Welcome to 2014

For the last few years we’ve gotten up early on New Year’s Day and headed down Cape just for the fun of it. We walk a few beaches, take a lot of pictures, find a new place to get lunch and just give the year a nice mellow start out in nature together.

Yesterday we began our day at Fort Hill. A car had been driving along behind me all the way up the highway and on Rt. 6 and then followed us right up into the Fort Hill parking lot. It ended up being a birder I know who was out beginning his new list of birds seen in the new year. Sort of funny we ended up at the same place at exactly the same time, right?

001After that stop we went to Coast Guard Beach where it was very, very cold and windy….but beautiful!

004

008You can see the clouds coming in over the water, ahead of the storm predicted for today and tomorrow.

We backtracked to First Encounter Beach where the tide was so high the marsh was totally flooded and there was little beach left on the front. Check out the waves–that is ice in the water!

011Race Point was beautiful as well…

014In Provincetown center the lobster pot holiday tree still stands…

023And on the way home we stopped off at Pilgrim Heights in Truro where the view was stunning, as usual.

028It was good to get out yesterday because today it looks like this at the beach…

007We are supposed to get quite a lot of snow and wind over the next two days so after my little jaunt out to the beach this morning I’m ready to snuggle in with my honey and the pets, my sketchbook and a good book or two….

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year to all!

As one year closes another begins. One door closes and another door opens. As the grass lays down to die in the fields new seeds prepare to grow in the spring. As sad as endings are, beginnings are always exciting, always full of promise and dreams.

003Here is my New Year’s column from the Cape Codder…

As one year closes another prepares to open. If you’re out in nature a lot you know this is purely a calendar thing contrived by humans but nature also has a calendar that she follows. It is no coincidence that we associate the beginning of a new year with some of the darkest, coldest days of the year. While we gather around warm fireplaces wearing cozy slippers and sweaters much of nature is also quieting down and resting in the warmest, coziest places to be found. It is during these quiet times that we rest and renew ourselves and we are not alone in that.
Winter on the Cape can be both harsh and mild, sometimes on alternating days as was the case this past week, freezing one day and downright balmy the next. These kinds of days can be confusing to animals and plants. We can add a coat or subtract a coat but an earthworm heading up and out through the dirt, as some did last week, could be in for a rude surprise when the earth freezes quickly again. Buds may begin to bloom out of season and animals may rise out of their partial torpor to forage in the mild weather. Most, however, will remain at rest or operate on a lower level of energy at this time of year.
For most animals and plants, our northeastern winters are a time of renewal and rejuvenation. It is through periods of dormancy and darkness that much of nature slows down and resets its own clock. In times of rest there is renewal all the way down to the cellular and molecular level. Without these times of rest energy sources may be tapped out and populations could suffer as a result.
Winter nights are longer and darker than summer nights and in many ways are challenging in terms of survival. Birds and animals have less time during the day to gather food and rebuild their energy reserves. Storms, extreme cold and lack of shelter can also take their toll. Those who survive these tough conditions are often the strongest but also, perhaps, the canniest.
Have you noticed that flocks of house sparrows often find shelter under cars in parking lots on really cold winter days? They are no fools. The residual warmth from cooling engines is a welcome relief and respite for these cagey little survivors. Crumbs and trash falling from cars means easy access to food which may not always be the most nutritious but which will keep them going with minimal energy expenditure as well. There’s a reason so many of these opportunistic birds survive and thrive.
Most of our plants are also in a state of rest that will lead to renewal and this is an important part of their cycle as well. If one came from a part of the world where there are always leaves on trees one might think our winter trees are dead. They are not, however. They are just dormant but very much alive under their quiet, gray demeanor. This may be the time of year when plant cells are not just frantically growing, growing, growing but they can actually absorb nutrients and energy and find new strength. They will face the spring with renewed vigor and urgency but for now they are at rest.
Living in a seasonal area that is overwhelmingly busy for part of the year most of us can relate to this cycle of rest and renewal. Our mothers and grandmothers were right. We all need our rest in order to feel renewed. In that spirit, Happy New Year to all and to all a good long winter’s nap!

The Perfect Gift

To all who celebrate, have a very Merry Christmas! Here is one of my latest columns that seems appropriate for this week.

