region to forage in late summer. While we have preserved skeletons of marine life (whales, seals, sea turtles), this specimen was left for residents to view while pondering how human activity impacts our seas.