Monomoy Island

August 12th, 2007 by Kelley

We went to Monomoy Island yesterday, which is a 7,600 acre national wildlife refuge off of Chatham (Cape Cod) that is home to several endangered and threatened animals as well as being a hot spot for migratory birds. Some of the important animals on this island include the Roseate Tern (added onto the endangered and threatened wildlife list in 1987), the Piping Plover (under the protection of the Endangered Species Act since 1986) and the Northeastern Beach Tiger beetle.

Piping Plover

Other very cool birds on the island include the American Oystercatcher
American Oystercatchers

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Semipalmated Plovers
Semipalmated Plover

Common Terns
Common Terns

And even Horned Larks
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I didn’t find any of the Northeastern Beach Tiger beetles, but did find this Big Sand Tiger beetle.
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Don’t you think this grasshopper is cleverly camouflaged?
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The island is also famous stopping point for sea lions…
Sea Lion

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It was just last weekend that people reported seeing a great white shark feeding on a sea lion off of Chatham here on the Cape.

We originally went because there were reports earlier in the week of a tricolored heron, sandwich terns, and roseate terns spotted there. No luck on seeing those species though.

Posted in Birds, Bugs, General |

4 Responses to “Monomoy Island”

  1. on 13 Aug 2007 at 10:31 am   Monsma

    Great pictures as always. And clearly there are benefits to not living in Iowa. :-)

  2. on 13 Aug 2007 at 11:04 am   Oran_Taran

    Hmm. Are you sure those are sea lions? They look strange to be a sea lion. To my untrained eye they look like elephant seals.

  3. on 13 Aug 2007 at 1:20 pm   Kelley

    I know practically nothing about sea lions/seals…all the same to me ;)

  4. on 14 Aug 2007 at 6:56 am   Rodger Gwiazdowski

    Hi Kelley,

    Great pictures!

    A few quick IDs:

    The “sea lion” is a seal, the two are in two separate families. Besides lots of morphological diffs, sea lions are mostly pacific. Your pic is of a Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus which are cool and fairly common along the coast but drop off around long island and NJ south.

    The tiger beetle is Cicindela hirticollis, a fairly accepted common name is the hairy-necked tiger beetle as they have tufts of long dense white seatae around the midsides of their thorax.

    Thanks for so many great pics.
    I leave for Mexico friday to return late octobe r/early Nov and will keep you in the picture e-mail loop.

    Hope all is well,
    Rodger

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