July 2024

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 around the nest (which the terrapin digs in the sand), to protect it from predators (mainly raccoons, foxes and skunks). Then, later on in the summer, the volunteers check on the nests twice a day to release the hatchlings from the cages. The program has been running since 2005; in 2019, it safely released over 4,000 hatchlings!

Diamondback terrapin nests dug into the sand, protected by wire cages

The volunteers rake the sand around the nesting area to make it easier to see predator tracks on subsequent visits to the site.

Susan raking a nest "garden"

 The Wellfleet Bay sanctuary is gorgeous, with salt marsh on the bay side of the Cape. I love the views over the marsh there, with the grass swaying in the wind.

 On the way back to the parking lot, we spotted a deer browsing near the nature center.

Our group didn't find any nests, but the other group out this evening did: nest #100 for the season. A week later, Susan's group watched a nesting female drop its spherical white eggs into the hole it had dug in the sand. Here she is:

Susan Brand

And when she's done, off she goes...

 

Susan Brand

Friday July 5 Out for a walk at the Beech Forest, we spotted ghost pipes (Monotropa uniflora).  I like what the US Forest Service website says about the Latin name: "The genus name Monotropa is Greek for "one turn" referring to sharp recurving of top of the stem, and the specific epithet uniflora is Latin for “one flowered”.

 Also saw flowering prickly pear cacti!

Tuesday July 9 I'm back in Jamaica Plain for a week. Walking around the pond this morning, I saw a juvenile robin persistently calling out, more of a screech, trailing an unimpressed adult, presumably one of its parents. Probably time for the juvenile to start learning to get its own food.

Thursday July 11 Bonsai day for the Arboretum interns. They each trim a small juniper bush that the Arb has grown in a pot, designing the negative space between the remaining branches. Here's the one Nicole, the intern staying at my house this summer, made.

Saturday July 13 I went over to Ward's Pond to check on the cygnets: only one left. It was lying on a small sandy beach by the pond, but looked like it was having trouble getting up. The parents were close by and eventually all three got into the water and swam off. But I wouldn't be surprised if the last one doesn't make it, either.

Walking around the pond, I noticed the cattails are now huge, much taller than me. I took this photo standing on a boardwalk, about a foot above the ground and the tops of the cattails were a few feet above my head.

Friday July 19 Back in Provincetown. After a walk through the woods and along the beach at Wellfleet, we stopped at Pamet Harbor in Truro. The salt marsh and harbor are beautiful there.

Saturday July 20 On our way to see Kamala Harris at a fundraiser at the Provincetown Monument, we spotted what almost looked like a circular rainbow around the sun. I took a few photos, and when we got home, realized that there were two circles around the sun. Curious, I emailed my optics colleague Mathias Kolle at MIT, who said "This is beautiful! I am not a hundred percent certain, but I'd guess these are halos due to refraction of sunlight from ice crystals in cirrus clouds in the higher/colder layers of the atmosphere. It looks like you captured the 22 degree and 46 degree halo in your image

 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22°_halo)."

 

And, for good measure, here is Kamala giving her remarks at the fundraiser, just a day before Biden dropped out of the race.  (The banner behind her said "VPTOWN".)  She was great, energizing, ready to run against the felon.

Sunday July 21 We enjoyed the annual garden tour in Ptown today, with gorgeous displays of flowers. A fun opportunity to walk around private gardens that you can't normally see.

Tuesday July 23 Back at the Wellfleet sanctuary again, on a walk with friends. Love the salt marsh.

Tuesday July 30 In Jamaica Plain for a few days. Checked on the swans at Ward's Pond - the last remaining cygnet still with its parents, getting bigger and bigger.

And on my walk around Jamaica Pond this evening, I spotted this sign: turtle nesting in JP, too!

The view over the pond.