19 Jun I Spy…

My first week has kept me busy! On my first day I went over to Watch Hill. It was nice to finally explore the site after hearing so much about it last season. I feel like there is a lot to do and learn at this site. The one thing I need to l learn more about is the procedure for campsites and back country camping. The visitor center operations are like the other sites on the island.

Later in the week I went out in the field with Natural Resource Management (NRM). We went out to two of our sites to check on the Piping Plovers. Piping Plovers are federally protected birds. Enclosures are placed around the nest to protect from potential predators. The enclosures have holes small enough to let the plovers through, but not anything else. Symbolic fencing is then placed to prevent vehicles and people from approaching the plover nests. While monitoring the plovers I saw one do a broken wing imitation. The mother plover will feign a broken wing in hopes that a predator will go after her and not the babies. Rachel, a NRM intern, has a great eye for spotting the plovers. She didn’t even need binoculars to spot them running across the sand. The babies are so small and fluffy! I was astounded by how resilient they were. The wind was so strong it almost blew me away, but they didn’t seem to have any trouble.

We’ve also been working on planning Latino Conservation Week. There will be a lot of work in the next few weeks, since the event will be here before we know it! I’m happy to have a fellow LHIP intern along for the journey this season. It will be great to have another perspective and someone with fresh ideas.