August 2022

August 1 Walking along the edge of the water at low tide in Provincetown, was fascinated by the interaction of waves moving nearly perpendicularly to each other.

At the shore, we see small terns, probably least terns, sometimes hovering and diving, catching fish. And at Susan's condo, there is the occasional gull with an entirely black head flying past, perhaps a laughing gull.

August 2 Back in Jamaica Plain, loved seeing this hibiscus in a neighbor's front garden on my walk with Maddie.

August 4 On the morning ferry to Ptown, I noticed the water churning about a hundred yards off the boat. When I looked more closely, I realized that it was a pod of dolphins arcing in and out of the water, in tight circles. So cool to see them!

August 5 Biked to Race Point early this morning - almost deserted. Talked to a photographer who said he'd just seen some dolphins close in to the beach. Gone by the time I went to look.

August 7 Susan and I went out to Rt 6 to cheer on and thank the bike riders doing the Pan Mass Challenge, a fundraiser for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where both Jeannie and Susan's wife, Gail, were treated. There are several routes bikers can do over 2 days, either from Sturbridge to Provincetown (186 miles), or from Wellesley (a suburb of Boston) to Provincetown (161 miles). This year, there were more than 6,300 riders with the goal of raising $66 million for the Dana Farber.

And here we are with our signs. On mine, I put a photo of Jeannie at the end of her Northern Tier bike ride from Anacortes, WA, to Bar Harbor, ME (4290 miles), dipping her front wheel into the Atlantic. It seemed the right photo for the day. We stayed out for about two and a half hours, until nearly all of the riders had gone by.

August 8 Susan and I went for a hike in Truro, through the oak and pine woods, eating wild blueberries along the way, and coming out at the Atlantic. The National Park Service website says that the dominant species of trees are pitch pine, white oak and black oak. All the trees in this part of the Cape are small and scrubby, with bent trunks, unlike anything I'm used to around Boston.

August 9 I took the morning ferry back to Boston to avoid an impending afternoon thunderstorm. At the end of the ferry trip, as I was getting my bike, I chatted with a woman who had done the Pan Mass Challenge - she said her team, over many years, had raised over a million dollars doing the ride - amazing! And when I told her Susan and I had been at the side of the road along Rt 6, she said that she's seen us. We hugged.

Biked home from the Seaport in 97F (36C) heat - ugh! The bike path along the Charles River was deserted. I went very slowly and drank lots of water.

August 10 Saw a juvenile great blue heron, with a black and white speckled neck, fishing by the boathouse at Jamaica Pond, walking Maddie this morning.

Riding home from a meeting at MIT, I was surprised to see a cedar waxwing on the bike path just ahead of me; it flew up into the trees just before I got to it.

Walking Maddie in the afternoon, saw a corn stalk with an ear of corn by one of the city trees on the sidewalk. My neighbor Steve feeds small, inch or so, chunks of corn cobs to the squirrels, resulting in random corn stalks growing in the neighborhood.

August 11 Biking along the Muddy River, a trumpeter was performing for the ducks.

August 14 On my morning walk with Maddie, I saw a group of maybe 15 grackles making noise, all agitated. Then I noticed that they were arguing over a pile of Cheetos that someone had dumped on the grass by the Jamaicaway. Saw one fly off, black bird with bright orange Cheetos in its bill.

Biking into Cambridge, saw the trumpeter feeding the ducks this morning. And on my way back to Jamaica Plain, he was playing his trumpet.

Last month, I included a photo of a monarch caterpillar in the blog. Today, Susan sent me a photo of its chrysalis, polished jade, decorated with gold, looking like a piece of jewelry. There's a second one, too, from a caterpillar caught shortly after the first.

August 15 On my morning walk with Maddie, there was a great blue heron wading along the edge of the pond, right next to us. And one small boat had several not small birds on it: cormorants, great blue heron, gull.

August 19 Back in Provincetown, out for a morning bike ride, heard something trotting along the edge of the marsh next to the road. At first look, I thought it was a small dog, and looked around for its owner. But then I realized it was a skinny fox. It trotted right past, completely ignoring me, not even a glance in my direction.