The Perfect Gift

Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten my fair share of emails and notes asking what I would recommend as the perfect gift for a nature lover. My answer is so simple that people think I’m kidding. Take them for a walk outside somewhere they’ve never been. Maybe it will be somewhere you’ve never been, either. That’s it. No money, no fancy wrapping, no bows.

If someone has difficulty walking just take them outside to a beautiful place where they can sit or stand and watch, listen and smell what is going on outside. They can even sit in the car, but roll the windows down and feel the wind, smell the salt, hear the gulls. In my mother’s final weeks we took her to sit in the parking lot at her favorite beach so she could watch and hear the waves. It took a lot of effort to get her in and out of the house and the car but the serenity we could see and feel through her enjoyment and gratitude was well worth it.

062

Being outside is a simple and perfect gift and it’s free. We can do it anytime, anywhere, however we want. We can sit, we can walk, we can run or ski or swim. When we are outside it is impossible not to notice the weather. It is difficult to ignore the birds and the bugs, the flowers and the trees. In winter it is difficult to ignore the often arctic like conditions of the outer beaches and even the inner harbors. It is impossible to ignore the present when we are outside for we are steeped in it.

Many of us get outside every day but often we visit the same places and often at the same time each day or week. If you live on the outer Cape, take a ride to Woods Hole and take a walk out on the Knob, especially if you have no idea what that is or where it is. Walk the trails at Beebe Woods in Falmouth or follow the salt marsh trail at the old game farm in East Sandwich until you get to the woods at Talbot’s Point. I talk to people all the time that have never been to Sandy Neck. If you are one of them, make this the year you give this gift to yourself. You’ll wonder what took you so long.

There are treasures of nature everywhere we turn. Many are in our own yards or neighborhoods. Many can be found at the shore or in fields now dormant but still full of seeds and insect cocoons and hiding places. If you always walk at Fort Hill maybe it is time to take a ride and walk at the Crane Conservation Area in Hatchville. If you are partial to the Pamet River take a day to visit the Mashpee River Woodlands or the conservation areas at South Cape Beach, also in Mashpee. Of course this works the other way around as well. Just step out of your comfort zone and out of your favorite places for a while and give yourself the gift of discovery.

At this time of year many rush to the mall or online to buy the perfect gifts but for many of us, the promise of a walk in a new place may be the most perfect gift of all. It includes many things, especially the shared time between giver and recipient, making the gift even more perfect and special. Shared discoveries become shared memories, which in the end may be the most lasting gifts of all. Long after all the wrappings and bows have been recycled and forgotten the memory of the day you saw a snowy owl by chance or watched a herd of deer feed as the sun began to set will still be as fresh and clear as the day itself once was.

 

Sea Turtles and Snowy Owls on Sandy Neck

Some days I just hit the lucky jackpot and today was one of those days. I had hoped to tag along with one of the Sandy Neck rangers to see a snowy owl since several had been reported out there and I do some work with the junior rangers throughout the year.  I wasn’t sure if that would be possible or not but I was lucky and got to tag along at the last minute!

Every day the rangers patrol the beach, picking up debris that washes in, monitoring the wildlife activity according to season and just generally making sure all is in good order. Sandy Neck is about 7 miles long so it takes a while to drive out to the point.

Because it had been a cold night with a very high tide and lot of wind, looking for cold stunned sea turtles was also on the to do list for the morning. It didn’t take too long to find one, just about 2 miles down the beach. Ranger Nappi pretty much leaped out of the truck to grab the turtle and get it out of the wind and water. Here he is with Donna Bragg as they inspect the turtle. It was the first cold stunned turtle to be found at Sandy Neck this year!

001Cold stunned turtles need to be gotten out of the wind and old water but they also can’t be warmed up too quickly so all heat in the truck was turned off as our new visitor rested on the floor. It was a Kemp’s Ridley turtle, one of the rarest in the world and though it doesn’t much look it in the photo, it was alive. You can see it already looking better in this photo with Nappi and head ranger, Nina Coleman.

010The turtle was picked up as soon as we got back to the gatehouse by the rescue team sent from Wellfleet Audubon and was being taken to a rehab place right away.

