We started out small, but we were energized by a powerful vision: an organization dedicated to wildlife monitoring, biological research, and public education on the unique island of [...]
An alert observer and the power of iNaturalist (iNaturalist.org) recently combined to add a regionally important insect record on Martha’s Vineyard! iNaturalist observer abgeorge found the [...]
With mild weather finally forecast for this week, odds are good that the year’s earliest butterflies will be on the wing. Invariably, the mourning cloak is the first butterfly species [...]
It’s that smelly time of year when amorous male skunks roam the island in search of mating opportunities and some have close encounters of the vehicle kind. For much of the winter our striped [...]
The winter ant, Prenolepis imparis, appears to be a fairly common and widespread species on Martha’s Vineyard. But it’s unusual in that it is active mostly during cold weather. [...]
While COVID-19 did not impact our other wildlife work this spring and summer, it did halt most of our bat research. We were not able to handle any bats for fear of transmitting COVID-19 to them [...]
Over the summer, we documented 12 spotted turtles at four sites across the island. Two of these records were images people shared with us of spotted turtles they had found – one at a [...]
Spotted turtles are a Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) in all 21 states in which they occur. The Status Assessment and Conservation Plan for the Spotted Turtle in the Eastern United [...]
Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) have recorded 224 different species since 1960, including 5 species seen during the count week but not on the count day. That is a shocking [...]
For the last few years, the spring months are a mix of worry and excitement as we focus our attention on maternity season for the rare Northern Long-eared Bat (Northerns) we study and their [...]