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Important Bird Areas |
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MASSACHUSSETTS’S
IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS PROGRAM The
Massachusetts Important Bird Areas Program, coordinated through the Massachusetts
Audubon Society, began in the fall of 2000. This program is structured
around three IBA coordinators who work with a 25-member technical committee
to nominate and review candidate sites. The program designated 6 model
IBAs in the spring of 2001; press releases were distributed with information
on the program and these sites. Articles appeared in more than 20 newspapers
and on National Public Radio. To date, 40 site nomination forms have been
received and are currently under review by the technical committee. The
program expects to receive approximately 100 nominations as candidate
IBAs. A conference is being planned for February 2002 that will highlight
the IBA program and IBA sites throughout the state, and will include keynote
guests such as the Secretary of Environmental Affairs and ornithologist
and artist David Sibley. FEATURED
IMPORTANT BIRD AREA Site Description: The Duxbury/Plymouth Bays Complex, within the boundaries
of Plymouth, Kingston, and Duxbury, is one of the states largest natural
embayments with approximately 10,233 acres of bay, 4,600 acres of mud
flats at low tide, 800 acres of salt marsh, and 526 acres of beach. The
total length of the shoreline is 55 miles, which includes 16 miles of
barrier beach. Over the years the site has typically supported one of
the largest tern colonies (5,000 pairs) in New England on Plymouth Beach,
one of the largest heronries (over 400 pairs) on Clark’s Island,
and significant numbers of migratory and wintering shorebirds and waterfowl.
This site meets 8 out of 11 possible criteria categories, making it one
of the highest ranked IBAs in the state. Ornithological
Summary: Listed species breeding at this Important Bird Area include
Piping Plover, Roseate, Least, Common, and Arctic terns. The 10-acre tern
colony at the end of Long Beach has periodically supported 5,000 or more
pairs of the four species of terns in the past 100 years. Up to 26 pairs
of Piping Plovers (5% of the state population) have nested on the site’s
barrier beaches. The heronry on Clark’s Island has supported over
400 pairs of 6 species of egrets, herons, and ibis. The saltmarshes support
5% of the state’s breeding population of the WatchListed Saltmarsh
Sharp-tailed Sparrows. The mudflats attract large numbers of migrant shorebirds,
especially in late summer and fall. Waterfowl of many species, including
large numbers of WatchListed Brant Geese and Common Eiders, winter in
the harbor and just off the beaches. Migrant falcons, passerines, and
thousands of tree swallows pass along the beaches in the fall. The site
supports nearly 10% of state’s coastal wintering Black Ducks. Conservation
Issues: Overuse of Plymouth and Duxbury beaches by four-wheel drive
vehicles is a major disturbance and threat to shorebirds, terns and the
federally listed Piping Plover. Erosion control practices on beaches,
such as the use of snowfence, discarded Christmas trees, and the planting
of beach grass and other vegetation pose serious threats to Least Tern
and Piping Plover habitats. Massachusetts Audubon and MA Division of Fisheries
and Wildlife have attempted to reduce these impacts, but town governments
and local people have continued to resist these restrictions. These
bays, with their extensive salt marshes, tidelands, and eel grass beds
are major nurseries for marine fish, shellfish, horseshoe crabs, and other
marine invertebrates. Several rivers entering the bays of this site, including
Eel River, Town Brook, Jones River, Bluefish River, and the Green Harbor
Creek, support spawning populations of anadromous and/or catadromous fish
species, such as alewives, blueback herring, rainbow smelt, and American
eel. To
Learn More About Massachusetts Audubon’s Visit
the Web Site: Contact:
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