Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary News

Marlene's Loving Spring!

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay
March 27, 2008

Marlene Denessen here -- reporting on the seasonal transition at the Sanctuary.

Leaving the parking lot for my weekly walk, I count 35 Red-Winged Blackbirds in
a tree.  It looks like a scene from Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds."  The air
carries the sound of bird song and the fragrance of spring earth.  Grackles fan
out their feathers in display.  Tiny buds are popping out everywhere, and people
are reporting the first signs of Cape Cod spring allergies. 

I walk the marsh front on Bay View Trail.  The tide is low.  A Great Blue Heron
spreads its wings and lifts off into seemingly effortless flight.  I swing back
up and over the sandplain grassland.  As I move onto open ground, I am met with
brilliant sunshine and warmth.  Time to shed some winter clothes.  Painted
Turtles sun themselves on a log in Silver Spring Pond, and Volunteer Naturalist
Barbara Murphy is back.  Spring IS here !

                                                Marlene Denessen
                                                Volunteer Naturalist

Early Spring Walk With Marlene

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay
March 20, 2008

On this first official day of Spring, light rain is falling.  Everything is
shiny and well-watered, and the fragrances of the woods, held close by the moist
air, rise up to meet me.  I pause and stand in a wooded grove, looking out over
the marsh.  The bay is socked in.  The bird song and patter of lightly falling
rain create a symphony for a lover of the outdoors such as me.

A large piece of moss has been dislodged and lies in the path.  I pick it up and
examine it.  Soft as a sponge with brilliant green fringe and full of
late-winter life, it is elegant.  Jewels of moisture hang from beach plum
branches.  A Woodpecker drums out his territorial beat as fog rolls in, at first
skirting the tops of the trees across the marsh and then dropping down like an
opaque blanket.  Try Island disappears.

I love days like this.  For me the fog, the muted silhouettes, the muffled
sounds create a sense of intimacy.  I especially like Silver Spring Trail in the
rain.  Rounding a corner I come upon a pair of Mallard Ducks.  They ease away
into deeper water as I pass.

                                             Marlene Denessen

Spring is Beginning to Show on the Trails

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay
March 13, 2008

It is cold today, especially on the marsh front, so I keep on moving.  In March
on Cape Cod the wind off the Bay is chilling.  I scare up my first chipmunk of
the new season, almost from underfoot.  Quickly reaching the end of Fresh Brook
Pathway and turning back, I pause at the beach.  It is low tide.  Fresh Brook
winds snakelike through the marsh -- brown on brown.

Headed back, I pass onto Bay View Trail.  Several years ago several dolphins
were stranded at this spot.  I remember watching Staff Naturalist Dennis Murley
down in the mud struggling to keep one of the group alive.  It died in his arms.

A solitary Red-Breasted Merganser cruises Silver Spring Pond, as a Kingfisher
skims the surface.  A thin coat of ice from last night's high tide drapes like
tissue paper over the detritus of the passing year's marsh grass.  Proceeding
toward the beach, I draw in deeply of the clean, fresh sea smell, particularly
pungent this morning.  A Red-Tailed Hawk -- and then another -- circles
overhead, catching wind currents.  They disappear from my sight into the sun.

Back at Home Base there are perhaps forty Red-Winged Blackbirds at the feeders,
showing brilliant red epaulets.

                                                 Marlene Denessen
                                                 Volunteer Naturalist

Marlene's Walk

February 28, 2008
Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay

It is snowing lightly this morning as I leave the parking lot and there is a
ground cover of about an inch and a half.  Red Winged Blackbirds are singing
loudly from the treetops.  They seem to know that this weather is only temporary
and spring is around the corner.  I scare up some Mallards on Silver Spring Pond
and a Kingfisher skims the unfrozen surface.

The Bay is socked in.  There is no visibility beyond a few hundred yards, and as
I approach Goose Pond the wind is picking up.  The trails are beautiful in the
new snow.  There is a special qaulity of sound -- almost muffled.  My boots
squeak as I walk.  I see mouse tracks across the path near the observation deck,
passing from under pine needles and oak leaves on one side to the shelter of
bearberry on the other.

Today in the starkness of winter with everything stripped bare, I reflect upon
the December storm of several years ago, commonly referred to as the
"wintercane".  The wind touched down in small areas and dropped trees like
dominoes.  This is most observable on the the northeast corner of Fresh Brook
Pathway and the south side of Silver Spring Trail.  Route 6 was closed for
several hours because of downed trees and power lines.  Orleans looked like a
war zone.

