Tag Archives: species at risk

PiPl Update and Save the Dates!

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Good Morning Piping Plover Friends,

Much to catch up with but I first wish to thank everyone who is contributing to our Piping Plover film project fundraiser. Thank you so very much for your generous contributions and very kind comments on our fundraising page.

Not wanting to count our eggs before they have hatched, but we have interest from PBS! and are hoping to have a fine cut ready to submit to film festivals by May1st.

With gratitude to the following PiPl friends for their kind contributions – Lauren Mercadante (New Hampshire), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Janis and John Bell (Gloucester), Jane Alexander (New York), Jennie Meyer (Gloucester), Alice and David Gardner (Beverly), JoeAnn Hart (Gloucester), Kim Tieger (Manchester), Joanne Hurd (Gloucester), Holly Niperus (Phoenix), Bill Girolamo (Melrose), Claudia Bermudez (Gloucester), Paula and Alexa Niziak (Rockport), Todd Pover (Springfield, MA), Cynthia Dunn (Gloucester), Nancy Mattern (Albuquerque), Marion Frost (Ipswich), Cecile Christianson (Peabody), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Donna Poirier Connerty (Gloucester), Mary Rhinelander (Gloucester), Jane Hazzard (Georgetown), Duncan Holloman (Gloucester), Karen Blandino (Rockport), Duncan Todd (Lexington), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Amy Hauck-Kalti (Ohio), JoAnn Souza (Newburyport), Karen Thompson (San Francisco), Carolyn Mostello (Rhode Island), Susan Pollack (Gloucester), Peggy O’Malley (Gloucester), Hilda Santos (Gloucester), Maggie Debbie (Gloucester), Sandy Barry (Goucester), and my sweet husband Tom 🙂

Can you believe it’s that time of year already – Piping Plovers will begin returning to Cape Ann at the end of the month. We hope so very much that Super Dad and our amazing, disabled Super Mom will return for their ninth year nesting at Good Harbor Beach. Typically Plovers only live for five to six years however some, like “Old Man Plover,” lived, and fathered offspring, through his fifteenth year. If you would like to join our group of incredibly dedicated Piping Plover Ambassadors, please email me at kimsmitghdesigns@hotmail.com.

Some upcoming events and screenings – I am honored to write that I am being presented with the Conservation Award at the 130th annual March Conference of the Massachusetts DAR. And will also be giving a Piping Plover presentation to our local Cape Ann chapter of the DAR on April 6th at 11am, which I believe is open to the public. On Thursday evening at 6:30, please join me for a public screening of our documentary Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly as part of the Essex County Greenbelt 2024 Film and Lecture Series. Last, but not least, this coming Friday, I am joining a group of talented Cape Ann women writers. We will be reading excerpts from books by Cape Ann women writers of note, in celebration of International Women’s Day.

As the weather warms, please think about purchasing one of our awesome Plover Besties decals, tees, or onesies at Alexandra’s Bread. We have a pretty cerulean blue in stock, some pink, and I am planning on printing yellow tees and onesies for spring. They are a really great quality, pure cotton, a little longer than is typical, and printed locally at Seaside Graphics. Alexandra’s Bread is located at 265 Main Street, Gloucester.

Thank you again for your kind support.

Warmest wishes,

xxKim

Upcoming Events for March

March 8th, Friday at 7pm. In Celebration of International Women’s Day Women – Women Authors of Cape Ann. Presented by the Gloucester Writers Center at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 Church Street, Gloucester.

March 14th, Thursday, at 6:30pm. Essex County Greenbelt 2024 Film and Lecture Series. “Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly” documentary film screening and Q and A with Director Kim Smith. HC Media, Studio 101 at 2 Merrimack Street, Haverhill.

March 15t at 12noon, Friday. Massachusetts DAR 130th March State Conference and Luncheon. Kim Smith honored with the Conservation Award. Wellsworth Hotel Conference Center, Southbridge, MA.

April 6th, Saturday, at 11am. Cape Ann DAR . Kim Smith presentation  “The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay.” Veteran’s Service Building 12 Emerson Avenue, Gloucester.

Little New England Cottontail!

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Why does this little rabbit look so different from the rabbits we see so often in our gardens, alongside roadsides, and in meadows and dunes? Because it is a New England Cottontail!

Massachusetts has two species of cottontails, the New England Cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) and the Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus). The introduced vegetable-and-flower-eating Eastern Cottontail has flourished, while this beautiful and illusive little creature’s numbers have dwindled to an alarmingly low number.

Prior to 1930, New England Cottontails were present in all 14 counties of Massachusetts and it was the only cottontail species appearing among 59 reports, except for 7 from Nantucket where Eastern Cottontails were introduced as early as the 1880s. Between 1924 and 1941, at least 16,200 Eastern Cottontails were imported from the mid-west and released. Another 4,600 were raised and released at a state propagation facility.

The most critical threat to New England Cottontails is loss of habitat. They can only survive in the ephemeral landscape of newly emerging forests, which provide low ground cover for shelter. Once a forest matures, the low growing plants become too sparse to offer food and shelter. Today the New England Cottontail resides in only about one fifth of its historic range.

The photo above of the New England Cottontail was taken at Gooseberry Island in Westport. He shot across the path on the way to the beach and wish I had a better photo to share, but now that I know to look for them there, I’ll try again.

You can compare the difference in the rabbit species in the two photos. The New England Cottontail’s (above photo) ears are shorter and his fur a bit grayer than the Eastern Cottontail (below). When I caught a glimpse of him I immediately recognized the rabbits we saw daily at my grandparent’s home, built in the dunes on a bluff on Cape Cod, where at that time, there were few homes and lots of cool scrubby habitat for wild creatures.
The ubiquitous Eastern Cottontail, Good Harbor Beach

Dwindling New England Cottontail Range Map.

As you can see, New England Cottontails have been completely extirpated from Cape Ann and Essex County.

Learn more about New England Cottontails here.