A Seal Of Approval

Posted on August 16, 2013August 16, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Great White Sharks are prowling the shores of Cape Cod once again as the seal population continues to explode. If there was any doubt that the great predators are here to stay it was dispelled when the discovery channel aired Shark Week and the Great Whites of Cape Cod were prominently featured.

I would still like to see a Great White Shark but I would hate to have to go to South Africa to see “air jaws” when we have our own crop of “Jaws” right here at home. At first they were just hanging out in Chatham eating the seals of Monemoy Island but now it appears that they are spreading northward toward Orleans and Truro.

So on a sunny day last week I headed to Chatham to see for myself. My last visit to the seals on Monemoy was back in 2010.

A lot of changes can happen in 3 years. The first change was that the little shuttle isn’t running. I’m still researching ways to get to the island but in the meantime I called the Beachcomber Seal Tours and made a reservation for an afternoon trip.

The tour didn’t leave from the Fish Pier this time. They said that parking had become impossible there so they had us go to their marine showroom and then shuttled us to the boat in a green trolley.

We had a full boat for the afternoon trip. The boats stay in the harbor so are pretty small, certainly nothing like the whale watching boats. As we loaded a seal popped it’s head up right by the dock.

Even though we could say we’d seen a seal, that wasn’t part of the tour. We actually had a bit of a ride to get to the harbor near the seals. As we approached North Beach we saw the first of the seals.

The tide can swing up to 9 ft. here between high and low tide. The tide was still low so the sand bars were just below the surface and the seals were sitting in the water on these submerged sand bars.

Oh what a racket they were making.

They weren’t concerned about the boat in their midst at all. We moved on past Lighthouse beach to another seal colony.

Eventually we reached the fish pier where we passed Chatham’s pirate ship before turning for home.

The whole tour was maybe 1.5 hours. There weren’t any Great Whites but we sure did see seals.

Wave Bye Bye

Posted on August 14, 2013August 14, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Rocky being Rocky

Posted on August 6, 2013August 6, 2013 by Dusty Roads

(Someone was upset because he is not getting enough exposure in these pages. So this post is to satisfy demands of furry creatures and restore peace and tranquility)

In case you were wondering what’s been going on with our Editor – in- Chief, well, I think he’s retired.

Editor in Chief

He seems to find more satisfaction in a basket of clothes fresh from the dryer. Oh yes, they must still be warm…And sports fans will remember “Manny being Manny”… I think we have a case of Rocky being Rocky. 🙂

Baby Alpacas

Posted on July 25, 2013July 25, 2013 by Dusty Roads

If you have been following my posts for awhile you may remember a post from last November about a “Teeny, Tiny, Farm-ette”. In that post I introduced a friend’s little farm where he tends to Silky Chickens, alpacas, pygmy goats and horses along with dogs, cats and a parrot or two.

About a week ago he called me to ask if I still liked taking pictures of baby “critters”. Of course I said yes. At the time of the call he had a 2 day old Alpaca baby. I couldn’t go visit right away so the baby was about a week old when I got there.

The baby had a friend, another baby Alpaca that was 2 weeks old and an”older” friend that was about a month old.

I was surprised how big they were for so young but as grazing animals they would have to be able to get around quickly if they were in the wild to escape predators. I had a chance to pet one, not just take pictures and I understand why they are so valued for their wool. They are so soft and fluffy. They are softer than they look.

Mama didn’t like too much attention being showered on her young one but she behaved, no spitting but she did stick out her tongue once to show her displeasure.

They had more baby pygmy goats but when I went into the pen they crowded around me so much I couldn’t get any pictures. They were funny as they tried to chew on my jeans and nibble on my sneakers.

As I was preparing to leave I found out that some baby “silkies” had just hatched so a quick stop by the nest box yielded a picture of this tiny chick.

It’s easy to see how Animal Planet can make a series called “Too Cute” about baby animals because they are just that…too cute!

Day at the Zoo

Posted on July 7, 2013July 7, 2013 by Dusty Roads

It’s the last day in Alaska and I’m so glad we are spending it at the Zoo. I love zoos. I even went to the zoo in Hawaii.

So we arrived via the Zoo shuttle right to the entrance. When it’s time to leave the shuttle will pick us up right in the parking lot. There’s even a little bench to sit on while we wait.

We bought our tickets and picked up our maps and followed a family of rambunctious little ones onto the paths. The paths cross crossed and meandered so we picked the “must see” animals and figured we’d go there first. Grizzlies were on that list but they were also on the far side of the zoo.

There was a little deer in an exhibit that was just full of mischief. A Maintenance worker was repairing the enclosure and she just followed him everywhere trying to chew on his pants. When he finally shooed her away she took off to pick on a poor , abused looking turkey that shared her enclosure.

The tiger was sleeping and wasn’t going to move for anyone.

The wolves were pretty riled up. They paced along the fence line. A family with very young children were watching. The wolves seemed to be fixed on the kids. Did they think they were prey? A snack? The kids started making howling sounds and the pack joined in.

Once the family moved on the pack dispersed back into the trees in their habitat.

We saw a snowy owl, one of the birds that winters in MA and that I am still trying to get a photo of in the wild.

There was a beautiful bald eagle. They are so majestic that it always makes me feel bad when I see them in captivity. On the other hand many of the captive eagles were injured and couldn’t be rehabilitated enough to survive in the wild. I guess being captive is better than the alternative.

We passed the black bear, a moose hiding in the shadows, and a pretty little red fox snoozing in the sun.

We got a close up look at the caribou.

We crossed a bridge over a pond and watched the swan whose very presence owned the pond. I’m not a “birder” but I think it was a Trumpeter Swan. We have “Mute” Swans around home and it wasn’t that. The bill was black while the Mute Swans have yellow bills and a black eye ridge.

Silly me spotted a squirrel and the picture I got of him is one of my favorites.

There was a good exhibit of the Dall Sheep so we finally got to see this elusive animal up close.

Finally we spotted the grizzly bear enclosure. They weren’t cooperating any more than the wild ones. One was sprawled in the brook in the shade down in a corner of the enclosure. No good angle for a picture. The other one was in a hollow taking a nap. His big foot and an ear about all that could be seen.

By now we’d spent more than an hour so we needed to hustle back to catch the shuttle. We passed the otters and stopped for a minute at the Polar Bears.