Looks like coyotes can swim - or quietly stow away on ferries

By adamg on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 2:34pm

Thomas Mann reports he paddled out to Thompson Island in Boston Harbor this morning - and spotted this coyote. It's the first time he's ever seen one on one of the harbor islands.

Free tagging:

Wildlife

Boston Harbor

Coyotes

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Comments

ACME wetsuits and PFDs

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 3:47pm.

Yes, coyotes can swim for fairly long distances.

Otherwise, I would have suspected that he walked across the ice during Snowmageddon and was only seen now, a year later.

At low tide you can Walk from

By Lmo on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 4:14pm.

At low tide you can Walk from Squaw Rock to Thompson's.

I was going to say the same thing

By FredQuimby on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 4:19pm.

It is really shallow there. We had some super high/low tides this month. Around the 8-10th. Two feet below mean low. Easily walkable.

Cayote also spotted at the

By ZA on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 4:30pm.

Cayote also spotted at the East Boston marshlands near Suffolk Downs yesterday, hopefully the Coyote won't roam the streets of Eastie and walk over to Maverick Sq for a Burrito and chips and salsa.

and as a side dish...

By Ralph Boston on Sun, 05/01/2016 - 8:07pm.

...some chayote squash.

skunks

By Steeve on Mon, 05/02/2016 - 10:42am.

Do coyotes have a taste for skunks? If so, I welcome our new grey overlords to East Boston.

Coyote probably took a swim from a Boston harbor island to the marsh lands across from Suffolk downs station, Boston harbor islands are usually deserted during winter , coyotes were probably interrupted and scared away by city workers preparing and maintaining the islands for the summer months. Pretty much would be the obvious answer.

Google maps shows the sandbar

By anon on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 4:20pm.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.308031,-71.0092835,3130m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

I don't understand. I kayaked

By anon on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 4:50pm.

I don't understand. I kayaked out to Thompson island and they kicked me off and said its private private and a privately owned island. I call shenanigans.

What time of year?

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 8:50pm.

I was kind of surprised, too, but I have also heard that there is nobody out there until later in the year who can shoo you away.

There are ferries that run

By Lmo on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 10:10pm.

There are ferries that run during the summer. They may not be open to the public when there are private events or if no ferries are running. If you're in a kayak go to the back side of the island on the Marina Bay side, you should be all set. I wouldn't go on the other (Spectacle Island) side in a kayak, you'll flip or at least get tossed around pretty badly.

kayak

By toymann on Sun, 05/01/2016 - 11:38am.

off season, marina bay end. I took the picture from my boat in the salt marsh inlet

Salt Marshes are protected

By aek on Sun, 05/01/2016 - 7:49pm.

The NPS geologist monitors the health and elevation of the BHI salt marshes annually. He'll be up next week. I don't think any boater is welcome near the marsh as it's a protected site - fragile and vital to the health of the islands.

Lots of snowy egrets around that part of the island, as well as over 2 dozen turkeys, so no surprise that Wile E. would be hunting on that side of the island.

You don't think that is true

By anon on Mon, 05/02/2016 - 8:55am.

But kayakers are plenty welcome in every salt marsh in the area. Look it up next time. Plum Island even tells you where to launch and what to go see. You just don't want to get caught out on low tide.

Motor boaters are wise to stay out of salt marshes anyway, prohibited or not.

Outward Bound

By aek on Sun, 05/01/2016 - 7:44pm.

owns Thompson, but it is jointly managed by the NPS and DCR. Outward Bound also has its own ferry which departs from EDIC pier (next to the police boats and Black Falcon pier where the cruise ships are. The Boston Harbor Islands Stewardship Saturday programs are ranger led around habitat restoration and citizen science, and we travel to Thompson periodically. Marc Albert is the ranger who directs all of the NPS volunteer programs on the Islands, and Dr. "No", as she is known, has involved volunteers in collecting data for mammal population studies on the islands. Ask me what crawling through thorny brush on a cold snowy day is like to track cottontail droppings.

Great people, great times. Come on out! Check the volunteer link on the Boston Harbor Islands NPS web page. Lots of anniversaries this year: 20th for the BHI National and State Park, Centennial for the NPS, and 300th for Boston Light!

AUGUST 10, 2013

By anon on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 5:18pm.

It’s not just day-trippers who are flocking to Boston’s scenic Harbor Islands. Furry four-legged creatures are also swimming or scurrying their way onto the island shores, creating an unexpected population boom.

An ongoing survey of mammals on a half-dozen of the close-in islands has found thriving populations of coyotes, foxes, and deer. Researchers also have seen “aberrantly large” varieties of usually tiny animals — white-footed mice on Peddocks Island, for example — that weigh twice as much as their mainland cousins.

The data, though still preliminary, reveal “dramatic shifts in mammal populations within a given decade,” said Marc Albert, who manages the islands’ stewardship program for the National Park Service.

The animals are arriving by various means, said Lauren Nolfo-Clements, a Suffolk University biology professor who is leading the survey, the first of its kind on the park’s 34 islands and peninsulas. Some were brought by humans, deliberately or accidentally. Large animals are able to swim from the mainland.

Some may cross the water in winter, when parts of the harbor freeze, and for about 15-20 minutes a day, a land bridge appears at low tide between the town of Hull and Bumpkin Island. Park rangers have seen coyotes run across, Nolfo-Clements said.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/08/09/animals-take-harbor-islands...

There use to be lots of

By Lmo on Sat, 04/30/2016 - 6:43pm.

There use to be lots of bunnies on Gallops too. There was one really cold winter and I think that was it for them.

Gallops? Or Grape?

By aek on Sun, 05/01/2016 - 7:51pm.

Gallups is closed - probably permanently - to the public due to asbestos from building sites on that island. If you were there, please don't go again. Did you mean, perhaps, Grape Island, which also has a history of having had rabbits?