Category Archives: cape cod spring

Happy Earth Day!

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To be honest, I think every day should be Earth Day. I hope you do, too.

Here’s my latest column on this subject.

From the Cape Cod Chronicle

I get asked all the time about teaching classes on keeping a nature journal so I’m offering an all day workshop at Cotuit Center for the Arts on Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. No experience is necessary, just a desire to go out in nature and take some notes or write some poetry or draw a picture–whatever you want. We will discuss all sorts of different ways to go about this because there is no ONE way–there’s YOUR way. This will be fun class and will be held rain or shine. Click on the Cotuit Center for the Arts link above for more information and to register. This is the perfect time of year to begin your nature journal.

Sandy Signs of Spring

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It’s starting to green up in the woods and in the meadows but also at the beach. It always amazes me to see the amount of plants that sprout in the sand. It’s a good thing because it’s the roots of all those wonderful green things that keeps the sand on the beach!

Beach grass can be found on dunes and on the upper parts of the beach that don’t get inundated by the tides. It has long, tenacious roots, often going six feet or more down through the sand to reach water. This is what stabilizes the dunes and helps the plants stay in place even in the toughest of storms.

Rosa rugosa, also known commonly as our beach rose, is another feisty plant that weathers all sorts of wind and rain, erosion and tidal sweeps. It is just starting to sprout leaves and it won’t be too long before it flowers.

Beach peas are another plant we see all over our beaches. It starts with these funny little purple sprouts but don’t let them fool you. Beach peas are strong and supple plants that vine along the sand producing purply-pink blossoms before the peas form. There is some debate as to whether these peas are good to eat or even edible but the birds and animals sure love them.
You will find many other plants starting to green up at our local beaches, including the ubiquitous seaside goldenrod and beach heathers.

I love seeing these plants push through the sand, maybe even more than the woodland ephemerals. These plants earn their keep by the seaside and I respect that about them, even the homeliest among them.

Do you have a favorite beach flower or plant?

Looking for spring in all the right places

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It’s been a while since I’ve even looked at my website , mostly because the rules changed about making our sites secure. Anyway, that is now fixed so let’s talk about spring.

Spring on Cape Cod is as ephemeral as the wildflowers associated with her—here one minute, gone the next. As always, I head out hopeful, even on the coldest of days.

Our beaches have taken a lot of hits this past year and erosion is intense and extreme almost everywhere.

Yesterday I went looking for ospreys and piping plovers and found both. I only had my phone with me so pictures aren’t great. Here’s a little video of one of the plovers I saw.

I’m going to leave this here for now as I figure out how to get this back up and running.

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll be back.

Finally, Spring is in the Air!

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Spring is always more of an idea than a reality on Cape Cod. The cold ocean keeps the temperatures on land cooler than farther inland and we have wind, a lot of wind, most days, as well.

Signs of spring are here, though. The ospreys and piping plovers have arrived. Crocuses are blooming. So are the stinky skunk cabbages. Red maple is starting to flower, peepers are starting to peep and the woodcocks are doing their springtime fling thing.

I have a super busy spring ahead, teaching lots of classes and doing lots of painting and writing myself.

Two special sketching and watercolor retreats are planned for May and June. In May we’ll be staying at a farmhouse in Truro for three days, May 17-19, and traveling about Truro and Provincetown to do our work. We have a great indoor space as well, in case the weather doesn’t cooperate. Cost is $450 and is all inclusive; bed, board and lessons.

June 21-23 I’ll be heading to Deer Isle on the coast of Maine, just in time for the explosion of lupines all over the island. There are amazing views from pretty much everywhere and it’s a lobster fishing village. Accommodations are rustic but adequate and most of the time we’ll be out and about exploring, sketching and painting. Again, everything is included for $450.

Both retreats are filling fast so please be in touch soon if you wish to reserve a spot. capecodartandnature at gmail dot com is the address. Sorry, this host doesn’t allow email links for some reason.

If you’re a real beginner I have both a Sketching for Scaredy Cats and a Watercolor for Scaredy Cats class that have just started at Cotuit Center for the Arts. These will repeat in the summer so keep watch if they’re something you’d like to try. I’ll also be teaching my Watercolor and Sketching on Location all over the Cape all summer long.

May on Cape Cod

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Ah, May….It came in like winter and is heading out almost like spring. Must be Cape Cod. This sure has been a rough spring weather-wise but those warm, lovely days? Can’t be beat and maybe we think that because they’ve been so rare.

Beach walks have been brisk right up through this week. Winds have been steady and some days so much sand has been blowing that it’s been difficult to walk without getting sand blasted. Some days, however, have been just perfect. Terns are here, piping plovers and willets are nesting and ospreys are calling overhead. Doesn’t get much better than that. This weekend marks the beginning of the summer season here so solitary walks will be more difficult to pull off over the next few months.

