Aquebogue’s Broad Cove Preserve joins New York State Birding Trail
North Fork birders won’t have to travel far to visit a New York State Birding Trail, as Broad Cove Preserve in Aquebogue was recently added to the state trail roster.
From dusk to dawn, nature enthusiasts can enjoy the new trail and grass plantings, installed in part through Department of Environmental Conservation Invasive Species Grant funding. The trail begins at the mouth of Overlook Drive near Lighthouse Market and Deli in Aquebogue.
On a walk through the preserve, visitors can spot bluebirds, ospreys, great horned owls, bald eagles, hummingbirds and monarch butterflies.
“We are so grateful to be able to work together to provide an important home for birds and wildlife as they are so quickly vanishing across the North Fork and elsewhere,” Peggy Lauber of the North Fork Audubon Society said last Thursday.
The Peconic Land Trust purchased the nearly 100-acre waterfront parcel on Flanders Bay for $11.5 million in December 2021. The property includes 25 acres of tidal wetlands and 8,000 feet of shoreline along Terry Creek and Broad Cove.
It was previously zoned for a high-impact, mixed-use resort when owner Walo LLC accepted a developer’s offer in late 2020, according to the Peconic Land Trust website. While the contract was under review, managing partner Andreas Weisz, learned the Land Trust was prepared to make an offer and agreed to delay the resort deal so the property could instead be preserved.
The preserve also includes land deeply connected to Indigenous and African American history.
Peconic Land Trust president John Halsey noted the site’s significance as ancestral land of the Corchaug people and recognized thousands of years of Indigenous presence there.
In the 1930s, 16 acres in Aquebogue were purchased by the four Bell brothers — Mansfield, Condry, Ezekiel and Melkiah — sons of a self-taught black farmer and grandsons of slaves from Virginia. The Bell Town Cultural Heritage Area was formally recognized by Riverhead Town Board in 2021.
Bell Town historian Marylin Banks-Winter, a descendant of the Bells, helped lead efforts to preserve and recognize the area’s history. Her daughter, Orlesha Banks — a descendant of the Corchaug, Unkechaug, Narragansett and Cherokee people — spoke about the importance of protecting land “with deep indigenous and African-American roots.”
“Prior to establishing Bell Town, the Bell men purchased land and built cottages to live in right here in this 99.4-acre Broad Cove Preserve, formerly the Broad Cove Duck Farm,” Ms. Banks said.
Broad Cove Duck Farm, owned by Joseph P. Celic Sr., operated from the early 1900s through the mid-1960s. A plaque on the grounds details the property’s history, including the man-made ponds and dredged waterways still visible throughout the preserve.
Peconic Baykeeper executive director Peter Topping called the preservation effort a “major victory for the Peconic Estuary.”
“I like to think of the Peconic River and this area as the beating heart of the Peconic Estuary, and the organism is only as strong as its heart functions,” Mr. Topping said. “So protecting, preserving all of this land is a huge, huge victory.”
Niamuck Land Trust board member Denise Silva-Dennis celebrated the preservation of the land so that everyone can enjoy it as a “peaceful place to come.”
Peconic Estuary Partnership executive director Joyce Novak thanked the state for supporting preservation of the property.
“We look forward to continued partnership here for the benefit of generations to come,” she said.
The preserve is one of three North Fork locations slated to join the list of state birding trails this spring, according to DEC assistant regional director Ryan McGarry. Hallock State Park and Orient Beach State Park are also expected to be added later this season.
To learn more about the preserve and the New York State Birding Trail, visit peconiclandtrust.org/our-work/projects/broad-cove and dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/birding/new-york-state-birding-trail.
