Now!
Something very rare is happening on Cape Cod right now….
Spring! I hope you can get outside and enjoy it!
One of the earliest, sweetest wildflowers to bloom on Cape Cod is our state flower, the trailing arbutus or mayflower. If you look at the picture below there are two green plants (not counting the moss) The smaller, shinier leaves are of teaberry, also known as common wintergreen. The larger, lighter green leaves are of the mayflower. They feel quite tough and leathery, not smooth like the teaberry.
You can find mayflowers in many of our woodland areas and often along side a path as they seem to like sunny locations on a bank. Even my dog wanted to check them out to see if they were blooming yet….
Not quite! But maybe they will be ready when the sun comes back out later this week. If you are headed out for a woodland walk this weekend keep your eyes open. The blooms often hide just under the leaves. If you can get down on the ground to smell them they have a most wonderful, heavenly scent….
I was at South Cape Beach in Mashpee yesterday when I saw these swans. There must have been 60-70 of them just hanging out on the edge of the marsh during a high tide.
Many swans are already on nests but obviously these ones aren’t. The weather has been so awful that some swans lost their nests and may try again but many of these may simply not have found nesting areas yet or are too young or otherwise unable to be paired off and reproduce this year.
I was photographing these at quite a distance so ended up with more back ends than front ends as the swans faced into the very brisk winds….
I will see if I can find out more information about these large gatherings of swans since it seems late in the year for them to me….
If you have been in an area where swans are common you may have noticed that one of the swans seems to be missing. Where once there were two….there is now just one.
Don’t be alarmed. The second swan is probably not too far away. She is just otherwise engaged.
She is probably sitting on her nest. Swans build huge nests and lay anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen eggs and they will need room for all those little babies.
Baby swans, called cygnets, will hatch somewhere around mid to late April. If you know where there is a swan nest do not approach it. Swans are very protective, especially the males and can cause quite a bit of harm if they think you are intruding. Be especially careful with children. Watch and enjoy from afar!
One of our earliest signs of spring here on the Cape is the all out return of the blackbirds, both the red-winged blackbirds and the grackles. Some stay all winter and some straggle in the last week in February and the first few weeks of March but today was the first day I saw hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them….everywhere we went.
They were stirring up quite a racket in the trees, in the bushes, even on the wires all along the marshes and wetlands.
In the fog and gray their colors were not as distinctive or bright as they will be on a bright sunny day but you can still see this fellow’s red epaulet as he lets everyone know he’s in the area.
I love how they put their whole body into their exclamation. There’s no doubt who is king of this here branch….
Listen for their “rusty gate” calls that sound sort of like “conk-a-reeeee.” These birds were photographed today in Harwich.
We are very lucky to have this wonderful organization on the Cape. The National Marine Life Center began as a dream about 15 or so years ago and although it is far from complete plans are in motion to make this a top notch place for research and rehabilitation for marine life such as sea turtles, seals, porpoises, dolphins and even pilot whale.
The outside may not seem auspicious at first…
but inside there are many exhibits in the discovery center, most of which are hands on.
All visitors can peek into one of the “hospital” rooms and see the animals that are being rehabilitated there. Because today was a special open house we got to go on a tour of the whole facility.
This volunteer is putting together the skeleton of a porpoise…..
Inside the hospital room we were shown an X-ray of the shell of the diamond back terrapin that is a patient there. She has been there for quite a while and is actually losing her shell. She will grow a sort of replacement shell but it will take a while longer. She may be there another 2 years.
The picture is sort of distorted since she is under water but this is Patty, named because she was found on St. Patrick’s Day last year. Turtles brumate, or hibernate, and this little lady woke up too soon and was not in good shape when she was found.
In a different part of the building we got to see the tank full of the Plymouth Red-bellied cooters that the center is “head-starting.” I will do a separate post about them later.
This little baby is a hatchling diamond back terrapin that hatched late last fall, too late to winter over safely. It and 7 of its brothers and sisters are getting the royal treatment and each has its own small aquarium.
Next the director, Kathy Zagzebski took us into the room where the big turtle and seal tanks are being installed. This area is not finished yet but she explained what would need to be done before they would be ready to be used.
This last shot is of the area where the really big pools will be for the dolphins and even pilot whales. At this point the center needs to raise more money to complete their project but it’s pretty amazing all that has been done so far. If you didn’t make it to the open house today there will be another one in April. Check it out!
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….
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?
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.
