Wellfleet Bay Natural History Notes

Sun Shines on Turtle Field School (some of the time)

In spite of the weather, a good time was had by all. Or so it seemed!  We got soaked from the rain and tides. Usually at this time of year box turtles are hard to find and the terrapins are busy nesting. We did find box turtles, but they were still on the wintering grounds, barely rallying themselves to migrate to summer feeding areas. A few females have started to nest. All the turtles are very late; everything seemed to be off by two weeks. A couple of the turtles we found were first marked in 1986. They looked like they were doing fine. We also found a young, 9 year box turtle who was found late last year. Here's a video, courtesy of Don Lewis, of one we found on the first--very rainy--day of the field school.

 
View video here.

Unlike most years, we find many more nesting terrapins than box turtles. It wasn’t until day two that the sun came out and so did the terrapins. Lieutenant’s Island and Indian Neck were the hot spots. The field school participants were able to see, on several occasions, females excavating nests and laying eggs. That doesn’t happen on too many programs, but it happened twice on Lt. Island and three times on Indian Neck. Wow, what a day!

There are more field schools to come on subjects from birds and marine life to digital photography. Learn about them here!

Bob Prescott

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The Willet

The Willet is a larger sized grayish brown colored shorebird.  The Willet is a familiar sight on beaches  and in salt marshes all along the coast of Cape Cod.  This shorebird is fairly abundant on the Cape with a loud and distinctive call in flight.  Willets are grayish brown in color with dark streaking and barring overall.  They have a thick gray bill and gray legs.  They are usually seen poking and probing muddy areas for food.  The Willet has a bold black and white wing pattern.  These recent photos were captured on an overcast day at Great Sippewissett Marsh.  Click here for a map of the location.

The Birds of North America Online provides an introductory article on the Willet.  In the preview it states that “the Willet loudly heralds the arrival of spring from aloft with its ringing “pill-will-willet” call, accompanied by flashing wing-beats.  This species has one of the greatest latitudinal ranges of temperate breeding shorebirds in North America—from the Canadian Maritimes to Venezuela. It is the only North American sandpiper with a breeding range that extends south of the North-temperate region.

According to the Cape Cod Bird Club and the Birding Cape Cod book, South Beach in Chatham “has become the premier shorebird site in all of New England and during the peak of southbound shorebird migration from mid-July through late August, the total number of shorebirds here can exceed 15,000 birds, presenting the observer with an overwhelming spectacle.  Often present in the hundreds are: Willets, Greater Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstones and others.”

Enjoy!

Craig Gibson

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Flora for Fauna: A Garden Metamorphosis (History, Part 7)

Everyone knows the life cycle of a butterfly: Egg–Larva–Pupa–Adult. Some cycles take a month or less, others up to a year. The life cycle of a garden can be much longer. Since the time of the Austins, before the Sanctuary, there has been a metamorphosis in gardens and plantings here. An insert in a newspaper c.1940 read:

“Picturesque Waterfall”

South Wellfleet, July 26—One of the most beautiful sights on the Cape is the waterfall at the Research Station of Dr. Oliver Austin, Sr. It is a duplicate of that seen at the Garden of the Nations at the New York World’s Fair. It falls out of a bank of lilies, evergreens and moss into a pool filled with orange, yellow, red, pink and white water lilies.

According to one eyewitness, that garden and its fish pool attracted not only visitors coming to see the Austins, but also birds coming to dive for captive fish in its depths. This land has always been a Mecca for birds!

Early Sanctuary Gardens. In the 1960s and ’70s, the Wallace Baileys were resident-overseers for the newly established Mass Audubon Sanctuary. Priscilla Bailey, wife of the Director, planted, south of the old farmhouse, clusters of irises and daylilies that to this day pop up in a nearby field.
Next, in the 1980s, volunteer Betty Ruete planted flowers by the entrance to the gift shop and the sanctuary offices. The view from the porch took in her small garden and a sweeping green lawn to enhance a visit here.

A Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden. In 1994 a remarkable new building (picture left) became the Nature Center. Director Bob Prescott was persuaded that the sandy, wind-swept setting could use an entryway garden, especially, he said, for hummingbirds. Volunteer Peg Rasmussen suggested adding butterflies to the mix, and naturalist Jackie Sones wanted to attract moths and dragonflies as well. Dennis Murley pointed out the many larval food plants that already grew on the sanctuary grounds. Caretaker Michael Ensor, also a Master Gardener, prepared the garden plot, tilling and amending the soil. Peg designed and planted the garden, choosing specific flowers, shrubs, herbs, and trees known to attract birds and insects. All were mulched with salt hay. 

