The Refuge has over ten miles of shoreline along the Atlantic Ocean, Nantucket Sound and Nantucket Harbor. The varied habitats offer food, shelter and protection to an array of wildlife. Tidal marshes, embayments and flats produce bay scallops, mussels, soft-shell calms and quahogs. Coskata Pond shelters winter flounder, cunner and American eel. These rich stores of aquatic plants, marine worms, crustaceans and fish attract huge numbers of hungry wildfowl.
Eiders ride the waves offshore.
Herons and egrets hunt the creeks and pools for crabs and fish. Other shorebirds work the high-tide line and tidal flats for food. Oystercatchers use their bright orange bills to feed on mussels and clams while black-bellied plovers and yellowlegs search the tidal waters for other prey. The dune country harbors other plants and wildlife. In spring the dunes and hollows brighten with purple, yellow and white blooms as the beach pea, beach heath, salt spray rose and beach plum flower.