You may have noticed lots of fluffy white flowered shrubs along the beach and even along the median strips on the highways here. These are the famous beach plums blossoming. Jam makers note these locations for future plum picking.

Many people confuse the beach plums with the fat orange and red rose hips of the Rosa rugosa, commonly called the beach rose. These are just coming into flower and by late summer the hips will be all over. They are also edible thought not as sought after as their purple plum cousins.

Earlier this month I participated in Mass Audubon’s Birdathon. My youngest grandson came along for the full 24 hours of birding and proved himself to be a wonderful bird spotter. The Birdathon is one of Mass Audubon’s biggest fundraisers and our team aimed to raise a certain amount of money. If you’d like to contribute, donations are being accepted up to June 1.

About 6 weeks ago I decided to join a #100dayproject in which you pledge to do something for 100 days and post it to Instagram or Facebook or whatever. I decided to sketch something in nature every day for 100 days. Although I regularly sketch, I don’t think I’ve ever worried about doing it daily. I’m on day 53 as of today and have been faithful to the challenge. It’s been a blast. And, my little sketchbook is a diary of sorts of spring waking up on the Cape. If you are interested in keeping a nature sketchbook, I’ll be offering an online class this summer. You can email me at capecodartandnature at gmail dot com for more info (I can’t add email links here for some reason.)

Spring is finally here!

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It’s been a long, hard haul, pulling spring into shore here on Cape Cod. Our springs are always fugitive things, playing hide and seek with us for months, but this year was especially brutal with March bringing a quartet of high level storms.

Today is May 2, however, and spring is springing up all over. Mayflowers are in bloom in many of our scrub woodlands. Look for them on sunny sides of paths. They love disturbed areas.

Fiddler crabs are enjoying the sunny, warm weather as well. Look for them in tidal areas near salt marshes. Often you will see the telltale holes but no crabs. That’s because they hear you coming. Try standing still where your shadow is not cast over their holes. In a few minutes they will usually re-emerge and go about their business. Don’t move or talk, though, or they’ll scurry back to safety.

Over the past week or so, the weather has been wet, foggy, cold, hot, sunny, cloudy, stormy and sublime. Sometimes all in the same day! Bad weather does make for good sky photos….

There’s nothing like a calm, beautiful morning at the beach, though. The photo below is from this morning’s walk at Kalmus Beach. Piping plovers were flirting, gulls were catching spider crabs and the sweet song of a horned lark warbled out of the dunes.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time walking in the woods. This week I’ve been in the woods in Hyannis, Barnstable and Mashpee. Lots of birds, including towhees, pine warblers, chipping sparrows, woodpeckers, red breasted nuthatches and a broad winged hawk in Mashpee. A red shouldered hawk at Long Pasture in Barnstable.

On the home front, the orioles, catbirds and hummingbirds have arrived so put out those feeders for these hungry migrants. Stay tuned for the amazing warbler show which will be busting out on Cape Cod in the next few weeks.

As always, I’ll be doing the Mass Audubon Birdathon. More on that in a few days.

Cape Cod Spring Sketchbook

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Wow! It’s been awhile since I wrote a blog post. I’m busy on Facebook and Instagram (just search for Cape Cod Art and Nature) these days but would like to get back to posting here as well.

It’s been an interesting spring so far. Spring, you say? What spring? It’s been a non spring, actually! One of my recent columns talks about this and you can read it here.

I’ve joined a #100dayproject challenge this year and have been updating my sketchbook daily. I’ve always kept a sketchbook journal but it hasn’t really been daily, except in small spurts. I try to draw on location out in the field but to be honest, it’s been too cold to paint out there. I add the color with watercolor in my studio. On rainy days I’ve used things like shells and feathers from my collections.

On one rainy and blustery day I sat in a beach parking lot and drew these flirting laughing gulls.
Lichens are always interesting and challenging to draw. I often add notes, thoughts, questions to my pages. I also list the birds I see or hear. I’ll be offering an online nature journal class that will start in the next few weeks. No experience is necessary, just a willingness to get outside and observe. If you would like to be added to my email list please let me know at capecodartandnature@gmail.com For some reason wordpress doesn’t allow email links in posts so I apologize for the extra step. Just copy and paste in your email bar.

I’m heading off to a writer’s conference this weekend. And yes, I finished my middle grade novel for kids. I’m hoping to find an agent. More on the book soon. Until then, enjoy what could be spring weather this weekend!

King Eider at Cape Cod Canal

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Every winter we get a few birds hanging around our area that are fairly rare but which appear as singletons with some regularity. For example, harlequin ducks, beautiful birds from the far north that usually winter off the rocky Maine coast, can be seen off the Cape in several locations almost every winter. There may be one or two that spend a good part of the winter by the canal jetty each winter and there always seems to be at least one seen at Nauset or Coast Guard Beach. I have seen them in both locations each winter for at least 10 years but just the one or two.

