I drove to Provincetown today and these are some of the photos I took along the way. Cape Cod Bay has lots of ice. This shot is from First Encounter Beach in Eastham.
Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown had a very brisk wind and these gulls were hunkered down in the sand to stay warm and out of the wind.
This view is overlooking Nauset Marsh from the Coast Guard station in Eastham.
Another view of Nauset Marsh showing the ice.
On the other end of Nauset Marsh, the view from Fort Hill in Eastham…
It was a cold and windy day but still beautiful here on Cape Cod. We saw very few other people out and about but lots of other cool things. I will post some of them as the week goes on.
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Winter Seals on the Beach
We were out in Chatham the other day and decided to take a walk on South Beach. The air was clear, it was relatively windless and warm, for winter anyway. We saw something shiny in the distance. From the shape and position I suspected it was a seal….
and it was!
Seals often haul out onto a beach in the winter. Most are perfectly healthy and all should be left alone, according to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. These pictures were taken with a zoom lens and although there are what appear to be close ups I was well within the distance of 150 yards mandated by the law.
Seals look cute but they are wild animals and will give a nasty bite if approached by humans or dogs. Most seals you will see on the winter beaches are perfectly healthy and fine and need no intervention by humans. If you see a seal that is obviously in distress or injured you should contact the Cape Cod Stranding Network. Do not try to help the animal yourself. You may reach the stranding network by calling 508-743-9548. This number is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I believe this seal was a harbor seal. It had the heart shaped nose, was the right size and color and looks like a snub nosed cocker spaniel from the side, all visual indicators of harbor seals. In the summer our predominant seals are the gray seals but in the winter we get quite a few harbor seals as well as other rarer visitors such as harp seals.
I love this shot because it looks like the seal is smiling and enjoying its day in the sun. Do seals smile? Scientists would probably frown upon the idea but for the rest of us….maybe they do. I know this seal made me smile….
Looking for Otters
Saturday morning was clear and sunny and very, very cold. A group of us met over at the Skunknett River conservation area where Ian Ives from Audubon was having a program about otters and owls.
The pond was very quiet and mostly iced over. A few raggedy cattails were still standing and chickadees called from the bushes nearby but no otters….
We stopped at various spots along the river but no otters….
Though we did see lots of otter scat (droppings) at several “pull out” spots along the way…
Otter scat has a lot of fish scales in it so it is easy to identify. You can see it here as the gray stuff against the brown leaves. Who knew you’d be looking at a picture of scat instead of an ottter?
Oh well! That’s the way it is a lot when you go out looking for animals in the wild. You find signs of where they’ve been and what they leave behind them but often they themselves are in hiding. I often like to think of them watching me from behind a bush, laughing at me. Who knows? Maybe they are.
It was so cold on this day I think the otters were home snug in their dens.
Where do the Swans Go?
Did you ever wonder where all the swans go in the winter when all the ponds ice over?
They find open water on our rivers that remain open because there is so much salt water at the beginning of the estuary. As you know, salt water can freeze but it takes much longer. This picture, taken by and sent in to me by Linda Robbins of Falmouth, was taken at the Moonakis River in Falmouth this weekend. (Thanks, Linda!)
Swans eat vegetable matter, not fish, by the way, which is why they are often bottoms up, feeding on water plants on the bottom of shallow lakes and ponds. Usually swans are not overly friendly to other birds, including other swans in their territories but at this time of year survival seems to win out over territorial rights. You will even find mallards and Canada geese among them, something you will never see in the spring or summer.
There are several other areas on the Cape where you can find hundreds of swans in winter, most notably Swan River in South Yarmouth. Bet you can guess how it got that name….
Buffleheads
Here on the Cape our warmer waters, especially warmer ocean waters, attract a lot of ducks from farther north that need open water to feed in every winter. Many of our ponds, lakes and bays are home to flocks of these charming and spunky little ducks each winter and are among many people’s favorites. Buffleheads are the smallest diving duck in North America and nest in freshwater areas and neighboring forests in Canada.
One fun fact about these little birds is that they nest almost exclusively in holes made by flickers. They have also been known to use the holes made by pileated woodpeckers but prefer those made by flickers. They will also nest in nest boxes, not unlike our own little wood ducks.
Mostly monogamous, buffleheads travel in mixed flocks. The male wears the sporty black and white while the female is a duller gray and black. There is one female in the photo above. These diving ducks seem to pop up and down in the water. While underwater they are seeking mollusks and crustaceans. In fresh water they also eat underwater insects.
"Someone’s been sleeping in my bed," said the little owl…
Earlier this week a reader of my Weekly Nature Watch column (Enterprise newspapers) called to tell me they had a screech owl sitting on a branch in their yard. They had previously had screech owls in a nesting box they had built but the day before they called me a squirrel had moved into the box. It was rainy, windy and cold the day I went over and sure enough, there was the little screech owl sitting on the branch, watching the box…..
Every now and then the squirrel peeked out of the box but mostly it stayed inside and let the owl stare and stare and get wet and cold…..
Screech owls are pretty common on the Cape and they are fairly easy to lure to nest boxes. Owl nest boxes have a 3″ hole which unfortunately is plenty big for squirrels, too. You can see that this box has even had the hole edges chewed on, most likely by squirrels, which enlarges the hole. It is not uncommon for screech owls and squirrels to go back and forth winning the box back and then losing it again. Home owners that prefer the owls are encouraged to clean the squirrel nest materials out of the box daily so the owl can return. The squirrels may still win, however.
