Whale Watching

Posted on August 1, 2013August 1, 2013 by Dusty Roads

A friend asked me what whale watching was like. The question caught me off guard. I was on my way to Plymouth to do exactly that, take a Whale Watch trip with Capt’n John.

As we pulled out of Plymouth Harbor I looked around at all the people on the boat and thought about the question. It’s a lot like fishing. You go out with your bait , toss in your line and …wait and wait…and wait and if you’re lucky you get a bite and if you’re really lucky you get a fish.

Well when you go whale watching you get on a boat and ride, and ride and ride some more. Finally someone spots a spout or blow and the boat slows down. Now you wait in one spot while everyone looks around the boat to see if the whale is going to surface any place close. If your lucky you’ll see another blow and maybe a back.

The jackpot or whale watching’s equivalent of landing the fish is having the huge mammal cruise along side the boat giving you a real good look. To borrow a phrase from Animal Planet’s show Call of the Wildman; “That’s live action , Baby!”

Just off the tip of Cape Cod we got we got our first blow with the Pilgrim Tower of Provincetown in the background. Several Minke Whales were passing through. Minke whales are one of the smallest of the baleen whales, growing to only 24-26 ft. Baleen whales are filter feeders. They strain water though the baleen hairs and Krill and other small marine creatures are captured there. Hard to believe feeding this way can result in such a large animal.

They were small and kept their distance (kind of like a nibble in fishing). It was enough to get everyone excited but not close enough for pictures. So we motored on.

It didn’t take too much longer before we got another blow. This time it was a Fin Back Whale and there was more than one. The naturalist kept telling us that the fin backs were the greyhounds of whales around here (Massachusetts) but they didn’t seem to be in a big rush. They cruised along near the surface doing shallow dives and short blows.

At one point one of them cruised right next to the boat . You could actually see it as it began to come to the surface which made timing the picture for when it surfaced pretty easy.

The naturalist was using the size of our boat to estimate the length of the whales. She said they were all around 80 ft. long.

I don’t know how many different whales we saw. I lost track.

I checked Capt. John’s web sites but they didn’t post our trip. 🙁 No humpbacks today. They are my favorite. When they dive you get the classic tail flukes but when Fin Backs dive there’s no tail. It makes me think of a submarine.

There might be a little hump and fin and then it’s gone. In a shallow dive they just seem to sink away.

There was enough action so that everyone came away happy even without the appearance of any humpbacks.

I may just have to try to squeeze in another trip just to try for the humpbacks.

A Wednesday Puzzle

Posted on July 31, 2013July 31, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Happy Wednesday! Yesterday I was out exploring for things I can share and I took an unusual picture. Let’s see if you can guess what it is!

The Butterfly Place

Posted on July 28, 2013July 28, 2013 by Dusty Roads

The Butterfly Place in Westford, MA is located at 120 Tyngsboro Rd. It’d been a long, long time since I’d been there. From where I live in Taunton it’s about 70 miles and should take about an hour and 30 minutes to get there, depending on traffic.

I was making good time until an RV and an SUV decided to mix it up at the junction of RT 90 (Mass Pike) I was about 2 miles from the “Pike” when traffic stopped. The WB ‘copter floated overhead so I had an up to the minute report. According to them we weren’t going anywhere soon.

I shut off the car and open the windows and doors. Soon everyone was doing the same. People wandered around at the side of the road or up and down between the cars. Several ambulances and tow trucks went by but I didn’t see any Med flights so that was a good sign.

The hour we waited actually passed pretty quickly and I arrived at The Butterfly Place at 2:30 instead of 1:30.

The rules are simple, No Touch, No Talk, No Eye Contact..no wait, that’ the Dog Whisperer but it was similar. To protect the fragile inmates there was a no touch policy. If you are caught trying to attract a butterfly to your hands you are asked to leave.

It’s smaller than the Magic Wings venue in Deerfield but the principle is the same. There’s a coi pond, paths through greenery and little benches. Butterflies are everywhere. This is a family owned business so I don’t know if the staff was family or “hired help” but they were very nice and quite knowledgeable. They laughed when I told them I wanted to take pictures (Turns out so did everyone else) and challenged me to get a picture of one of the blue butterflies showing the blue. When they land they close their wings and look like a drab , brown butterfly.

They were the challenge, for sure. When they lit on the ground they did spread their wings…for a second and in spite of trying forever I couldn’t time it right so imagine my surprise when one landed right next to me and spread its wings as if to say “take it now, you only have one chance.”

Although we finally had a pleasant day outside, it was 80+ and humid inside. Just the temps the butterflies love.

You’ve already seen my favorite pictures on Wordless Wednesday.

Like Magic Wings, there were little Quail running every where. You had to be careful not to step on the tiny birds. The attendant called them Chinese Painted Quail.

Don’t let the small size fool you. They are fully mature. More than one pair were intent on making little quail. I got a chuckle when I heard a small voice ask his mother “What’s Mating?”.

I also spotted a pretty little bird. I couldn’t place it but something was tugging at the corner of my mind so I asked. It’s a Zebra Finch. I must have seen them at a pet store as they are domestic birds. She said there are 3 but the most I saw at once were 2 and I couldn’t tell them apart.

Butterfly wings closes at 5pm so about 4:30 I picked up the camera and headed home. The timing would put me right in rush hour traffic but it was worth it. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

Norris Reservation

Posted on July 26, 2013July 26, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I love learning about little hidden gems of protected areas. Green spaces in the heart of urban Massachusetts, always a surprise, always a treasure.

I guess it’s true that you can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl. I grew up in the Adirondacks exploring the woods and fields and then I became “urbanized” , exploring the concrete jungle, museums, aquariums, zoos. As I’ve grown older I’ve been increasingly draw back toward my roots. I’ve tired of traffic and gas fumes and crowds. I look for quiet places, woods and steams. I thrill to the sight of a hawk or osprey, a great blue heron or an egret; the flick of a white tail’s flag , a parade of baby geese.

I follow the news of great white sharks off Cape Cod or the rescue of a baby harbor seal.

So I was thrilled to learn of a little place called Norris Reservation in Norwell, MA.

The day I was introduced to this little island of green was one of the hottest, most humid days we have had in this summer of hot, humid days. But even with the uncomfortable conditions I met plenty of other walkers.

Norris Reservation is small, only about 2 miles of easy trails, but it wasn’t crowded. There are board walks and well groomed trails covered in pine needles.

Lovely stone benches along the way let you pause and contemplate the quiet beauty of the natural surroundings.

I only explored about 1/2 of the trails on this, my first visit. I didn’t get to the tidal marsh or the bend in the North River.

The literature speaks of a boat house and picnic areas that I still need to discover.

My direction took me over a little bridge to a boardwalk around a pond. I heard something splashing in the water but I couldn’t see what it was. I sat on a bench and watched the fish rise and dragon flies zoom from flower to flower.