A lot of debris washes up on beaches in the winter and these balloons were a sad reminder of someone’s party and careless disposal. The strings are dangerous to wildlife but also the balloons themselves as marine animals may mistake them for jellyfish and choke to death.

003On and on we drove but still no sign of a snowy owl. Several had been sighted on the beach and dunes over the last few days so we didn’t want to give up hope. We got to the very tip to turn around and there it was! It flew off as the truck rounded the bend but we saw it land on a dune not too far away. Not wanting to take any chances of it just taking off again without at least a picture of a speck of an owl I took a few shots like this one…

006As we rounded the corner we got a little closer but didn’t dare get out of the truck. Nappi took my camera (I was in the backseat and on the wrong side for picture taking at that point) and got off a few nice shots like this one. Snowy owls are big and my camera has a small zoom capacity so you can see we were still quite far away.

007Right now snowy owls are showing up all over the New England coast and many Cape beaches are hosting more than a few owls so if you want to go see one, go now! Prepare to walk out pretty far or to drive out because these birds tend to like their privacy. Also, if you do find one, please keep your distance. They spook pretty easily as you can see from this picture, taken from several hundred yards away.

009

 

 

 

 

 

Barnstable Land Trust’s Fuller Farm

Every now and then I get to go to a new magical place that instantly becomes one of my favorites and this new acquisition by the Barnstable Land Trust is just such a place. Fuller Farm is in Marstons Mills and is about 23 acres of rolling farmland, pasture and hay fields. It is a throwback to a time when Marstons Mills was full of dairy farms but which is now unique in its size and untouched nature.

I went for a walk there recently with a group from the BLT and it is truly a beautiful piece of land. We are hoping to find woodcocks there this spring since the land is quite perfect for them and borders a nearby cranberry bog and Middle Pond.

The buildings remain just as they have been for over a century. Some additions have been made over the years but the original buildings are 150 years old.

I’m a sucker for rusty old tools and weathered wood…

The day we were there was cold and windy but we did find proof of recent visits by red foxes…

and coyotes. In fact there is some thought that coyotes are denning there though we did not explore that idea too much…coyotes and foxes will move their dens if they think they’ve been discovered and since both species should be having young about now we didn’t want to disturb them…but we did find some scat near the area we thought they’d be…

If you’re wondering how we knew which was fox and which was coyote…..we really can’t be totally sure except one was quite a bit smaller than the other.Both had lots of fur, bones and teeth and one even had small rocks. Go figure on that one…

There’s a pussy willow tree there though most of the pussy willows themselves were passing by…

And we were quite surprised to find blooming violets in a sunny patch since it was still mid March!

Fuller Farm is going to be a wonderful addition to the Barnstable Land Trust’s holdings and kudos to them for keeping this wild and wonderful place open fields and keeping it free from development!

Cape Cod beaches after the storms….

It is a changed world out there after the winter storms of the last month or so. Many of us have seen the pictures and videos but to stand in these places and see and feel the devastation is almost more than a soul can bear….

To be fair, some of these breaks will heal themselves but some will not. Some dunes will replenish over time but others will flatten out even more. Some of this process is natural and some has been exacerbated by overuse and abuse by oversand vehicles and people ignoring signs to stay off dunes and cliffs. Even the smallest foot path in a dune can become a major sand blowout if the wind is right….or wrong….

We took a long tour the other day and these are some of the highlights–or lowlights, really…

From Gray’s Beach in YarmouthPort we could see the big break in the dunes across the way at Chapin Beach in Dennis

Corporation Beach in Dennis took a big hit…

There were plenty of birds like these brant there, taking in the view and feeding…

Beaches like Paine’s Creek in Brewster are really suffering…

Changes at Nauset Beach in Orleans are unbelievable…

Yeah, there used to be dunes there….some of the dunes are now in the parking lot and filling in the stairways….

At Coast Guard Beach, the beach was actually closed to keep the dunes at the entrance to the walkway from further eroding….

This view of a flooded Nauset Marsh was taken several hours AFTER high tide….

At Nauset Light Beach the cliffs are severely compromised and again, access to the beach was shut off…

The break at Ballston Beach in Truro has been well documented but was still shocking to see first hand…

Several homes there are quite compromised….

