Tag Archives: cape cod art and nature

Documenting a September walk in my Cape Cod nature journal

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It’s hard to believe it’s already two thirds of the way through September but here we are. The air is cooler, the birds are gathering to migrate, and the flowers are giving up their blooms.

We went for a walk around Hathaway’s Pond this morning to see what we could see. I took along my lightweight travel bag, a big old plastic bag I’ve used for years, and a pair of garden shears. My goal was to clip some plants and leaves along the way to bring back to my studio to draw and paint, having just completed five days of John Muir Laws‘s Wild Wonder Nature Journal Conference. Although I’ve kept a nature journal for many years, I admit I’d been slacking so this was the incentive I needed to get back to it.

The water level at the pond was exceptionally low and I found many wildflowers around the edge. Most are common, some are even invasive, but I clipped them anyway, to look up, draw and paint. I’m far from a botanist so I’m always learning new plants. I looked everything up but I may be wrong so feel free to correct me.

Here’s what I brought back after an hour or so of wandering

I put everything that needed water in a jar of water and the other things back in the bag until I was ready to work with them. I drew in ink and then added watercolor.

Pondside plants, Mary Richmond’s nature journal, Cape Cod
Woodland plants, Mary Richmond’s nature journal, Cape Cod
Random finds on the woodland floor, Mary Richmond’s nature journal, Cape Cod

I spent most of the day on this project–collecting, sorting, looking things up, sketching, painting. I often don’t have that sort of time but when I do it always enriches me. It’s good to slow down, take note, appreciate the small things we see around us but tend to take for granted.

Nature Expo!

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This weekend I’ll be out and about at the first Nature Expo in Hyannis. Sponsored by the Hyannis Youth and Community Center this event involves just about all the nature and conservation organizations and related businesses from around the Cape.

Today we did programs with about 500 5th graders from the town of Barnstable! So much fun and so much energy! My program is about bats and the art activity is making a simple origami type bat. This is a part of our colorful bat cave wall.

007Look for this banner and come by to say hello!

002On Sunday it is Spring on Main Street and  I’ll be on Main St. in Hyannis doing a chalk drawing on the sidewalk that all are invited to join in on.

NATURE EXPO SCHOOL FLYER final

 

Late May on the beach….

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It is only a few days before Memorial Day and the Cape Cod beaches are beautiful…and still pretty quiet so come for a walk with me…

First we’ll take a turn by the sweet smelling rosa rugosa’s which are blooming really early this year…

We will stop to admire the beach peas, also blooming really early….and while we’re at it we’ll look out over Nantucket Sound…

Here’s a close up of those lovely beach peas…

We’ll enjoy the view of the sliver that remains of Egg Island, that only shows up at low tide. That’s Great Island in Yarmouth in the background.

We’ll stop to look across Lewis Bay in the amazing light…

Check out some courting least terns…

and smile at the ones lined up at the edge of the water…

And then we’ll take one last long look at the sand, sea and sky before we head back to work…

Discovering new places….

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I love getting out and discovering new places, especially here on the Cape where I’ve lived virtually my whole life. Over the next 7 weeks I’ll be leading art and nature walks on Saturday mornings for the Barnstable Land Trust and while preparing for these walks I’ve discovered some wonderful places. This morning we were at the Sydney Woodlands in Hyannis, a new piece of property for the BLT sandwiched between town watershed land and a very suburban neighborhood. You would never guess it to look at it but this area even has its own crystal clear spring outlet with drinkable water.

The area is off Pitcher’s Way heading south toward Craigville Beach Rd. and you would never know this little gem was there. It backs up to Simmons Pond on one end and Ben’s Pond on the other. We started off looking at the wonderful ground cover plants and doing some sketches. Star flower, Canada mayflower and sarsparilla are all in bloom–among the very healthy poison ivy plants.

We heard a lot of the usual bird suspects you would expect to find in a fragmented woodland and pond area like this–towhees, pine warblers, common yellowthroats, yellowwarblers, robins, catbirds, blue jays, red winged blackbirds, downy woodpeckers, white breasted nuthatches, song sparrows, titmice, grackles and so on….and at one point we heard the sounds of grackles in distress. It didn’t take us long to find their nest, or the cause of their distress….

Their nest was being raided by a Cooper’s hawk! The hawk landed nearby and began to enjoy its catch while the grackles continued making distress sounds.

After taking its fill the hawk turned, the young bird still in its talons, and flew into a tree nearby…

There, up high in the tree was its own nest. We watched it join the other adult bird which then took off, leaving this hawk with the food and the hungry young, which we could hear begging.

Look closely toward the top of the nest and hopefully you can see the hawk–its long tail is sticking out toward the right and just looks dark.

Soon the other hawk was raiding the same grackle nest and it became apparent right away that ma and pa grackle had made a dreadful mistake in their choice of nest location. These grackles will probably build a new nest, lay more eggs and try to raise more young but hopefully they will choose a different neighborhood….

Anyway, it was pretty exciting to find this hawk nest–which is very close to homes and busy paths. We know that Cooper’s hawks have adapted to suburban living with the proliferation of bird feeders offering them easy pickings and this was just one more example of that. Also, don’t feel too sorry for the grackles….they raid plenty of other bird nests themselves…

For more information on upcoming Barnstable Land Trust walks please check their website.