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The wetlands, dune and woodland habitats are
significant for their bio-diversity and the
extent of their natural environment. The pileated
woodpecker, believed to be extinct on P.E.I.
by 1986, has recently been seen in the Greenwich
woods. The peninsula is also home to 29 breeding
pair of piping plover, an internationally endangered
sand-coloured shorebird that nests and feeds
along the coastal sand and gravel beaches of
Atlantic Canada. They forage actively on the
ground or in shallow water for small insects
and both parents care for the chicks that hatch
from the four eggs usually laid in a clutch
on a flat rock. Their nests and eggs are so
well camouflaged, its plaintive bell-like whistle
is often heard before the bird or the nest is
seen. Swift in flight, it migrates south in
late summer to winter in Cuba, the Bahamas or
Mexico; some hardy adults undertake a spectacular,
non-stop, transatlantic, 3900 kilometre flight
to the northern regions of South America. Residential
development has reduced coastal habitat and
attracted predators such as skunks, raccoons
and foxes. Human disturbance curtails breeding,
threatens the eggs and young and can cause the
parents to abandon their nests.
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The grasslands in the dune
system slack is the only known dune habitat
for the leathery grape fern. In the salt-free
acidic wetlands, a rare association of salt
tolerant and alkali tolerant plants co-exist
with bog plants. In the Gegenwalle marram grass
seedling communities are abundant. On the St.
Peters Bay side, the very rare establishment
of bulrush foredunes is remarkable considering
the very high salinity and sand depths. The
wetland bogs and ponds, habitat of fish, waterfowl,
muskrat and beaver, along with the dominant
wooded areas of hardwood and softwood with red
maple and birch, support a variety of plant
life and an incredibly high species representation
- one sector surveyed produced 300 species on
site. Included in the list of rare species are
the water wart and mud wart as well as many
unusual grasses.
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