Nature Notes

Sunday August 4 We've been having some blustery, wet weather in Provincetown. I like the clouds in this photo from Susan's condo, taken at low tide. Wednesday August 7 I sometimes go out for a morning bike ride along Commercial Street to the breakwater and salt marsh, around to Herring Cove Beach, then to the National Park Service Visitor Center and back via the Beech Forest to town. The salt marsh by the breakwater The bike path at the Beech Forest Friday August 10 Susan and I went for a walk through the woods in Truro and out to the Atlantic coast this afternoon. Saw this striking scarlet mushroom along the way. Gorgeous views from the dunes over the ocean. A couple of seals slowly making their way along the shore, close in to the beach.   Driving along the road away from the parking lot, we spotted a turtle slowly crossing the road, so I stopped the car and hopped out to take its photo. An Eastern box turtle (I think). Love the patterning on its shell. Monday August 12 We...

Monday July 1 Susan and I walked along the Hatches Harbor trail towards the Race Point lighthouse this afternoon. Gorgeous views over the salt marsh and out to the lighthouse.  Tuesday July 2 Susan volunteers with Mass Audubon during the summer, protecting diamondback terrapin nests at the Wellfleet Bay sanctuary. I went with her today to watch. According to the Mass Audubon website: "Terrapins spend nearly all of their life in a narrow strip of salt marsh that connects the ocean to the mainland. Each year in June and July, females come on land to lay their eggs in sandy patches above the high tide line. After about 70 days of incubation the eggs hatch, and the hatchlings make their way into the upper grasslands of the marsh. They remain in the uplands for about four years, after which they make their way into the marsh itself." The volunteer program monitors the nesting grounds twice a day during the nesting season. Once a nest is found, they install a wire mesh cage a...