Beach closures in place since April at the Amagansett National Wildlife Refuge and the Jessup's Neck peninsula at the Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Sag Harbor, both to protect threatened shorebirds, were lifted earlier this week in the wake of an unsuccessful effort to allow the bird populations to recover.
The Morton refuge provided habitat for one pair of piping plovers and one pair of American oystercatchers. One pair of least tern nested at the Amagansett refuge.
Nesting shorebirds at both sites suffered nest and chick loss by avian and mammalian predators as well as flooding, according to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. "Unfortunately, all pairs were unsuccessful this season," the agency said in a statement issued last Thursday. "A number of other migratory birds also used the refuges for nesting, foraging, and loafing, including osprey, willet, ruddy turnstone, common tern, black-bellied plover, sanderling, herons and egrets."
The Amagansett and Elizabeth A. Morton sites are part of the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge complex, encompassing 6,670 acres and including seven national wildlife refuges, two refuge subunits, and one wildlife management area. The refuge complex was established to conserve habitat for migratory birds, protect threatened and endangered species, enhance and restore habitat for native flora and fauna, and provide wildlife-dependent public uses where appropriate and compatible.
The larger National Wildlife Refuge System consists of 567 national wildlife refuges throughout the United States and its territories.
