Another weekend on Dead Neck Sampson’s Island leads to more adventures and stories to be told. More people are coming to the island’s beaches to escape the heat. BCWC has an information tent set up on the Sampson’s end of the island where you can pick up a scavenger hunt if you are interested in exploring the beach! Just look for our BCWC signs on the tent.

As a friendly reminder, both the western and eastern tips of the island and the ocean-side beach are closed to boats and people. Also, as much as we love dogs, please keep them off the island and either on your boat or in the water. We want to keep the nesting plovers and terns safe, and everyone coming to the island happy.

Good news to report. While we were patrolling the ocean-side near the western tip, two piping plover hatchlings were spotted. They were scurrying along the beach learning how to forage for food, which is why parts of the island’s shoreline are closed. When the chicks hatch, they need to learn how to forage for food immediately. If too many people get near them, the hatchlings will get scared and stay in the nest and starve, which nobody wants.

Another bit of interesting news from our latest island venture was a buoy we found. It was about 15 feet tall, and we discovered it washed up on the tip of Sampson’s. We learned it was from a boat named Anna Mary out of Montauk, New York. If you are wondering how a boat’s buoy from Long Island ended up here on Cape Cod, it was carried by the current. The Gulf Stream flows from the Equator, past Mexico and Texas, all the way up the east coast to Maine, where it eventually turns and flows out into the Atlantic towards the Arctic. The buoy was carried from the New York area to the Cape, where it washed up on our little island.

If you ever have a question about the island or water quality or just want to chat, please feel free to talk to any of our BCWC Island staff or contact us at info@BCleanWater.org. Hope to see you on the island!