By the time we got to Race Point in Provincetown we thought we had seen it all….but we were not prepared for this…

So much sand had blown into the parking lots there that it had been plowed into huge dunes….that dwarfed what was left of the dunes it blew away from!

And there was the cause of it all….looking much calmer but still a little worked up…

it was a long, emotional day….

A day in Chatham

Saturday was a great day for getting out and about so we headed to Chatham to take a look at the beaches there. We knew the big blizzard had done a lot of damage and opened a new break on South Beach so we went to see what we could see. We were not alone. Parking lots were jammed and crowds of people were looking through binoculars, taking pictures and videos and walking out onto the beaches to see the breaks up close.

Our first stop was at Pleasant Bay, just because it was so pretty and sparkly.

The wind and water of the last few weeks left a trail of horseshoe crab molts all along the edge of the road and in the bushes…

At the fish pier you could see the few remaining cottages on North Beach in the distance

The fish market is all closed up, waiting for warmer days…

Lighthouse Beach parking lot was jammed and there were maybe several hundred people milling about…the views were spectacular, though sobering for those of us who know this area…this shot is looking back toward the harbor.

This view is looking down South Beach. Note the people walking but also the large pools of water. The break is not too far beyond the scope of this photo but I couldn’t capture it with my little camera from where we were….

and another view

Starkly beautiful, sad, sobering and thought provoking all at the same time….

Waiting for spring….

These sunny afternoons are stretching longer each day and making me long for spring…and yes, I know that spring is a tentative and shy season around here.

It is in February though that we start to see, hear and smell the first signs of spring…

Red-winged blackbirds are beginning to arrive. Their red epaulets are not as evident as they will be later on…

Song sparrows are beginning to think about claiming their territories…

Witch hazel is in bloom in many areas, a sure sign of late February…

There are other signs as well. Skunks are on the move, robins are returning (you can tell them from the more robust winter robins from up north because they are smaller and look tired and worn) and even the leaves of the mayflowers are looking fresh and renewed..

So sure, there’s yet another storm forecast for this weekend but we can keep finding signs of spring in spite of the snow and ice…

 

Of birds and the blizzard….

If you’re on the Cape or even just in New England you know it’s been a crazy couple of days around here! Although it started as sloppy sleet here on the Cape the snow blew fast and furiously, clomping onto trees and wires like cement and dragging them down like cement, too. There was also tidal flooding and between the wind and water power is still out for almost two thirds of Cape residents and businesses. To be honest, I must admit I am one of the lucky few who lost power overnight but had it back by yesterday morning. I spent most of my day yesterday watching the snow blow and refilling bird feeders. Boy, were the birds hungry and cold!

All these photos were taken through an ice encrusted window but they do give the feel of the day….these two redheads shared the feeder for awhile. That’s a male house finch with the male cardinal…

These goldfinches were holding on for dear life….

This downy woodpecker is getting ready to make her move, waiting for the wind to die down a bit…

This flicker has had a rough time of it–she even has snow and ice encrusted on her feathers

Chickadees were a bit wind blown but they’re pretty sturdy

This tufted titmouse had a little bit of a prize

And this white breasted nuthatch was happy to find seeds and nuts here

while its smaller cousins, the red breasted nuthatches worked on the suet…

and although I’m not a big fan of the mobs of house sparrows I did make sure there was plenty of seed on the ground for them on such a rough day….

This cardinal seems to express the way we all felt while the storm raged around us….

Today, however, is a new day….

 

 

A gray day….

We sure have had a gray winter. We haven’t had a lot of snow but it’s been cold enough that the little bit of snow we have had has stayed on the ground long past its due….I don’t know about you but I’m finding it tiresome….I have had to drag myself outside to walk each day….

And then, there was this morning at the beach…so beautiful it took my breath away…

Everything was so still and serene…

There was still snow from last night but not a lot…

There were lots of tracks already–human, dog, gulls and crows mostly…

The incoming tide allowed for beautiful patterns in the underwater seaweeds

The jetty was frosted with just the right amount of snow…

And in the distance the dock and pilings stood tall against the gray water and sky…

But perhaps sweetest of all was finding this heart in the snow made by two sets of footprints and decorated with a snow angel in the middle…

Funny how some days you make yourself go out, expecting it to be sort of a blah, boring walk but instead you find serene, profound beauty….