Along Goose Pond Trail I smell a skunk -- a sure sign of spring on the way.  I
pause and brush some snow from a bench, sit looking out over Goose Pond toward
the blind, and reflect on how much I love this place any season of the year.

                                                 Marlene Denessen
                                                 Volunteer Naturalist

More from Marlene

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay

February 21, 2008

Today the wind off the Bay is biting cold. We are nearing March here on Cape Cod, when the sea is at its low point in temperature. Last night there was a lunar eclipse. Right on schedule a red moon shone out of the vastness. The visible movement of celestial elements. A reminder of how small I am in the greater scheme of things. This morning a shaft of sunlight backlights the needles of a pine tree. Green. Gold. Lovely.

Today I begin my walk with a circle of Bay View Trail. This is a warm-up for me on particularly cold days. Sunlit pools highlight reindeer lichen-silver grey green against multiple shades of winter brown. Beautiful colors for a tapestry. Along the marsh, ducks browse in little inlets of open water. Black ducks, eider, and today a red-breasted merganser.

Red-winged blackbirds sing loudly as I stand on the platform looking out over Silver Spring Pond. Small birds flutter about me. Chickadees come close-closer. I head for the beach. Bundled up against the cold and briskly stepping out on this familiar pathway, I feel whole and well.

Marlene Denissen

Volunteer Naturalist

Marlene's Walk

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay

February 14, 2008

It is a dark morning. I am out early in a heavy overcast following a day of torrential rain and high wind. I observe blown-over  benches as I head toward Silver Spring, removing downed branches as I pass. The pond is very high-up to the edge of the trail in several spots, with water over ice. The dark, wet bark of pine trees serves as a contrasting base for lichen. The aptly named emblem lichen draws my attention.

I proceed to Goose Pond, which is as high as I have ever seen it. There are few birds out and about today. They are probably still hunkered down from the deluge.

I head to Bay View Trail, looking for ducks along the marsh edge. The tide is low. I meet the Red-tailed Hawk at his usual spot at the Eastern end of Fresh Brook Pathway. Turning back, I pause at the bench overlooking the bay. The winter scene is strk and lovely. Winter on the Sanctuary-the time of return to the roots.

Marlene Denessen

Volunteer Naturalist

Winter Walk

Another lovely post from Marlene

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay

February 7, 2008

It is biting cold, windy and very grey.  There is a break in the rain in the midst of this stationary low pressure system, making it possible for me to walk. In spite of the cold, bluebirds are active in the nest box area, reminding me that we are moving quickly toward Spring.

Passing Goose Pond I disturb several Mallard ducks.  They squawk loudly as they take to the air.

I ponder the colors of deep winter.  Sepia.  This day is cast is shades of sepia.

The boardwalk is covered with the remains of last year’s marsh grass.  Today the beach is washed clean.  Gulls are all about, ducks browse the shallow waters, and I am alone.  What is the primitive stirring that this scene evokes?  The tide is rising quickly.  I head back.

With my head down against the cold I notice the disturbed soil marking a fresh mole tunnel.  Industrious little critters burrowing for food.  And then – such a treat – first heard and then seen:  a solitary loon

                                                                                                            Marlene Denessen

                                                                                                            Volunteer Naturalist

From Marlene

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay

January 25, 2008

I think that I am a winter person down deep in my bones, with two grandparents from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and one, most probably, from Canada.  An off-season volunteer naturalist here at the Sanctuary, I love the winter season best of all.  Today is cold – very cold – with a brisk and constant wind.  I set out for the area near the observation deck where yesterday I saw Cedar Waxwings.

Both ponds are solidly frozen.  There are no birds visible except for several winter-hardy Canada Geese honking as they pass overhead in their V formation.  The overwash from high tide forms a slushy mass along the marsh edge, blocking the way to the beach.  The rising tide drives large ice cakes before it.

As I retrace my steps, I notice the long mid-day shadows of January.  A robin sits hunkered down in a brushy tree.  Bordering Goose Pond, phragmites, back-lit by the sun, wave wildly in the wind.

                                                                                                            Marlene Denessen

                                                                                                            Volunteer Naturalist

Walking Winter Trails with Marlene

Many volunteers help keep us running smoothly here at Wellfleet Bay. Some help at the desk, some help gather data, some clear trails and others help with the myriad programs and projects that go on here at the sanctuary. Every few weeks we will be featuring one of our volunteers here.

