News U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge

30 Wikis Way, Morris Island

Chatham, MA 02633

Contact: Matt Hillman, Refuge Manager (matthew_hillman@fws.gov); Kate Iaquinto, Wildlife

Biologist (kate_iaquinto@fws.gov) Telephone: 508-945-0594

www.fws.gov/refuge/monomoy/

www.facebook.com/monomoynwr/

2017 Year in Review – Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge – Press Release

We are pleased to share the following highlights as we close out another successful year at

Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.

Visitor Services:

Staff and volunteers continued to engage and inspire members of this community and beyond,

particularly youth groups, through conservation programming and public outreach.

The visitor center was open 7 days per week

from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and

as volunteer staffing allowed in the off-season.

The refuge hosted over 32,000 visitors to

Morris Island alone, including those taking

part in staff-and-self-guided nature hikes,

school and camp field trips, fin fishing and

shellfishing, photography, and wildlife

observation. Two ferry operators, Monomoy

Island Ferry and Monomoy Adventures, were

specially permitted to transport fishermen,

hikers, and birdwatchers to the Monomoy

Wilderness. For the first time, staff and the

Friends of Monomoy offered a guided day trip to Monomoy Lighthouse as part of Chatham

History Weekend; an effort we hope to expand in future years.

Refuge staff partnered with the Friends of Mashpee NWR, the Cape Cod Museum of Natural

History, and two local Girl Scout troops to plant and maintain our first pollinator gardens at

Morris Island headquarters. Native butterflies and bees were actively using the gardens almost

immediately. For more information on how you can help pollinators in a fun and interactive way,

visit www.fws.gov/pollinators.

E. Abrams/2017

M. Grandmont/2017

The Friends of Monomoy continued to sponsor a series of popular free talks at the Chatham

Community Center, and assisted with numerous refuge projects from maintenance to boating to

welcoming visitors. Long-time refuge volunteer Steve Keenan was elected Friends President

after Eddie Horowitz stepped down. Eddie served 6 years as the President, and he remains an

active board member. The Friends have many exciting projects planned for 2018, and they are

always seeking new members and volunteers. They can be reached by email at

friendsofmonomoyinc@gmail.com.

Eighty-three refuge volunteers contributed

4,417 hours of service; the equivalent of over 2

full-time employees! In addition to routine

volunteer staffing, the Refuge hosted numerous

volunteer service days, including beach

cleanups, biological surveys, National Public

Lands Day, trail work days, and others. We

wish to thank the many dedicated volunteers,

school groups, conservation partners, and the

Friends of Monomoy for their assistance and

support of refuge programs. If you would like

to be involved, you may contact us directly at

508-945-0594 or visit us to meet our staff and

volunteers.

Staffing:

The refuge, and the Refuge Complex of which Monomoy is part, underwent significant staffing

changes in 2017. In January, Refuge Specialist Matt Boarman was promoted to Supervisory

Wildlife Refuge Specialist and transferred to Canaan Valley NWR in West Virginia. Matt was

very well liked among his peers and in this community, and his humor, adaptability, and boating

skills are greatly missed. Due to budget constraints, Matt’s position will not be filled.

On September 30, Project Leader for the Eastern MA NWR Complex Libby Herland retired,

having served over 14 years in that role. We are grateful for all that Libby has accomplished for

wildlife conservation over her long and successful career, and wish her well in retirement.

The refuge hosted 10 seasonal technicians and interns from April through December who took

part in all refuge programs. Be sure to check our website and job boards this winter for exciting

seasonal employment opportunities for the 2018 season.

Maintenance:

Staff continued to rehabilitate the historic Monomoy Point Light Station, made possible, in part,

by generous donations from Glynn Electric, Inc., of Plymouth and the Lighthouse Preservation

Society, in addition to the many folks who lent support in 2016. Working with our partners, we

E. Abrams/USFWS 2017

hope to install a new solar array which will provide modest heat to dry and preserve the interior,

and are seeking experienced volunteers for drywall and interior painting.

Refuge headquarters received numerous energy efficiency upgrades, including long overdue

repairs to the solar hot water system, the HVAC system, and insulation upgrades.

Emergency and disaster response:

Several staff members from Monomoy and Eastern MA NWR Complex are specially trained in

emergency first response and utilized as a national resource. In 2017, five staff members were

deployed to six different disaster areas for hurricane relief, search and rescue, and wildfire

response in the western states.

