In a three-way partnership that will protect the last key piece of undeveloped land at one of the oldest wildlife sanctuaries on the Vineyard, the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, the Massachusetts Audubon Society and the Felix Neck Wildlife Trust announced yesterday that they will buy 34 acres from Lucia Moffet for $2.55 million.
The Moffet property runs along the entire length of the entrance road to the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary on the eastern side.
Gus Ben David is an Island institution. For 30 years he has directed Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. Anyone walking the trails gets a sense of a wild place that is tended by loving hands. The open grassland is mowed at strategic times of year. Waterfowl find refuge in the small duck pond at the far end of the property.
It takes a warm-blooded naturalist to run a den of cold-blooded creatures. Gus and Shane Ben David’s World of Reptiles is now in its third year. These are the animals that will never be friendly, but they do get along. They range in size from a 21-foot, 230-pound reticulated python down to a bullfrog from Cape Cod.
Island naturalist Gus Ben David stopped by the Gazette offices Monday morning with two guests in tow: Eurasian eagle-owlets.
The owlets, a brother and sister, are less than eight weeks old. They are the offspring of a breeding pair of eagle-owls that Mr. Ben David has at his farm. Mr. Ben Davis also had a female eagle-owl, Mohu, that he uses for education.
The owlets are being raised by Mr. Ben David and will eventually live off-Island. The youngsters eat rats and mice, and though small now, grow to be quite large: their mother has a wing span of nearly five feet.
Island naturalist Gus Ben David stopped by the Gazette newsroom Thursday with a new friend.