At low tide, walking along the beach in Wellfleet with friends, we found this rock surrounded by broken shells, probably used by gulls to break the shells open by dropping them onto the rock.

August 20 Out for an early morning bike ride to Race Point. Love this view of the marsh by the breakwater on the way out of Provincetown.

Just as I finished writing up this last bit of nature notes, a hummingbird, probably a ruby-throated, hovered at the purple flowers of a gomphrena fireworks plant, with "intense hot iridescent pink flowers tipped with bright yellow on very long stems" on Susan's deck. Here's the plant; I wasn't fast enough to catch the hummingbird.

The downstairs neighbors' sons have recently been getting into fishing. This morning, they caught a 30" striped bass off of Race Point, their first large fish. Much excitement. Susan got the non-edible bits to make French fish soup.

August 21 Susan's neighbor Paul has been tending to the two monarch caterpillar chrysalises; this morning he called to say one had turned black, with a little orange, from the butterfly, and was about to hatch. Here it is, with the remains of the chrysalis, now transparent, next to it. The second chrysalis is behind, to the left.

Before it takes off, it flaps its wings for a while, drying and hardening them.

Paul then took it outside and carefully placed it on the flower of a butterfly bush. As we watched, you could see its proboscis probing into the flower, drinking.

Wikipedia says: "The name "monarch" is believed to have been given in honor of King William III of England, as the butterfly's main color is that of the king's secondary title, Prince of Orange."

And the World Wildlife Fund website says that "the Latin name for monarchs is Danaus plexippus, Greek for "sleepy transformation.""

Our monarch, hatching in late August, will migrate south to Mexico, overwinter and then head back north in the spring. Here's more on monarch life cycles, from the Monarch Watch website:

"Females begin laying eggs right after their first mating, and both sexes will mate several times during their lives. Adults in summer generations live from two to five weeks. Each year, the final generation of Monarchs, which emerges in late summer and early fall, has an additional job: to migrate to their overwintering grounds, either in central Mexico for eastern Monarchs or in California for western Monarchs. Here they survive the long winter until conditions in the United States allow them to return to reproduce. These adults can live up to eight or nine months."

August 22 Saw this feather, from either downy or hairy woodpecker, on my walk.

The second chysalis at Susan's condo started turning darker, a sign that it is getting ready to hatch. Here it is at 6am. If you enlarge the image (click on it) you can see the wings of the butterfly inside.

And at 11:30pm, getting even darker, but still with tiny dots of gold:

August 23 And here it is just after 6am today, with the monarch wings clearly visible.

And by 7:30am, it's popped:

Rainy day today, so Susan kept it indoors, waiting for better weather to release it.

August 24 Today, Susan released the butterfly.

Meanwhile, I'm heading to Niagara for a bike tour doing a loop along the Niagara River, Lake Erie, the Welland Canal, Lake Ontario and back to the Niagara River again. Almost all on off road bike paths. Stopping tonight at Seneca Falls. On the way, at a rest stop, I find this picnic table, hidden between some conifers, with lines from Emily Dickinson, who lived in Amherst, not far from the rest stop.

"Opinion is a flitting thing,

But Truth outlasts the Sun

If then we cannot own them both

Possess the oldest one"

Just before Seneca Falls, I head to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, a large wetland that attracts thousands of water birds during spring and fall migration. I'm a bit early for migration, but I stop to see what I can. Even if I don't see any birds, it's beautiful there.

The refuge has a gravel roadway, raised up from the marsh, running along two sides of the refuge, allowing visitors to pass through with marsh on either side. Almost immediately, I spot two birds in a small area of the marsh and when I get out to look it's an adult and a juvenile pied-billed grebe. The adult has a beautiful reddish brown neck, which Sibley describes as "warm brown" and the juvenile has light and dark stripes along its neck. A little further along, I spot half a dozen pied-billed grebes, all together, more than I've ever seen at one time before. Fun!