A successful butterfly and hummingbird garden took flight. A cadre of 10 volunteers helped Peg maintain it for a dozen years. A pergola with vines and benches was added. Many discovered a new ambiance at the sanctuary. The garden display welcomed all visitors—not just human ones, but also nectaring butterflies and birds. No herbicides or insecticides were used; caterpillars, butterflies and hummingbirds flourished.

The garden fit seamlessly into the educational program as a lab for workshops, insect devotees, photographers, and would-be gardeners. Tours and talks, Tea-in-the-Garden, and classes delighted members and friends. Children were energized. Three-hundred and fifty large plant markers identified species and cultivars. Adding a small wildflower garden extended the native plant material and larval food!

A Wildlife Garden. With the new millennium came plans for a bigger, greener Nature Center. It displaced the butterfly and hummingbird garden. Some plants and trees, however, were salvaged for the large, new wildlife garden that emerged at the building’s exit. It promises to attract many more animals and has more shrubs, more blooms, and a birdbath. The garden design was undertaken by Barbara Murphy, a volunteer, with Marcia Seeler coordinating the garden volunteers. Thus the metamorphosis continues!

Peg Rasmussen, Master Gardener

Ed. Note. On June 20 Barbara Murphy will present a program on butterfly and hummingbird gardens at Snow's Home and Garden Center in Orleans. Please join her for this informative program and use the Share This icon below to send this post to someone else who might also like to attend the program!

Wanted: Boaters To Report Sightings of Sea Turtles

In 2002 I joined with Bob Prescott to establish a toll-free hotline on which boaters could report sightings of sea turtles off southern New England. We realized that there was a growing network of volunteers to report and respond to entangled, dead and cold-stunned sea turtles, but there was not an active mechanism to record sightings of live, free-swimming turtles. Fliers advertising the hotline are mailed to yacht clubs, marinas, harbormasters and other community locations, and the Coalition for Buzzards Bay includes a hotline notice in their environmental packet distributed to boaters.  In recent years the hotline—1-888-SEA-TURT (1-888-732-8878)—has been advertised in the On the Water magazine.

There are two major goals of the hotline: (1) to document where and when sea turtles occur, and (2) to alert boaters to the presence of sea turtles in the summer and fall so the boaters will avoid hitting them. This year a website has been added, with an online reporting form, maps showing location of reports and information about the four species which occur in our local waters.

Responders are instructed that if the sea turtle is presently entangled or injured, requiring immediate assistance, they should call 1-800-900-3622, the “Disentanglement Hotline” of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. Otherwise, responders are asked to provide date and time of sighting, location, approximate size of turtle, and any other details noted.  If responders leave a phone number or email address the boaters’ hotline will respond promptly to answer questions or discuss the sighting.

The sightings are kept in a database, which is available for other researchers to use.  The 2008 season reports alerted us to two “hotspots” of leatherback aggregations in June – one off Sakonnet Point in Rhode Island and the other around Lucas Shoal, in Vineyard Sound.  We have received a possible leatherback sighting this year on May 16, off Cotuit in Nantucket Sound, although no other reports have come in yet.  Be on the look-out!

Karen Moore Dourdeville

Ed. Note: Karen Moore Dourdeville was a whale biologist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is active in various environmental activities on Cape Cod and the Southshore of Massachusetts.

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John's Excellent Horseshoe Crab Adventure

Like many people, I have a connection to the ocean going way back into my childhood.  My family has vacationed every year at the Jersey shore since 1957 and I have been coming to the Cape since I moved to Massachusetts in 1984.  The ocean to me is serenity, my stress just disappears when I can smell the salt air and hear the waves.  Since the oceans have been under threat for some time, I wanted to start volunteering in some small way to help save our oceans.  Something small, but I do believe one small pebble can have many ripples.

Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary afforded me the opportunity to throw that pebble.  I have always been astounded by the horseshoe crab so I signed up to count mating pairs at two different times of the day.  I loaded up my kayak in Northampton (they were also running a great kayak trip down the Herring River) and headed to the Cape.  When I arrived, birding groups were leaving the Sanctuary and staff were organizing for a kids day camp.  Boy do I wish I was 35 years younger! 

