Wellfleet Bay's Conservation Work
Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is actively involved with a variety of research projects that relate to wildlife monitoring, research, restoration, and conservation on the Outer Cape. Many of the projects focus on endangered or threatened species, or those that have declining populations. Current, on-going projects include:
- Protecting terns and plovers in the Coastal Waterbird Program
- Monitoring diamondback terrapins
- Surveying horseshoe crabs
- Mapping nesting ospreys
- Counting migrating hawks
- Restoring shellfish habitat
- Rescuing sea turtles
While we have dedicated science staff, the efforts of citizen science volunteers provide critical support to our science department, as well as to the wildlife themselves.
Wellfleet Bay is home to the most northerly population of the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin). Through our conservation work, we hope to protect this enigmatic species and the salt marshes it calls home. Learn More >
The Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, in partnership with Eastern Massachusetts Hawk Watch and with permission from the Cape Cod National Seashore, conducts a hawk watch at Pilgrim Heights in Truro.
Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is working to help stranded sea turtles on Cape Cod. You can also help by reporting strandings. Learn More
In collaboration with the University of Rhode Island, the National Park Service, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and others, Mass Audubon has been surveying spawning horseshoe crabs on the Outer Cape. We need your help! Please volunteer today to help preserve these very special creatures.
Field Notes: Citizen Science at Wellfleet Bay
There were two new faces at the bird banding table this fall while our master bander James Junda operates a second banding station out of South Monomoy. Banding assistants Mikayla Thistle and Frankie Tousley developed an interest in birds at opposite ends of the country. Mikayla, who’s from Massachusetts, was educated at Boston University and trained at the Manomet […]