Biological Program Summary

The following is a summary for the 2017 field season at Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.

The data within this summary are current as of 30 November 2017 and are subject to change

once finalized.

Biological Program Overview:

Monomoy NWR continues to serve as a hot spot for biodiversity conservation. In addition to

hosting five federally threatened or endangered species, over two-dozen species listed under the

Massachusetts Endangered Species Act depend upon its lands and waters. The refuge hosts the

largest common tern colony on the eastern seaboard and is one of only two contiguous sites in

Massachusetts with over 50 nesting pairs of the threatened piping plover and 18 pairs of the

endangered roseate tern. Seabeach amaranth, a threatened plant that once inhabited Nantucket,

MA (and likely Monomoy although records do not exist), was planted on South Monomoy Island

after an introduction effort in 2017 to establish new or enhanced populations within its historic

range.

The intertidal and subtidal lands within Monomoy continue to have among the most productive

shellfish and horseshoe crab resources in the State. Refuge beaches host large numbers of

spawning horseshoe crabs, a density no longer observed on other Cape Cod beaches. Each

winter, ducks flock to refuge ponds and coastal waters by the hundreds of thousands to forage in

the submerged eel grass and mussel beds, and each spring and fall, shorebirds, such as the

threatened red knot, depend on Monomoy as a crucial stopover site along their annual migration.

Additionally, Monomoy is one of only two places in Massachusetts with a viable population of

the federally threatened northeastern beach tiger beetle.

Following is a more detailed discussion of the refuge’s extensive biological program.

Piping Plovers:

A total of 48.5 pairs (61 nest attempts) of

federally threatened piping plovers nested

on the refuge in 2017. Forty-six pairs

nested on South Monomoy Island, one pair

nested on North Monomoy Island, and one

pair nested on Minimoy Island. Refuge-

wide, the population decreased from 52

pairs in 2016.

Staff documented 34 fledged piping plover

chicks: 3 on Minimoy Island and the

remainder on South Monomoy Island.

Overall reproductive success was 0.70 chicks fledged per pair, a decrease from 2015 (1.52). Low

productivity this season can be attributed to extreme spring weather events and increased coyote

activity. Despite the refuge’s nesting beaches being relatively wide, two king tides in May and

June caused major overwash events which destroyed eight nests. The productivity achieved this

season is not considered adequate to meet recovery plan goals. The objective for maintaining the

current piping plover population on the refuge is to maintain a five-year average productivity of

1.5 chicks fledged per pair. The current 5-year average is 0.94 chicks fledged per pair.

Staff continued to participate in a piping plover research project in collaboration with UMass

Amherst, the USFWS Region 5 Migratory Bird Program, and the University of Rhode Island.

Refuge Biologist and UMass master’s student Kate Iaquinto, USFWS Wildlife Biologist Dr. Pam

Loring, and Dr. Peter Paton of the University of Rhode Island placed 25 nanotags, tiny telemetry

tracking units, on adult piping plovers throughout South Monomoy Island to examine

movements within the breeding season and during fall migration. Results from this project will

be published in a future manuscript.

Common Terns:

South Monomoy Island - A total of 11,723 common

terns nested on the north tip of South Monomoy Island, a

12% increase from the 10,505 pairs in 2016.

Reproductive success was good at 1.53 chicks fledged

per nest. Common tern nesting on the island has been

steadily increasing since a low in 2009 of ~2,300 pairs.

Due to habitat management in the form of prescribed

fire, nesting habitat and nests have expanded southward.

Nest density continues to be optimal, as interspecific

aggression (e.g., an adult tern which kills another’s

chick) appeared minimal. Predation remains a concern

with the most common predators being great black-backed gull, herring gull, black-crowned

night-heron, and coyote. Coyotes had a minimal effect on the colony this year likely due to

D. Blazey/USFWS 2017

P. Paton/USFWS 2017

proactive predator management and the fact that the colony is still separated from the mainland.

Competition with laughing gulls increased as laughing gulls numbers have also been increasing

since 2010. Large gulls (i.e., black-backed and herring gulls) attempted to establish nests in the

tern colony area prior to the tern’s arrival due to habitat loss on North Monomoy Island. Staff

established field camp in early May to enable gull harassment, thereby preventing gulls from

nesting in the area managed for terns. Terns did not attempt to nest on Minimoy or North

Monomoy Islands.