We are very fortunate to have Marlene Denessen, author of "Little Dipper" and a volunteer naturalist on board to write posts several times a month about her walks on the sanctuary. This is her first post.

Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary

Tuesday  – January 15, 2008

As I often do when I walk the Sanctuary in winter, I begin with the Bay View Trail/Fresh Brook Pathway circle, terminating upland on the sandplain grassland.  Here I find animal tracks to be particularly numerous after snow and otter sign is often visible on Fresh Brook Pathway.

I am a camper and, even though I live but a mile from Wellfleet Bay, I come here to tent with my family in summer.  Today I pause by Site One, a place of so many memories.  Small children at play – away from electronics – inventing game after game, gleefully engaged with one another having good old-fashioned fun.  I remember lying awake in the company of a little boy, entranced by the call of an owl.  The next year with an even younger girl, pulling back the canopy of the tent and peering through the netting at a sky full of stars – falling asleep to the rumble of thunder and flashes of heat lightning.  Yes, and tales told by lantern light and “smores” prepared over a charcoal grill with neighboring campers.  And fowler toads and ant lions and fiddler crabs and late-night animal sounds in the brush.  And then there were early morning walks on the Sanctuary, flashlights in hand, circling Silver Spring Trail to a chorus of frogs and birds heralding dawn – and later, counting down the sunset over Try Island.

Today I stand here at Site One amidst the tiny ghosts – remembering – and looking on toward June and new adventures.

                                                                                                            Marlene Denessen

                                                                                                            Volunteer Naturalist

Hoary Redpolls at Our Feeders!

Who's that hanging out with the goldfinches at our feeder?  This is a common redpoll male. He wasn't the only unusual visitor at our feeder last week. The following post was written by Mark Faherty and the first few photos were taken by Rich Johnson.

Hoaries!

The sanctuary was lucky to have at least one and as many as three Hoary Redpolls visiting our feeders last week. These tiny but exceptionally hardy arctic birds are quite rare in Massachusetts, appearing in small numbers during big flight years of the more familiar Common Redpoll. Both species are irruptive, meaning they periodically irrupt southwards in response to food shortages in their normal boreal habitats. Redpolls feed mostly on seeds, primarily catkins of birch, willow, and alder, as well as seeds of plants like Seaside Goldenrod, a favorite food item on Cape Cod where catkins are relatively scarce.

While the two species are very similar, Hoary Redpolls are the more northerly of the two, generally occurring in more barren, more arctic areas than Commons. Hoary redpolls, while weighing only half an ounce, can withstand temperatures down to -67º Celsius! When looking for a Hoary Redpoll among a flock of Commons, look for a paler overall bird with a bright, unstreaked rump, stubbier bill with fluffier feathering on the forehead, lighter streaking on the sides, and mostly unstreaked undertail coverts.

This last photo was taken by Dan Berard.

Snowy Sanctuary

In the spirit of the season we thought it would be nice to share some photos of the sanctuary after the recent snow storm. These photos were taken on a walk with the kids in the After School Nature Club on Friday afternoon last week.

Winter berries waiting for winter birds.

A young Cooper's hawk watching for unwary birds at the feeders.

No turtles or frogs hanging out at Silver Springs on this afternoon!

View of the marsh from Goose Pond

Working our way down the trail toward the beach.

Sun setting over the hill....

Over the marsh.....

One last look.

If you have pictures of the sanctuary you'd like to share please leave a comment so we can get back to you.

Unusual Beach Sightings

At this time of year the wind and waves often combine efforts to leave us samplings of underwater life we might not see otherwise. Animals that visit our food rich waters in the summer months don't always get out of the bay before the cold sets in and their remains may be seen along bayside beaches in the late fall and early winter. According to naturalist Dennis Murley and sanctuary director Bob Prescott there is often an expected order to what animals may be seen when. Usually mola molas or ocean sunfish will be seen washed up on the beach first, followed by sightings of torpedo rays. After them come the sea turtles that have become cold stunned.

This year the order has been a bit reversed. The turtles came first in many instances. A mola mola was found at Linnell Landing in Brewster and a torpedo ray was found at Skaket Beach in Orleans this Tuesday during two school field trips looking for stranded turtles.

Please let us know of any unusual sightings you may have and feel free to send pictures so we can post them on the blog. Of course neither naturalist leader had a camera with them on Tuesday so we have no pictures.

The photo in this post was taken by Mary Richmond at Great Hollow Beach in Truro.