Butterflies of Cape Cod

Posted on August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 by Dusty Roads

As you know I explored the Butterfly place in Westford recently. As a result of that post I was told about another Butterfly house located on Cape Cod. A quick online search turned up an address in Bourne, 26 Herring Pond Rd. I plugged it into my GPS and was off to check it out.

About half way there I realized that I knew where I was going. I’d seen the sign for Butterflies of Cape Cod many times as I headed for the Sagamore Bridge.

I always promised myself I would stop in one day. I didn’t realize it was a butterfly habitat. I thought it was just a gift shop.

Sure enough, my GPS led me right to this spot.

The butterfly house is located behind the gift shop which is in a pretty little house. You enter the front door into the shop and go out the back into a yard. The screened butterfly habitat is right there.

The habitat is smaller than The Butterfly Place in Westford or Magic Wings in Deerfield but that isn’t the only difference. Westford and Deerfield celebrate tropical butterflies. This little habitat features local butterflies and moths. This is nice because you get to see butterflies up close that might only flit quickly away in the open. These are butterflies that could be in anyone’s yard or field.

As you first enter the habitat there are glass enclosures containing caterpillars and chrysalis and pupae. Pass through another screen and you are in the little container garden.

As soon as I entered I spotted a big ole Luna Moth. These are such beautiful creatures. The green shade is “other worldly”. I have seen them before but rarely and it’s always a treat. One of the owners was there and he said it was just sitting there now because it was daytime but that in the evening the Luna Moths get very active floating around on those gorgeous wings.

There were a lot of Monarch butterflies. They seemed to be very social insects gathering in groups on the flowers.

They made great subjects as they paid no attention to the humans wandering around.

Two other butterflies that I’ve often see were also present, one called a Buckeye and another called the Painted Lady.

We had to watch where we stepped because some of those silly butterflies like sunning themselves on the warm, cement path.

There were a couple of local swallow tail butterflies but as is so often in these habitats the tails were damaged or missing.

The challenge was the little white butterfly called a Cabbage Butterfly. They are small and they don’t land long.

Even when they do land they often keep their wings fluttering. I don’t think they are rare. I can remember seeing them everywhere when I was growing up.

I spotted some caterpillars climbing in the greenery, future butterflies on the move.

As I was leaving I stopped in to chat with the proprietors. They can be found on Facebook (who can’t these days) but if you like them you will get updates when a new butterfly hatches in the enclosure.

The little store has lots of nice things from jewelry to books to miniature butterfly enclosures for kids to learn from. Plus they have lots of pictures of their butterflies. I wonder if they would be interested in carrying my cards? I could make a special set of just their butterflies. I think I’ll take a sample next time I go down. Never hurts to ask!

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!

Welcome Corporalchef!

Posted on July 30, 2013July 30, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I love finding new blogs to follow and it’s especially nice when I know the person behind the name. It makes me feel like I know a celebrity.

Anyway, one of my former co workers from my “old job”, whom I hold in very high esteem for the job he has always done there, has a habit of posting the most delicious, yummy looking things on Facebook. It appears that he is quite a cook.

To everyone’s delight he has decided to share some of his creations on a new blog along with his comments on some of the celebrity chefs that rule the airwaves today. Look at this mouth watering chicken dinner he recently posted.

Want the recipe? It’s on his blog.

Whether you agree with his observations or not you can’t fault his home grown recipes. I expect his blog will generate some lively discussions.

I hope you’ll check out his blog http://corporalchef.com/

If you like what you see let’s pass it on so he can grow his audience. After all, who doesn’t like food. And maybe we can all say we had a hand in helping the Next Celebrity Chef!

It’s A Furry, Furry World

Posted on July 29, 2013July 29, 2013 by Dusty Roads

It’s been quite awhile since I updated everyone on my 3 cat home life. What brought it to mind was the chaos being reaped this morning. I heard a series of loud bumps and bangs and then a horrible crash. No sleeping in this morning! (For me anyway)

I dashed into the living room to see what had been destroyed this time only to see 3 innocent looking faces staring at me. No one was at war, everyone sitting calmly. Hmmmm maybe a bit toooo calmly.

As I began to get their breakfast together I began to see the signs. My electric fry pan that lives on my counter when not in use was still on the counter, but it hung precariously.

The small cat tree that arrived with Buddy was tipped over.

OK nothing broken. I fed them breakfast, refreshed the water and headed in to clean the kitty litter. My life revolves around mundane kitty chores before I can take my shower and have my breakfast.

Before I even started the first scoop a cat ran between my legs, nearly tripping me and bolted back toward the living room…Buddy. Right on his heels came an orange streak that nearly bowled me over….Rocky! Up over the back of the couch, a leap past the TV and the 2 raced to the dining room where Rocky bolted to the top of the china cabinet. Buddy wisely refused to try !

A few minutes later Rocky jumped down with a thud and the two crazy cats plopped down in the middle of the floor to groom.

Back to the chores I went. Then into the shower.

When I stepped out dripping wet there was Buddy making himself at home on my clean towel. Although I got him off the towel he wasn’t leaving. This cat is addicted to the hair dryer. In his little kitty mind he’s figure out that shower = hair dryer. So another ritual has been born. I just can’t take a picture when I have the hair dryer in my hands.

Finally I’m ready to sit down to my breakfast. So that means it’s time for Smokey to get in the act. His “thing” is to sit and stare at me as I try to enjoy breakfast. It’s his hope that I’ll drop something he can grab.

With the hot weather we’ve been having Smokey is a walking fur factory. He leaves a trail of kitty fur where ever he goes. Constant vacuuming (the rug)and brushing (his hair) has not seemed to make much of a difference.

Smokey is the referee. Buddy and Rocky get into some major tussles and if they get out of hand the clawless wonder (Smokey) jumps in an breaks it up. Hard to believe but the smallest, oldest and the only declawed cat in the household is the one to break up the fights that get out of hand. Give him a striped shirt!

Most of the fights seem to be play fights but every now and then it gets intense. That’s when Smokey jumps in and hits them with his paw! I try not to laugh. But they both pay attention and “stand down”.