Roseate Terns:

Eighteen pairs of federally endangered roseate terns nested on the refuge, all on South Monomoy

Island (14 in 2016, 11 in 2015, 8 in 2014, and 8 in 2013). Staff banded all 20 chicks with standard

metal bands on the right leg and colored plastic field readable (PFR) bands on the left (blue with

white characters), and used potter traps to capture eleven adults. Of those, four adults were

previously banded with either metal or PFR bands. Staff affixed the unbanded adults with a PFR

band on the right leg and a standard metal band on the left. Nine chicks fledged for the A-period

pairs (n=11), contributing to an overall productivity of 0.72 chicks per pair, a decrease from 1.17

chicks per pair in 2016. This is a lower than average productivity for roseate terns on the refuge.

Most of the roseate tern nests found

this season were in the southern end of

the main common tern colony on South

Monomoy Island. This reflects an

apparent southward shift of the

common tern colony that has been

documented over the past few years.

One nesting pair was believed to be a

roseate-common tern hybrid nesting

with a roseate tern. No roseate terns

nested on Minimoy Island this year,

which is comparable to the previous three years, and no roseate terns nested on North Monomoy

Island.

Due to staffing limitations, the roseate tern attraction project which began in 2009 was not

implemented. For the fourth year, staff deployed a teepee-shaped nesting structure modeled after

those used on the Ram Island nesting colony in Buzzard’s Bay. Five roseate tern pairs nested

under these structures and staff intends to increase the number of structures in 2018.

Least Terns:

Staff counted 773 least tern nests in two nesting areas during the 2017 A-census period (June 5-

20) by completing a double blind incubating bird count in the northern colony and a nest count in

the southern colony. This was a slight decrease from 842 nests counted during the A-census

period on South Monomoy Island in 2016, which may be due to predator activity or a

redistribution of terns near the South Beach/Monomoy boundary. While we do not collect

productivity data for least terns, we qualitatively estimated productivity to be fair on South

D. Blazey/USFWS 2017

Monomoy Island. Adverse weather likely had a negative effect on least tern chick survival. No

least terns nested on North Monomoy or Minimoy Islands.

Laughing Gulls:

In 2017, 2,714 pairs of laughing gulls nested on South Monomoy Island, compared to 2,738 in

2016. Overall productivity was estimated to be fair to good based on the number of large chicks

observed in the colony. Additionally, staff observed a high occurrence of laughing gull

kleptoparasitism, or gulls stealing fish from terns, which has a negative effect on tern

productivity. We removed approximately 2,000 laughing gull nests to minimize tern-gull

competition, which will continue in future years when the laughing gull population exceeds 1,000

nesting pairs.

American Oystercatchers:

Eighteen American oystercatcher pairs (25 nest attempts)

nested on the refuge in 2017: five pairs on North Monomoy

Island, eight pairs on South Monomoy Island, and four pairs on

Minimoy Island. Overall reproductive success was relatively

poor. Oystercatchers had a productivity of 0.24, compared to

1.56 chicks fledged per pair in 2016. Oystercatchers commonly

have boom and bust years and are long-lived birds, so a year of

low productivity is neither uncommon nor detrimental.

Overwash due to high tide events and predation by coyotes

were the main causes of failed oystercatcher nests on all three

islands. Gull predation did not seem to be an issue, although

several nests lost eggs for unknown reasons which is

sometimes a sign of gull predation. We did not capture and

band oystercatchers this season, but hope to band adults and

chicks in future years if staff availability allows.

Wading Birds:

Staff conducted a wading bird census on North

Monomoy Island on May 16th. Observers counted

a total of 185 black-crowned night-heron nests

(145 in 2015), 100 snowy egret nests (75 in

2015), 25 great egret nests (11 in 2015), and 3

glossy ibis nests (none in 2015). Nest numbers

have increased for all species, indicating the

colony has been relatively stable for a period of

years. Although the colony has been stable or

growing in recent years, erosion along North

Monomoy Island has been accelerating due to

wave and tidal action through the 2013 break in

South Beach. We expect this erosion to eventually reduce wading bird habitat as the saltmarsh is

K. Iaquinto/USFWS

2017

K.Srubas/USFWS 2017

degraded. While staff found no wading bird nests on South Monomoy Island, birds may relocate

there if habitat loss continues as expected.

