US-RI-Maschaug+Pond


 * =Birding in Rhode Island=

Washington County
=Maschaug Pond= Westerly, Rhode Island 02891 National Audubon Society Maschaug Pond and Beach IBA web site Maschaug Pond map

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Big Maschaug Pond
Coordinates: 41.3184273, -71.831566 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

Little Maschaug Pond
Coordinates: 41.3194946, -71.8236404 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Maschaug Pond
Located approximately 40 miles southwest of Providence, RI and approximately 14 miles east of New London CT, this IBA includes a barrier beach system approximately 0.5 mile long with high beach, foreshore, primary dunes and back dune zonation. The barrier beach lies oceanward of a coastal pond which contains no permanent breachway to the ocean. The IBA is located between the Misquamicut Section of Westerly, Rhode Island to the east and the Village of Watch Hill to the west. The beach is accessed via the western Terminus of Atlantic Avenue or via a trail from the Misquamicut Country Club.

This site supports the largest number of breeding Piping Plovers in Rhode Island. An average of 40.5 young/year have been fledged from this location over the past 6 years and therefore the site is likely to be a source of birds for suitable breeding areas in nearby Connecticut, Fisher's Island (NY), Block Island (RI), and other areas along the southern Rhode Island coast, such as Weekapaug Beach, the Ninigret Beach Management Area, and Moonstone Beach. The barrier beach within this IBA also provides suitable nesting habitat for Least Tern (Sternula antillarum), with numbers fluctuating between 88-214 adults/year recorded over the last six years. The coastal pond provides feeding and roosting sites for long legged waders such as Great Egret (Ardea alba), Snowy Egret (Egretta thula), Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), Green Heron (Butorides virescens), and Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) as well as shorebirds, gulls, terns, and waterfowl. Horned Larks (Eremophila alpestris), Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis), and Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis),including the Ipswich subspecies use the barrier beach as migratory stopover and wintering habitat. The open waters offshore of Maschaug Beach support wintering congregations of waterfowl including: scoters Melanitta spp.), Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis), Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator), Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus), Common and Red-throated Loons (Gavia immer and G. stellata), and Common Goldeneye(Bucephala clangula). Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus)follow migratory schools of predatory fish (Striped Bass, Bluefish) along the nearshore waters during November to Early December. From National Audubon Society Maschaug Pond and Beach IBA web site

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