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….
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.
It is so unusual for us to have snow on the ground for this long but I have to admit I’m totally enjoying the opportunity to go walk and explore in it. These photos are from the Murkwood Conservation Area in E. Sandwich. It’s a tiny area of old farmland overtaken by a young woodland that includes black locust and American Holly among the usual red cedar, pitch pine and white and black oaks that populate the area. The area juts into the marsh bordering Scorton Creek. There are lots of migratory birds there in season and it is not unusual to see or find signs of other native wildlife such as deer, fox and coyotes.
Lots of beetle trails and insect holes in this fallen log.
There were lots of rabbit tracks around this pile of wood which is not surprising since it makes a perfect hiding spot.
Pippsissewa leaves peeking out of the snow…..
One of the fun things about taking a walk in the snow is following the trails of the animals and birds that passed through before you. Kids love tracks because they often tell a story that is easy for them to follow. These tracks are from a rabbit.
These little bird prints are from the snow buntings….
More snow bunting tracks. Notice the little drag behind the prints.
These prints are larger and heavier and belong to crows….
And these prints show webbed feet. Not ducks, though….gulls!
More gull prints….
You can probably guess that these prints were found at the beach. No matter what time of year it is, the beach is always a great place to look for tracks, especially if you go early in the morning before people tracks cover up the animal ones.
Every fall I watch the dunes while on one of my favorite beach walks for one of my favorite winter birds. Snow buntings arrive some time around the end of October each year and can be found at many Cape beaches that have protected dunes. They fly in from the arctic, where they breed each summer and when they first arrive you might be lucky enough to see a few still in their full breeding regalia. They are a lovely, elegant little bird with beautiful markings. Even in the winter I think they are quite lovely to behold.
I think many people mistake them for sparrows, for they gather in small flocks, twitter as they are feeding and spend much of their time feeding on seeds on the ground.
They are very well camouflaged and many folks probably walk right by them without a thought. I just get a kick out of them. They are quick and spunky and I love to watch them rise up and chase a crow or a hawk in a big cloud of wings and feathers. When they land they land with a bit of a chattering ruckus as if to say, can you believe the nerve of that guy?
On this sunny afternoon I didn’t want to get too close and disturb their feeding and I knew they had a good eye on me. My camera has a decent zoom which is how I got these pictures but they don’t really show how beautiful these little birds are.
There was a brief but beautiful frost this morning…
There’s something so lovely about the crystal frosting….even the dead flower heads look wonderful…..
This little song sparrow arrived just after the snow storm blew out this week. The wind was still blowing and it was holding on to the weeds for dear life. You can see the movement of the tail as it tries to steady itself.
It finally had to give up and move but you can still see that little tail working away! Song sparrows are lovely little birds that are easy for children to learn to identify. They have a stripey front with a big dark spot in the middle of it which makes them look different from the other common sparrows we have on the Cape, such as the ubiquitous and non native house sparrows. Song sparrows often sit at the very top of bushes and in the spring are among the first birds to burst into song, other attributes that make them easy to identify.
If you’re thinking you didn’t used to see moths on the Cape in November and December you are absolutely right. These little guys are natives of areas like Canada and have been moving south into our area over the last five or six years. This is their mating time and the swarms of moths you are seeing are males. The females do not fly and are mostly found crawling up tree trunks, front doors, etc. They look more like plain old bugs without wings and you probably wouldn’t think they were a moth at all.
One of the true pleasures of living near the sea is being able to find and eat fresh shellfish and other sea food. Bay scallops, also called Blue-eyed scallops may be one of the most favored and sought after of shellfish. Small, tender and sweet they make wonderful eating. When I was a child growing up on Cape Cod bay scallops were plentiful but these days they have become a much rarer find and are very expensive. It used to be that they would wash up on local beaches by the thousands after a good storm and the locals would be ready with buckets in hand to run along the shore to scoop up as many as they could as the tide receded. Sadly those days are long gone.
We saw quite a few seals swimming around and of course all the fishing boats reminded us of the ways people have traditionally survived and made their livings here for hundreds of years.