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Christopher Whitney Green

Ecologist, Photographer, Science Communication Professional

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American Bittern

by Christopher Green

Cape Cod National Seashore’s wildlife ecologist Bob Cook deploys camera traps around the park as part of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The primary purpose of the traps is to monitor mammalian species, but on April 20 of 2016, one of the cameras captured a few excellent images of an American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) in Salt Meadow, North Truro. A secretive part-time resident on Cape Cod, the camera trap images show a beautiful bird that is difficult to observe.

An American bittern in a salt marsh at Cape Cod National Seashore

The American Bittern is a marsh obligate wading bird in the heron family, protected under the United States Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. They breed in the northern US and Canada and winter in the southern US and Central America. Breeding has been confirmed in Salt Meadow. Bitterns, like most marsh birds, are particularly sensitive to changes in their breeding and foraging habitat and thus can serve as indicators of ecosystem health. NPS staff monitor tidal marsh breeding birds as part of the Inventory and Monitoring Program.

An American bittern in a salt marsh at Cape Cod National Seashore

Learn more about the American Bittern on the Audubon website

Download the full resource brief on the Marsh Bird Monitoring Program

Learn more about the Migratory Bird Treaty Act on the US Fish and Wildlife website

Filed Under: Science Communication Tagged With: birds, Cape Cod National Seashore

Salt Marsh Tide Sequence

by Christopher Green

The ebb and flow of tides defines the rhythm of life in a salt marsh. Twice a day, a rush of salt water brings nutrients, sediments, and a whole host of organisms into the marsh. Most of the visitors come to feed. On occasion, a diamondback terrapin swims in during nesting season on her way to a dry nesting site in the low uplands bordering the marsh. When the tide ebbs away, the full-time residents of the marsh resume their low-tide activities. Note the scuttling fiddler crabs in the foreground of this time-lapse sequence made in a Wellfleet salt marsh two years ago today. For more information about estuaries and salt marshes on Cape Cod, visit: https://www.nps.gov/caco/learn/nature/estuaries-and-salt-marshes.htm#FindYourPark #NatureAtWork #NPS101

Posted by Cape Cod National Seashore on Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Filed Under: Science Communication Tagged With: Cape Cod National Seashore, GoPro, salt marsh, time lapse, video

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