Driving around the other side of the marsh, I come to an area of open water, with a few old dead stumps. I almost drive past, but notice a raptor perched on the stump closest to me, blending in so that it looks like part of the stump. Through the binoculars, I see it is a beautiful deep reddish brown, no speckling on its breast and belly. Unusually, it has white lines above and below its eyes: a female or maybe juvenile Northern harrier. As it turns to face me, the white markings are very distinctive; Silbey says it has "an owl-like facial disc". It's a gorgeous bird and I'm thrilled to see it. And just as I'm getting ready to get back into the car, it takes off, flying low over the marsh, chocolate brown back, banded tail feathers, white rump patch showing. Beautiful.

I head to another area of the refuge where there is an observation tower; I've seen bald eagles here on previous visits and the visitor center says they nest near here. You can see my shadow and that of the tower at the bottom of the photo.

Scanning the marsh, I see a couple of egrets and a couple of great blue herons. Then taking off from the ground, a huge brown bird with white blotches on its back: a juvenile bald eagle, rising up over the marsh, before it's hidden by the treetops. A great blue heron flies by just below eye level, turning close to the observation deck. Wonderful. Another a juvenile bald eagle flies over the marsh, headed in the same direction as the first.

Walking along the Seneca and Cayuga Canal after dinner, I see a belted kingfisher flying along.

August 25 Went out for an early morning walk along the canal and spotted a green heron perched on a telephone wire. Stayed there for the entire time I walked along the canal and back. Occasionally made a single sharp call. So odd to see it perched on the wire; usually they are on a branch over water.

After breakfast, walked along the sculpture trail, right next to the canal. I liked these bird sculptures, especially how there was an actual nest built into the belly of the steel bird, where the post attaches to the bird. And the heron was cool, too.

August 26 Biking along the Welland Canal, between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, built to allow ships to travel around Niagara Falls, ascending the Niagara Escarpment in a series of locks.

On the way, I see this sign.

In 1980, after losing his right leg to cancer, Terry Fox ran from St. John's, Newfoundland to Thunder Bay, Ontario, 3339 miles, a marathon every day for 143 days, to raise funds for cancer research. He wanted to run across the entire country but had to give up when his cancer returned. The annual runs in his name have raised $800 million since they started in 1981. A national hero. In 2004, the CBC held a Greatest Canadian contest: Terry Fox came in second (Tommy Douglas, the father of Canada's national health system, came in first).

August 27 Heading to Niagara-on-the-Lake, we pass peach and apple orchards and vineyards for the local wineries. The peaches, at the peak of their season, are available at the farmstands along the road.

At Niagara-on-the-Lake, I go down to the mouth of the Niagara River, where it empties into Lake Ontario.

The skyline of Toronto is visible 28 miles across the lake.

August 28 I ride the path by the Niagara River to Niagara Falls, seeing dozens of turkey vultures along the way, mostly soaring at the edge of the gorge, circling half just above the treetops, and half several hundred feet up over the river, taking advantage of updrafts produced by the gorge. They are large, with a wingspan of about five and a half feet and lengths of up to thirty inches. Amazingly, they weigh just under 4.5 pounds (2 kg). I ride right next to the gorge delighted, as I rarely see them flying so low overhead.

In the evening, driving back from dinner in Niagara-on-the-Lake to the inn I'm staying at in Queenston, a couple of bats zip across the road, one heading along the road in front of the car for a moment.

August 29 My friends Alison and Gilbert arrived yesterday to visit for a couple of days. This morning we walked from the inn up the escarpment and then along the edge of the escarpment for a couple of miles. Walking this path you feel surrounded by green, with the leafy green crowns of the trees down the slope of the escarpment at eye level as well as green above from the trees next to the path.

We spot several fungi, including this growing along the length of a tree root edging out of the soil.

After lunch, we are totally delighted at the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory, a large greenhouse with 2000 butterflies flying among lush, tropical plants. There are butterflies everywhere: flying right in front of your face; landing on visitors' hands, arms, backs, head; chasing one another; and sucking on fruit put out for them. Everyone, small children with parents and grandparents, teenagers, young couples, is smiling, laughing, completely entranced by the butterflies. You can get an idea of what it's like from the video on the Conservatory's website.