The staff at the Santuary were so friendly and hospitable.  With shorts and old sneakers, I headed out to the beach to count horseshoe crabs.  What a glorious day it was, sunny with a light breeze, perfect.  The horseshoe crabs were amazing.  We set up two poles separated with a five meter cord and one  cord going out into the water 5 meters.  We then basically pivoted down the beach, recording the numbers in each parcel as we went.  Sarah Martinez was the staff person in charge.  She just knew so much about our shelled friends.  I took my video camera to record the session.

View part 2 of the video here.     View part 3 of the video here.

I also went to the Chatham beach at 10 pm to do an evening count.  It was dark and windy but thoroughly enjoyable. We actually counted some mating pairs even in the rough surf.  It took us a bit of walking to get to the designated start point and then we traveled down the beach, recording the numbers within each of our 5 by 5 meter squares.  Easy to do but so essential in an effort to understand the numbers in the population.  It’s a regional effort to figure out what is a sustainable population.  There are many pressures which may be putting the horseshoe crab in jeopardy.

There was some disappointment in counting because a harvester had been off this beach  a couple of nights before and took loads of the breeding population.  I understand making a living but it seems to me we’re killing the golden goose before it even lays the golden eggs.  Like swordfish it takes upwards to 10 years before the horseshoe crab reaches sexual maturity but they may be taken for the bait industry before that.  Plus they’re taken during mating season.  At least wait until the eggs are laid so that there may be progeny to keep the species going. 

We came across a fisherman during our midnight check on the beach who asked what we were doing; when we told him, he shared without prompting that our research is very important because he remembered that even 5 years ago the beach was so full of horseshoe crabs that you couldn’t walk down the beach without  stepping around hoards of them.  This night our count certainly wasn’t hoards.  And so, I helped the staff at the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary toss a metaphorical pebble into mother ocean.  Hopefully their work will ensure that there will be horseshoe crabs crawling up onto the beaches so that our next seven generations can marvel at their prehistoric beauty.

John Body

Ed. Note: Dr. John Body is Associate Dean for Learning Skills at Mount Holyoke College. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Resources Management from Penn State University and a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Massachusetts.

MET Grant Supports Oyster Habitat Restoration

Mass Audubon is delighted to announce that Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary has received a $22,000 grant from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust to support the oyster reef restoration project.

The Trust’s funds come from the sale of their “Preserve the Trust” specialty license plates. Half the Registry fee is donated to the Trust to  fund water-focused environmental education and protection programs and it is the only specialty plate that exclusively funds environmental initiatives.

We have a long history of receiving grants from the Massachusetts Environmental Trust over the past ten years, and their funding has supported many important Mass Audubon initiatives. Examples include reducing pollution in the Blackstone River, working to reduce water withdrawals from Massachusetts rivers, conducting an inventory of odonates at our sanctuaries, providing environmental education programs for hundreds of schoolchildren on the importance of protecting our water resources, horseshoe crab research, and coastal waterbird protection.

The current grant will support an intern for 12 weeks. The intern will be responsible for assisting with many aspects of the project, including deploying and maintaining the reef structures, measuring oysters on the growing reef, conducting the various biodiversity surveys, monitoring sand movement on the site, and helping with lab work. This grant also helps to support a tidal flats sand survey, the creation of related educational materials for our school programs, and costs of a model reef ball exhibit and interpretive panels which will be displayed at the Nature Center.

The Massachusetts Environmental Trust received 85 pre-proposals, invited 37 applicants to submit full proposals, and funded 19. This is clearly an exciting and important project, and thanks go to everyone who contributed to the success of our proposal!

Sylvia Charman Guthrie
Director of Foundation and Government Support
Mass Audubon

American Oystercatcher

The American Oystercatcher is a very distinctive looking shorebird.  The Oystercatcher is usually seen only in marine environments along pebbly or sandy coastlines.  These shorebirds have a black head, a brownish back and white under parts. In addition, they have yellow eyes, and a long red-orange bill that is laterally compressed and very sharp.  They are quite wary and fly away quickly when approached.  They have a unique high pitched call sound.  The Oystercatchers have recently been observed in Falmouth near Black Beach and at the north end of Wood Neck Beach.

Vern Laux notes in a recent Cape Cod Times article that “the beaches are active with piping plovers and oystercatchers. The American Oystercatcher, with its outrageous coloring and noisy, gregarious nature is a favorite of any who are aware of them. These spectacular birds have been increasing significantly in our area for the past 25 years and can be seen almost anywhere there is a beach or salt marsh.”  Vern Laux's birding column appears every Saturday in the Cape Cod Times. Laux is the resident naturalist for the Linda Loring Nature Foundation on Nantucket. You can also hear him on "The Point" with Mindy Todd at 9:30 a.m. the first Monday of the month on the Cape's NPR station, WCAI, 90.1.

