Nahant's Birding Area Details
Many of the common breeding birds of Massachusetts nest in Nahant, and it is an important location for migrating birds. Known as a “migrant trap” due to its strategic insular location on the Atlantic flyway, Nahant is an important resting and staging area (Drury 1969). During the spring and fall large fallouts of migrants occur.
The variety and number of passerines is impressive, and the number of shorebirds can be in the thousands. During the spring of 1983, for example, a research effort conducted by two nonprofit
organizations, the Massachusetts Audubon Society and Bird Observer of Eastern Massachusetts, recorded seventy-six species of migratory landbirds in Nahant including twenty-two species of
warblers. This plentiful and diverse birdlife constitutes an important dimension of the natural environment in Nahant.
In 2002 Nahant was designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the Massachusetts Audubon Society (Massachusetts Audubon Society 2000). This is a statewide initiative to identify and protect sites that contain essential habitat for one or more bird species.
Nahant qualified on two criteria: a site regularly holding significant numbers of endangered/vulnerable species and a site where birds concentrate in significant numbers. The IBA concept was developed in 1985 as a model for international bird conservation and now involves over one hundred countries and thirtytwo states.
In addition, Nahant has been included in the International Shorebird Survey (ISS), an international effort to monitor shorebird populations, which have been dramatically declining in recent years (Manomet Center for Conservation Science 2005). Nahant was chosen because of the thousands of shorebirds that depend on Nahant for food and rest during their dramatic migration between northern breeding territories and the far reaches of South America.
Endangered, Threatened, and Special Concern Bird Species
Nahant is an importance resource for many conservation priority species listed by the State of Massachusetts. Some of the high priority birds included in this list are species that may be familiar to the casual observer in Nahant such as Common Tern, Parula Warbler, and Blackpoll Warbler. Another bird found in Nahant, the Roseate Tern, is at the highest level of concern and listed as endangered at both the state and federal levels.
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*Content provided by Nahant's Open Space Committee
Safer Waters in Massachusetts (SWIM)
c/o Northeastern University Marine Science Center. East Point, 430 Nahant Road, Nahant, MA 01908
nahantswim@verizon.net
www.nahant.org/community/swim.shtml
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