These homeowners were adding several other nest boxes this week so it will be interesting to see what happens next. Screech owls are using boxes or holes in trees to roost right now. They don’t nest until February or March. You may be hearing great horned owls right now because they are getting ready to nest and all that hooting is helping them find a mate. Screech owls don’t hoot, by the way. They either let loose with a blood curdling screech or make a sound that is sort of like the whinnying of a horse.
What to do…..
when you find an injured bird. First, if you are a child, find an adult and do not touch the bird. If you are an adult you need to assess the situation. Is the bird dangerous or in a dangerous situation? If you are not experienced in dealing with sick or injured wildlife please call the nearest agency that works with injured wildlife in your area. We are fortunate here on the Cape to have two excellent places, the Cape Wildlife Center in Cummaquid and Wild Care on the lower Cape (which may not be open this winter.) Do not call your local Audubon or other nature center as they are not equipped to deal with injured animals. They will refer you to the above named places.
If you are experienced enough to feel comfortable picking up an injured bird use gloves or a soft towel to gently pick it up. This little downy woodpecker was found by my neighbor. She had apparently collided with the window and spent much of the day under the window on the ground, according to my neighbor. The bird could not fly and was getting weaker and weaker. By the time I arrived it was almost dead. I put it in a soft towel and brought it indoors. Once inside I warmed it up by holding it close to my chest and after about 20 minutes I heard it peep and it started to wiggle. I gave it a bit of water off the end of a towel which it drank greedily.
After another 20 minutes or so I mixed a little peanut butter and suet and put it on the back of a spoon and the little bird pecked away at it, eating a fair amount.
I took it back outside as it seemed to be pretty perky but it couldn’t fly. I put it up on a branch but it just sat there. Night was falling and it was quite cold outside. I am not a trained bird rehabilitator and I knew if the bird was going to survive the night I needed to take it to the wildlife hospital. The people there are wonderful and they are going to call me later today to tell me how she is doing…by the time they got her she was pretty perky but hopefully they can either set a broken wing or figure out what else was going on there. I will keep you up to date as I learn more.
Follow up. Unfortunately the story has a sad end and the little bird didn’t make it. A necropsy showed she had severe brain trauma and bleeding and at least she died safe and warm and cared for and not alone in the dark and cold….
Just Ducky….
Earlier this week we went out on a rainy, gusty day. The tide was high in the marshes and the birds were hanging pretty close to shore.
Here you can see a group of ducks and gulls just hanging out, staying out of the blowing rain as much as they can….
Hunkered down, these three red breasted mergansers sort of tell the story of the day….
Yucky!
Brrrr or is that Burr?
When I was a kid the family dog was always coming home loaded with burrs in the fall and winter. Dogs ran loose in the neighborhoods back then and added their own part to moving the native plants around. I remember having to comb and brush and gently pull those burrs out of my dog’s fur and the other day while out walking my latest generation of dog we encountered some burrs which got me thinking about them again.
Burrs are technically seed heads with little bristles or hooks. They are known as “hitchhikers” because they attach to fur, clothing, etc. and get carried to a new location where hopefully they will be dropped or rubbed off, starting a new planting in a new location. Many different plants have these burrs but the most common in our area are teasel, which is a taller plant and shown in the bottom picture (It is the one with the cone like seed heads. The other plant with the basket shaped seed head is Queen Anne’s Lace) and these shown in the snowy photographs which are the seeds of American Burdock, a plant also known for its medicinal and edible qualities.
A fun fact about burrs is that velcro was developed by observing the way the hooks of burrs stuck to other materials.
Robins, Robins, Everywhere!
Have you been noticing a lot of robins around even though it is absolutely freezing and there is snow on the ground? Every winter for the last 20 or so years we have been seeing more and more robins from farther north coming down our way as the winter closes in. Robins will eat berries when worms aren’t available and we have lots of berries here on the Cape, especially cedar berries.
A few years ago the Christmas Bird Count listed thousands and thousands of robins in one location. Last year it was close to 100,000 birds. At dusk they fly in from all over. Some flocks are small, some are large and all are heading for the large stands of cedar where they will roost overnight.
As the robins move in they settle into the trees around the edges of the woodland, even as hundreds more are flying overhead. I wish I could show you this. I took a video but it just looks like hundreds of black specks flying across the screen.
This is one of the groups. There are lots of predators, such as Cooper’s hawks, around to take advantage of all this. We saw several hawks on the hunt and some of the people I was with say they have seen a merlin here as well.
As the sun began to set in earnest more and more birds arrived. Those little black specks in the sky are all robins flying in…..really an awesome sight.
If you want to see the robins flying in to roost you need to be there about half an hour before sunset. They are in West Barnstable in the area around the West Barnstable Post Office, the railroad tracks, etc. You can also go around sun rise to see them as they leave for the day. We saw a large group settling in today in Hyannis where there is a lot of holly and cedar trees so you may see them just about anywhere during the day. These robins will hang around as long as there is food. They may travel a bit farther south in search of food but many will stay until late February or early March when they will return north. Our own spring robins, which are smaller, will return as these are leaving.