The thunder and rain held off just long enough for Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary to host its Citizen Science Celebration last Saturday. Visitors had the opportunity to participate in hands-on citizen science work, starting with a guided bird walk and ending with a salamander survey.
The event was held so adults and children could get an up close look at the various data gathering activities happening at the sanctuary and to inspire volunteerism.
Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary is once again offering Fern & Feather Natural History Day Camp scholarships and discounts to year-round Vineyard residents.
The Felix Neck Fall Festival is turning 22 this year. It takes place on Friday, Nov. 23, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (raindate Nov. 24). The event can be summed up with the words; Migrate, Hibernate, Adapt. There are hayrides, face painting, live music by The Flying Elbows, food, wreath making, crafts for kids and birds of prey.
Felix Neck, Land Bank and Audubon Buy Moffet Land to Preserve
Sanctuary Borders
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
In a three-way partnership that will protect the last key piece of
undeveloped land at one of the oldest wildlife sanctuaries on the
Vineyard, the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, the Massachusetts
Audubon Society and the Felix Neck Wildlife Trust announced yesterday
that they will buy 34 acres from Lucia Moffet for $2.55 million.
Felix Neck Land Purchase Protects Eastern Flank of Nature Sanctuary
By JULIA WELLS
The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, the Felix Neck Wildlife Trust
and the Massachusetts Audubon Society closed on a land purchase last
week that will protect the last key piece of undeveloped land at Felix
Neck.
Spending time with Augustus (Gus) Ben David 2nd at the World of
Reptiles is a learning experience from start to finish.
But it is in the snake room, in the basement of his home in
Edgartown, surrounded by over a hundred feet of slithering reptiles
locked in wooden cages, where Mr. Ben David is in his element.
Today is fall festival, a traditional celebration at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown. Every year since 1980, the sanctuary has held a day-after Thanksgiving event which brings together strangers and friends, young and old to sip hot cider and participate in an array of family-friendly activities.
While other people are busy shopping and scurrying about with holiday errands, at Felix Neck there is a different kind of tradition for those who want to get outdoors and work off some of that turkey dinner.
Leading a tour of the Sengekontacket, Felix Neck guide Emily Smith rounded Sarsons Island Friday in her red kayak and stopped. Something in the pond had caught her eye. She backtracked, peered into the water for a few moments and then pulled out a horseshoe crab. The kayakers on the tour crowded around for a look, bumping their boats together as they packed in. She flipped the crab over to show its small legs squirming in the air and began spelling out facts about the creature.
Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary will conduct new research with the help of citizen scientists, thanks to an environmental science research grant awarded by the Vermont Institute of Natural Science and the Student Conservation Association.
The grant provides funding for a conservation intern to work on wildlife research projects, including horseshoe crab monitoring, dragonfly and damselfly inventories, and breeding bird and salamander surveys.
Conditions were perfect — finally — last Thursday evening for the Marine Discovery Tour leaving Oak Bluffs harbor. It was sunny, there was a gentle breeze, and plenty of families were lining up to board the fishing boat Skipper.
This Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary program was supposed to begin running twice a week on June 27. However, the outing on July 30 was the Skipper’s first of the season. Felix Neck educator Justen Walker put it down to “a combination of the weather and the economy.”