Black Skimmers:

For the first time since 2011, two pairs of black skimmers established

nests within the tern colony on South Monomoy Island. While staff

banded all three chicks, only one survived to fledging. The pairs were

relatively late to arrive on the site, with only one nest present during

the census window. We hope to see additional pairs arriving earlier in

the season next year.

Horseshoe Crabs:

In 2017, staff time and funding were not available to tag, survey, or re-sight horseshoe crabs.

However, the refuge is one of the most important horseshoe crab spawning areas in

Massachusetts. Members of the public are encouraged to report tagged horseshoe crabs to the

USFWS Maryland Fishery Resources Office (1-888-546-8587) or www.fws.gov/crabtag/.

Monomoy Shorebird Project:

The refuge continued to partner with the Conserve Wildlife

Foundation of New Jersey for the 9th consecutive year. This

project aims to capture migrating shorebirds with the

objectives of recapturing those banded previously and

equipping red knots with nanotags to gain information on

migratory patterns of adult and hatch-year birds. As red knots

were listed as federally threatened under the Endangered

Species Act in 2014, this project is particularly timely and

important. Unfortunately, the project was postponed due to

Tropical Storm Jose. When trapping resumed the week of

October 2, all capture attempts were unsuccessful, due in part

to the presence of migratory raptors and the associated effects

on shorebird behavior. The project will continue in fall 2018.

C Horton/USFWS 2016

D. Blazey/USFWS 2017

Seabeach Amaranth:

In June, the refuge collaborated with staff from the USFWS Raleigh

Field Office, the North Carolina Botanical Garden, and

Massachusetts Department of Fish & Wildlife to plant federally

threatened seabeach amaranth (Amaranthus pumilus) on South

Monomoy Island, the final step in a federal project encompassing

six National Wildlife Refuges in four states and two USFWS

regions. Approximately 2,000 seeds the size of poppy seeds were

planted in 14 plots along the eastern side of South Monomoy Island.

North Carolina Botanical Garden provided seeds for use in the entire

project, an effort that was several years in the making. The USFWS

Cooperative Recovery Initiative (CRI) funded the project. Staff and

volunteers monitored the plantings through October. The seeds fared

well, with more than half germinating and hundreds of plants

fruiting. We will search the area in 2018 to determine if a local

population was established.

Seals:

Refuge staff continued to partner with the National Marine Fisheries Service, Massachusetts

Institute of Technology, Tufts University, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and other

collaborators to monitor and assess gray and harbor seal populations on South Monomoy Island.

Partners published two peer-reviewed journal articles in 2017 stemming from this work, with

others forthcoming. We are learning a great deal about seal diets, disease transmission,

movement rates, and population size and status. The refuge hosts the largest gray seal colony in

the U.S.

Monomoy Refuge Banding Station:

In 2017, the Monomoy Refuge Banding

Station was open between September 26

and October 31, with a total of 26 active

net days. Capture rates varied

throughout the season, starting slow at

around 10 birds banded per 100 net

hours during a foggy stretch and

peaking in the second week of October

with about 120 birds banded per 100 net

hours. A total of 60 unique species were

captured during the banding window

and 1,634 new bands were placed on birds. The five most common species banded were the

yellow-rumped warbler (871), golden-crowned kinglet (103), tree swallow (79), song sparrow

(57), and blackpoll warbler (46). While the data are still being analyzed, Monomoy appears to

have a much higher diversity of migratory songbirds than other sites throughout Cape Cod.

D. Blazey/USFWS 2017

C.Horton/USFWS 2016

M. Hillman/USFWS/2017

M. Hillman/USFWS 2017

M. Hillman/USFWS 2017

Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle:

Refuge staff surveyed the northeastern beach tiger beetle spawning area on July 22, counting a

total of 4,322 adults. Surveys are completed at least once annually to ensure there are no major

changes to the population. This count represents an index of the population and is not a complete

census. Tiger beetles were present from the very southern end of South Monomoy Island

northward to Chatham South Beach. The range of spawning beetles continues to expand

southward; however, the northern extent of spawning beetles has not changed significantly in

recent years.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and

their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife

conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and

commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.