A chance conversation with Brad Pease, master craftsman an co-owner of Pease Boat Works in Chatham, gave me a heads up that they planned to haul the beautiful schooner Tyrone on the spring high tide. As she is quite large for their yard and a full moon, clear sky was promised we scrambled to witness the event. And it was the perfect way to usher in the beginning of my 62nd year on the planet. The evening was cool and with the wind calm everything went according to plan.
High tide in the Mill Pond, Chatham, MA
If you are interested I found the following on her web site…”Tyrone was designed by S. Sturgis Crocker and built by Simms Brothers, Dorchester, Ma. in 1939, to be an offshore passage maker. She is very ruggedly built, with 1 and 5/8-inch Honduras mahogany screwed to 2 and ½ – inch double sawn oak frames, on 16 inch centers. Garboards are two inches thick. All bronze fastened, her decks are constructed of teak. She carries outside lead ballast. Power is a Cummins 210B diesel. Gross tonnage is 48 tons. Tyrone is 75 feet over all, 60 feet on the deck and 50 feet at the water line. Beam is 15 feet, depth 8’6”, and carries 1805 feet of sail. The schooner has made several trips to Ireland, has sailed to Hawaii, and cruised in Alaska. In 1994, she was awarded “Most Beautiful Boat” at Antigua Race Week.”
And by the way – Pease Boatworks is an absolute Cape Cod treasure. Brad and Mike Pease and their crew are doing the traditional work of building and caring for magnificent wooden boats the way it has been done by master craftsmen for generations. They keep a sacred tradition very much alive in Chatham that is sadly fading from modern memory. We salute them!
Moonlight in the rigging
Virtually every day we see more and more new arrivals from their wintering grounds in the south.
Cedar waxwing near East Harwich - What a mask!
Snowy Egret looking good on the hunt for a meal
Snowy and Great Egrets share space in Ryders Cove, Chatham
Great Egret in flight
Northern Harrier (male) searches
Can not get enough of these Osprey as they get organized for the season
Black Ducks in the nesting way
Small Craft Advisory, Lighthouse Beach - Chatham
Belted Kingfisher near Mitchell River, Chatham
Chipping Sparrow sings in the early morning, Chatham
Common Eider Drakes
Winter Storm Nemo at 1200 February 8
Bufflehead Drake
Black Duck
As an intense winter storm bears down on New England we are wondering how our wildlife will fare during the festivities. Hearty they are but still we wonder.
As we have reported on this blog many times, Cape Cod is an important migration stop for many species. In winter the outer Cape in particular is a destination for many waterfowl species which come to feed in our cold waters before they return to the Arctic to breed in the North American summer . As a result we are blessed to have thousands of water birds grace our bays and estuaries until spring. It is pleasure to get out and observe them as well as our resident land birds as they all go about the business of finding food, dodging predators and generally biding their time until spring.
In preparation for the storm we have re-stocked our feeders and will be looking for opportunities to observe and record the experiences as the storm rages here over the next 48 hours.
Canada Geese on Black Pond
Stage Harbor, Chatham
Bufflehead Drake
Red breasted Merganser Drake
Red breasted Mergansers females
Red breasted merganser (young female)
Song Sparrow
House Finch
Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Chatham Bar
Chatham Bar
Chatham Bar
We are so privileged to live by the sea and witness the many moods of the ocean. We are especially enamored with winter when the gales come and for the most part we are forced to stay on the land and observe nature’s work. On this day we experienced very strong westerly gales at 25 – 35kts with frequent gusts up to 50kts. Temperatures were in the 10 degree range with the wind chill factor.
The series of images is particularly interesting when you consider that the Chatham fishing fleet must navigate across this bar to get out to the fishing grounds. With depths barely 10 feet of water in the deepest path across the bar it does not take much to get the surf to break across the channel. Needless to say it is very dangerous to navigate here and this day was a good day to remain tied up to the mooring.
Chatham Light from the south
Hawaii is now long in the rear view mirror. Since returning to the Cape we have experienced some of the coldest weather conditions in years. Arctic temperatures in the -10 to -20 degrees Centigrade (10 – 20 degrees F) have been with us for more than 10 days and as a result our estuaries and saltwater harbors have become frozen. A beautiful winter landscape to explore but it is a bit of challenge to get into the field. We have been bundling up with many layers. That said we really love winter on Cape Cod with its fresh frozen dramatic landscapes and abundant wildlife. Just have to look for it.
Winter Moonrise over Chatham
Monomoy NWR - Morris Island
Strong breeze, flat water...all good
Pair of Mute Swans - Frost Fish Creek: Robert Verity Clem Trail
Female Hooded Merganser
Red Sky in Morning
Red-tailed Hawk at lift off moment
Titmouse in a stiff winter breeze
Northern Flicker
Home in Chatham
We are in final preparation for next expedition into the Southern Hemisphere.
Destination Madagascar: home of lemurs, some of the most curious creatures on the Planet. We will post impressions and images as we can with very limited internet access.
