Quicksand Pond

[13] The Quicksand Pond area provides an excellent breeding habitat for the least tern,[9] a rare shorebird, which arrives in May.

Other shorebirds, including sanderlings, great and snowy egrets, dunlin, greater and lesser yellowlegs rest on the mudflats and the shoreline.

[7][14] The barrier beach habitat of Quicksand Pond is a potential suitable nesting site for the American oystercatcher.

[20] The Benjamin Family Environmental Center has programs and exhibits about the many types of habitats that make up the Quicksand Pond and Goosewing Beach Preserve areas.

[21] The Nature Conservancy hires a Plover Warden and a Goosewing Beach Preserve Manager during nesting season (mid-April to early-September) to monitor and protect the species and to help educate beach-goers about the sensitive wildlife that inhabit the area.

[26] On May 17, 2007, the FDA reported signs of norovirus in oysters distributed by Bridgeport Seafood in Tiverton, Rhode Island.

The Rhode Island Department of Health investigation determined the oysters were collected by a single fisherman from Quicksand Pond.

[27] As the Health Department continued to investigate the Quicksand Pond case, it found no evidence to support the initial FDA alarm.

There were no reports of anyone getting sick, and further testing failed to show any significant signs of bacteria from human waste in the pond.

Piping plover and least tern nesting area sign at Quicksand Pond
Piping plover
Goosewing Beach from a drone, with Quicksand Pond on the right and Tunipus Pond in the background
The Benjamin Family Environmental Center at the Goosewing Beach Preserve
Drawing of oyster anatomy
Transmission electron micrograph of Norovirus particles in faeces