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

A Simple Flower

Posted on August 11, 2013August 11, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I will be the gladdest thing under the sun. I will touch a hundred
flowers and not pick one.
– Edna St. Vincent Millay

Seafood Shanty

Posted on August 4, 2013August 4, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Most people choose their restaurants for the food and the ambiance. There’s one roadside clam shack that I choose for the wildlife.

Don’t get me wrong the food is delish…the usual seafood fare but I have as much fun with the birds and chipmunks when I’m there as I do enjoying the food. I typically order the fried scallop plate. It comes with plenty of fries to share.

At first I only had the little birds for company but eventually my friend “Chip” showed up.

Chip snatched up a French fry and it was going ….

going….

gone!

Just like a French Fry eating contest!

If you can tear yourself away from the antics of the birds and chipmunks, you can watch the boats cruise up and down the Cape Cod Canal.

The folks who work here during the season are great.

During this visit I saw a cruise ship on the canal that I’d never seen before. Turns out one of the people that works at the Seafood Shanty has a brother that works on the boat so I got all of the inside scoop! Networking is a wonderful thing, 🙂

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!