Expedition Madagascar
However, in our race to see the wildest places left on earth we leave our beloved home on Cape Cod as one of our planets new breed of super storms bears down on the region. Models predict that Hurricane Sandy will bring some of the lowest barometric pressures ever recorded in New England and the Mid Atlantic. Unfortunate signs of life to come on the angry planet.
And in other news today… our friends on Haida Gwaii in western Canada rocked through a 7.7 earthquake this morning.
The "Unicron" of storms takes shape
Red Sky in Morning
Coast Guard Station Chatham from North Beach Island (before Sandy)
Over the past few years we have put together a fine art poster which highlights a special memory of the past year. Hard to argue that 2012 was not the year that the white shark came of age on Cape Cod.
Here is a preview of this year’s offering. Stay tuned for information on how you might get one and how buying one will help wild life conservation on Cape Cod.
Also do not forget to get your copy of our new book, Wild Cape Cod: Free by Nature by Schiffer. Available from book sellers everywhere.
On a recent visit from my friend Wayne, I made a conscious decision to embark on an early morning birding excursion without bringing my camera. Wayne is an avid birder who doesn’t get to wander on the outer beaches of Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge very often so I was keen on making sure he had a good experience. Common practice for birders here is to have good binoculars but especially for small shorebirds to pack a spotting scope on a tripod. We each decided to bring a scope. Though a beautiful early morning we did not have favorable tidal conditions ( a falling tide) forcing us to anchor in fairly deep water before wading out to examine a large mixed flock of shorebirds foraging along the waters edge. The light was mellow and the birds showed well in golden light as they jostled around while feeding aggressively for their next hop in the long flight south.
As we eased our way in shallow water toward the flock we began to scan for the birds that were different hoping to find a rare vagrant. This is a “bird watcher” thing. In this case we were looking at a flock of maybe three hundred Black Bellied Plovers in non breeding plumage with a few dunlins, sanderlings and ruddy turnstones mixed in. The Black bellies’ were a bit drab compared to the dramatic black markings of the breeders we might see heading north in the spring. One particular bird caught our attention and we trained the scopes on it hoping to see the subtle differences that indicate the rare American Golden Plover. This bird species occasionally passes through Cape Cod beaches heading south. At this moment I was just beginning to regret NOT bringing my camera….when the entire flock of birds exploded into the air in flight. The target of our observation was now lost amongst the blizzard of panicked birds. Experienced birders know that this sort of excitement can be caused by the sudden presence of a predator threat so we immediately scanned to see. Within seconds a perfectly silent deadly attacker came streaking in about 6 feet off the beach at 60 miles an hour. “Peregrine!” I yelled. ..very excited but now really regretting I did not have my camera. Wayne corrected me and said ,”Merlin, looks like a female” (NOTE: the female merlin is slightly larger than the male but both falcons are considerably smaller than a peregrine.
What was to happen next are one of those experiences you cannot soon forget. As the streaking falcon came into the panicked flock she quickly picked out one of the tiny dunlins as her target narrowly missing with extended talons on the first strike. Stunned into jaw dropping wonder we watched as the merlin darted and the dunlin flailed as the rest of the flock separated to a safe distance oscillating in erratic flight. In one panicked motion the little dunlin headed directly for us – the two gawking bird watchers standing in knee high water and looking like some kind of cover. Whoosh – the falcon bolted over our heads and swung tightly in pursuit of the poor shorebird who was in the flight of its life and had pivoted back to the beach. With predator precision the merlin climbed up to about 50 feet overhead and then dove into a blistering stoop with talons extended and this time struck the dunlin with such force about three feet above the water that both birds powered into the sea with a massive splash. Unlike ospreys, falcons of this type are not comfortable in water and this maneuver could have been dangerous for lift off – soaking wet is difficult. In this case the dunlin was left stunned and floating in the water while the merlin struggled to attain lift with totally drenched feathers hoping to gain altitude and set up for another strike to retrieve its now helpless stunned prey. At this very moment however, an attentive Greater Black backed Gull who had been carefully observing the melee, now launched from a nearby beach position, crashing into the water and plunged its wide open beak over the still bewildered dunlin, engulfing the hapless shorebird in one gulp! YIKES!
Meanwhile the Merlin, still soaked and having missed the gull’s surgical strike was in a frantic search overhead looking for her prey, flying back and forth , alternately hovering to try to see the meal she had worked so hard to procure. Alas it was not to be. After about 2 or 3 minutes of searching she made her way back to the beach and perched on a piece of driftwood to dry off. Wayne and I looked at each other and mused that with my camera I may have captured one of nature’s great spectacles but we also agreed the odds were better that while trying to follow the battle in a view finder I would more likely have missed the action altogether.
The pictures included here were taken at a different time just to give you a little sense of the actors in this natural drama.
Merlin in flight - nature's stealth fighter
Greater Black backed Gull in "conversation" with a Common Tern
Dunlin in a calmer setting
