Plover proving grounds close

Trustees of Reservations Property Superintendent Steve Nicolle opened the sand trail to Great Point from the southern end of the Galls northward late Thursday morning when the last of four plovers chicks learned to fly.

Of the 12 eggs - four laid in each of the three nests - under Nicolle's care, only four produced plover chicks that were able to fly away on their own. Two of the nests were located at the southern end of the Galls and an other just west of them up the beach on the outside of Coatue, but it was not the presence of plovers that forced the closure.

Around 100 pairs of least terns that staked out a colony on the Galls near the two plover nests in this area had Nicolle worried that it might expand down toward the ocean and onto the beach trail, so he closed this part of the beach north to Great Point on June 6. With this portion of Trustees property now open, only the very tip of Great Point remains closed to protect the 40 to 50 seals hanging out on this sand spit and a colony of least terns, which Nicolle said were likely part of the larger colony on the Galls that had relocated during the closure.

Greenheads

Alive!

Wind-blown sand at the beach is no fun at all, but the wind can be your friend late June into September during the annual onslaught of the greenhead fly, which like most other winged, stinging, biting insects is not aerodynamically adept at flying in breezes over 10 miles per hour.

Having spent the winter in the pupa stage, greenhead flies emerge from Nantucket salt marshes in late June and, peaking in July, can last into early September. The female lays one round of eggs after coming out of hibernation, but needs animal blood to keep laying eggs. Though slow moving, they pack a sharp, painful bite as they stab their pincers into your skin looking for a blood meal. About a half-inch long with bright green eyes, the greenhead lives three to four weeks.

That is a lot longer than the salt marsh mosquito that lives just one to two weeks, using the same animal blood to produce eggs.

If you're heading out to beaches near salt marshes such as those on Great Point, Coatue and Eel Point, be prepared with bug dope containing DEET.

Red tide

losing strength

On July 9, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries revised its red tide closure encompassing the ocean waters three miles seaward of Great Point down to Tom Nevers for the taking of surf clams, ocean quahogs, sea scallops and carnivorous moon snails.

This revision came after the National Marine Fisheries Service expanded the northern portion of this closure due to the paralytic shellfish poison toxin in the algae, Alexandrium tamarense (red tide) to include federal waters southeast of Nantucket and to the east to encompass the Georges Bank. In this expanded area, the harvesting of all mollusks is prohibited except for sea scallops whose abductor muscles - their only edible part - are shucked out at sea.

The revised southern area is now open to the harvest of Atlantic surfclams, quahogs and sea scallop abductor muscles. Fishermen are prohibited from taking whole or egg-bearing sea scallops.

Most of Nantucket's harbors and tidal ponds remain open at this time to the digging of all shellfish. Seasonal closures of Polpis and Madaket harbors due to high counts of fecal coliform bacteria still apply at this time.

For details, call David Whittaker at the National Marine Fisheries Service at 617-727-0394 and for inner island waters, check with the Marine & Coastal Resources Department at 34 Washington St. or by calling 228- 7261.