King eiders are another northern duck that seems to make a yearly appearance here on the Cape in the winter. Most often seen with the flocks of eider ducks in or around the Cape Cod Canal one can sometimes be seen off the outer Cape beaches or off Sandy Neck, which may be the same one seen by the canal. That’s a king eider smack in the center, hanging out with his common eider buddies.

Some years I spy one but for the last few years when a king eider has been reported at the canal I have missed it. This year reports have been coming in over the last few weeks that a very accommodating king eider drake was being seen daily by the herring run on the Wareham side of the canal. The weather was rough and I was busy and I enjoyed everyone else’s photos. Until yesterday. Yesterday we were heading to New Bedford so we had a chance to stop and see the bird.

As everyone else had mentioned, it was indeed, right there and easy to spot. I do not have a fancy camera so you can see how close the bird was. If you’re so inclined, go see it. One of these days it will leave but for now it seems quite content to hang out eating shellfish and crustaceans which are abundant in the canal, especially along the rocky jetties.

Saturday musings

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What a strange week it has been! Cold, warm, misty, drizzly, and windy. Very, very windy. But, oh, that light! If you can’t find spring anywhere in our gray and damp Cape Cod landscape, just enjoy the light.


For me, it’s been a week of busy days. Planning for summer and fall programs already, getting settled in my new job at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum and writing, lots of writing.

My April Vacation programs are now listed online and open for registration.

Many of you know I’m finishing up my dummy for a picture book. I am hoping that will go out to a few publishers next week. I am also finishing a draft of a middle grade novel and hope to work on a final draft over the summer so I can send it out early in the fall to agents.


In the meantime I am writing my weekly columns, which I still love all these years later. I am also writing features and reviews for the Barnstable Patriot almost every week. This week I am adding the links to some of those below.

My Nature’s Way column for this week can be found at http://orleans.wickedlocal.com/entertainmentlife/20170324/natures-ways-day-by-day

My Weekly Nature Watch column is here http://www.capenews.net/columns/weekly-nature-watch-it-s-springtime-at-last/article_ab1e1d2c-48d3-5473-9662-7ebb4d8f3199.html

There’s a fabulous new show at the Cahoon Museum of American Art http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/news/20170323/landmark-exhibit-opens-at-cahoon-museum-in-cotuit

Nancy Rubin Stuart will be reading from her latest manuscript at the Hyannis Public Library next Wednesday http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/news/20170323/author-seeks-feedback-from-readers-in-hyannis-library-talk

The Cape Cod Synagogue will be hosting a Kosher Deli Dinner and Dance http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/news/20170323/cape-cod-synagogue-in-hyannis-hosts-annual-kosher-deli-dinner

The Blackbirds are Back!

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It’s always one of my favorite and first signs of spring–the return of the blackbirds. I often get common grackles before I get red-winged blackbirds at my own backyard feeders but I know the red-wings are around because I hear them.

Common grackles are big, bold and glossy birds with big yellow eyes. Their fan shaped tails are distinctive as is their raucous behavior. You always know when they are around.

Male grackles are the first to arrive, though it is difficult to tell males and females apart. Their big, solid bills help the crack corn and also eat carrion. They will gobble down seed and suet faster than you can say, hey, leave some for the squirrels and they often bicker while doing so. You have to give them credit in the looks department though. I think they are gorgeous birds, all that color glowing off them as they turn in the light. Their calls are loud and scratchy, often compared to the sound of rusty gate hinges.Red-winged blackbirds arrive in large flocks, often mixed in with grackles. Like grackles, the males arrive first and almost immediately begin to stake out territory.

Check out this guy’s raggedy tail feathers. All migratory birds look a bit haggard when they first arrive. They are often thin, minus a few feathers and in need of a good rest. That doesn’t stop them from declaring their superiority, however. Flocks of blackbirds often quibble in the still bare trees and will sing, if we can call it singing, louder and louder as time goes on and the others don’t move. That’s when you’ll start to see some aggression as one bird will decide to chase the others away. This early in the spring the others often ignore such antics and just move away a foot or so, if that. When they first arrive, the epaulets of the male red-winged blackbirds may appear dingy and lackluster. In a few weeks time the yellow and red will become quite bright, all the better to see and be seen in their world. Those bright red patches can be puffed out to seem much larger than they are. These are used as warning signals while setting up territories and chasing out would be interlopers but are also used to attract mates once the females arrive. Most are familiar with the “conkle-a-REE!” call of the red-winged blackbird. If you haven’t heard it yet, keep listening. By the end of this week they should be singing Cape wide.Have you seen a red-winged blackbird yet? Where?