Each spring a celestial event takes place over the Rumney Marshes ACEC.

Cast out from the second brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere,  the Lyrid Meteor Shower illuminates the night sky in mid to late April.  A celestial wonder that hails the arrival of the purest of grassland species. 

A long ago forgotten prophecy foretelling  of just how special these few weeks would be. For this is the time that the most precious of jewels are beginning to pass through the grassland of the Rumney Marshes ACEC.

A googly-eyed shorebird that sees nary a shore...  How is it that the heavens should come to mark an event such as this?  Long and gangly necked, with a head so bobbly it is a wonder that it doesn't  tip like a kettle. 

Ah-- but for its song.  Gentle bubbly melodies that carry over hill and through the dales.  Building in intensity to end with a ‘wolf-whistle’ that has no doubt, charmed even the heart of Aphrodite herself.

The Upland Sandpiper, Bartramia longicauda, the very embodiment of grassland conservation, is believed by most, to be the holy grail of all grassland birds.  Nearly hunted to extinction by market hunters, the windy whistle that graces the grassy plain, was almost silenced forever.   Forbush (1925) describes the species as “Harmless and eminently useful, it nevertheless is one of the most luscious morsels to delight the epicurean palate.”

The Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program identifies only seven locations in the entire state where Upland Sandpipers still breed.  The Massachusetts Action Plan for the Conservation of Obligate Grassland Birds describes the Upland Sandpiper as being part of a group representing one of the fastest declining suites of birds in North America.  The action plan only identifies 46 locations across the entire state of Massachusetts known to harbor a member of this suite of species during the breeding season.  Once brought to the brink of extinction, the grassland habitats that the Upland Sandpiper relies upon are disappearing faster than the species can adapt, and recover from the impacts of the gunners.

The Mass Audubon Breeding Bird Atlas 2 identifies only 1.1 % of Massachusetts Eco-region Blocks as maintaining breeding populations. “Without stabilization of the declining continental population, or at least stabilization on a regional scale, persistence of this species in Massachusetts appears to be tenuous at best.”

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the Upland Sandpiper as once being very abundant in its range.  The 2012 North America Breeding Bird Survey assessment indicates that the overall population is relatively stable with 750,000 individuals.

Starting with the next capping phase at the Wheelabrator Saugus Monofill, the Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary will be incorporating a new pilot program to introduce aridisol, or arid soil conditions, to low gradient slopes in the grasslands of the Sanctuary.  The sandy, coarse cobbly type soils will recreate the dry soil habitats that formally existed in the Rumney Marshes ACEC prior to the development of the barrier beach dune habitats.  Because these aridisol conditions will establish plant communities that are naturally limited by soil moisture, there is also the potential to introduce rare wildflowers and rare native pollinators in addition to the areas being attractive to Common Nighthawks, Grasshopper Sparrows, Vesper Sparrows, and Upland Sandpipers.