Tuesday Talks: Brian Harrington: Changes in the Chatham and Orleans coasts and Corresponding Changes in Migratory Shorebirds

Changes in the Chatham and Orleans coasts and Corresponding Changes in Migratory Shorebirds

SPEAKER: BRIAN HARRINGTON
TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2022 – 5:00 PM

The Orleans/Chatham region is a world-renowned refueling station for sandpipers and plovers (shorebirds) in their journeys between Arctic breeding areas of Alaska and Canada and their wintering places, which, for some of the species, may be at the southern tip of South America. Many of the 35 kinds of shorebirds that visit our coast will fly non-stop over the ocean between Cape Cod and South America. The fuel they gain at places like Pleasant Bay and Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge is critical to the success of their migrations.

Brian Harrington has been watching shorebirds at Monomoy since the late 1950’s. Over the decades there have been amazing changes of the coast, especially including Monomoy island, and shifts in how the migratory shorebirds use this region; this talk aims to give an overview of how migrant shorebirds use the Chatham/Orleans region, and a time-lapse perspective of how this has affected migratory as well as resident-breeding shorebirds.

Brian Harrington is an emeritus biologist retired from The Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, where he has been a research biologist since 1971.  During his tenure most of his work focused on shorebirds (sandpipers and plovers) and their migrations, and especially on conservation issues associated with the long-distance migration strategies that many shorebirds employ.  His research has been throughout North and South America.  One species he has especially focused on is the Red Knot, chosen because it illustrates many of the conservation issues he has documented.  Much of this work is described in a popular book, The Flight of the Red Knot (WW Norton Co., publisher) authored in 1996.  Since retirement Brian has continued his work with knots in Massachusetts, and especially in the Orleans/Chatham region of Cape Cod. The Massachusetts coast continues to be a major migration stopover area for Red Knots, which sadly, have become a highly threatened bird since Brian’s work on them began in the early 1980’s.

Citizenship activities include service to the Town of Plymouth’s Beaches Advisory Board and Open Space Committee; a founding board member, Director and past President of the Herring Ponds Watershed Association; Trustee of the Wildlands Trust, and Trustee of Manomet, Inc.