According to the American Oystercatcher Working Group, “American Oystercatchers breed on coastal beaches from Baja California to Nova Scotia. Recent evidence of population declines, has prompted research aimed at understanding the bird's biology and conservation needs. In recent years, coordinated, widespread banding and re-sighting efforts along the Atlantic coast have revealed connections between breeding and wintering sites and a tantalizing glimpse into the complexity of patterns of movement and dispersal. For more local information click on American Oystercatcher Research in Massachusetts.

Enjoy,

Craig Gibson
www.birdsoftheair.com

Ed. Note: See American Oystercatchers, Warblers and more in Craig's May Gallery.

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Free Weekend for Orleans, Chatham Residents

Fifty years ago Mass Audubon purchased the property now known as Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.   As part of our year-long anniversary celebration, we are running special town events.  On June 6 and 7, Orleans and Chatham residents are invited to visit the sanctuary and attend the following family programs for free.

Saturday  June 6
10:00 - 12:00    Family Fun with Horseshoe Crabs
11:00 -  1:00    Shorebirds and Horseshoe Crabs - Guided Walk
2:00   -  3:30    Conversation about Horseshoe Crabs
All Day           Walk the trails & see the exhibits

Sunday  June 7
9:30   - 11:30    Tagging Horseshoe Crabs
11:00  -  1:00    Shorebirds and Horseshoe Crabs - Guided Walk
12:00  -  1:30    Horseshoe Crab Survey
All Day           Walk the trails & see the exhibits

Others are welcome with the regular admission fee.  For more information, call (508) 349-2615.

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The Warblers of Spring

This Yellow Warbler was practicing its dance step near the shore of Quissett Harbor early Saturday afternoon.  Warblers are small active birds in constant motion. Yellow Warblers are among the first wave of Warblers to arrive on Cape Cod in early May.

They are frequently found at woodland edges and on low tree  branches, shrubs and bushes.  They have a bright yellow head, a short pointed bill, and reddish streaking on the breast.  Their repeated cheerful calls sound like “sweet-sweet-sweet I’m so sweet” according to All About Birds at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The Cape Cod Bird Club reports recent sightings of a Blackburnian warbler, a Nashville warbler, Yellow-rumped warblers, a Black-throated green warbler, and a Black-and-White warbler. 

Craig Gibson

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Discovering a Skeleton

It happened in the summer of 1968 when our two sons from landlocked Vermont were attending the Natural History Day Camp at the sanctuary. In those days the classroom was housed on the ground floor of the three-sided barn, the fourth side of which was totally open to a view of Silver Spring Pond.

Their creative teacher/naturalist led the class of 15–20 fifth and sixth graders on a trek of exploration to Fresh Brook crossing the unstable Hatches Creek Bridge into the marsh. The group reached the south side of the brook and progressed about a half mile toward Route 6. At that point they came upon some bones in a sinkhole in the salt pan partially obscured amongst some fine, sparse saltmarsh grass. Needless to say the finding evoked puzzlement, speculation, and an air of mystery as to what animal it once was. It was the group’s opinion that the creature came into the creek at high tide and found the sinkhole when it was unable to return to the Bay.

Their leader suggested an explorative dig to investigate what else could be found. It was a moment of great inspiration! She suggested to her charges, “Let’s uncover the bones and bring them back to camp for closer inspection and research.” Each camper enthusiastically set to and transported one or more bones until all that could be found were recovered.

The genius of her inspiration was that she seized the teachable moment and put aside her planned program and took the opportunity to use the campers’ enthusiasm to learn more about this wonderful find. By dint of research and hard work the bones began to take on the recognizable aspects of a whale. This result delighted and exceeded the expectations of the campers.

The bones were cleaned, placed in correct order, and positioned on the tables in the barn classroom. When all the bones were properly assembled the results indeed revealed a recognizable pilot whale skeleton.

The result of the hard work of the campers can be seen hanging in the display area of the sanctuary. What a truly remarkable outcome of a Natural History Day Camp serendipitous find! What an inspired teacher!

A less visible result of the experience is the enduring enrichment of the minds of those youthful campers. They learned, that summer, of the amazing and wonderful natural world in which we live and of which we are a part.

George Ellison

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