We’ve seen so many Oyster shells on the beaches of Cape Cod Bay lately. It must be “the oyster season.”
Did you know that “the most widely known ecological function of the oyster is that they filter the water? Oysters are considered vacuum cleaners. They filter the water removing organic and inorganic particles from the water column resulting in cleaner water which positively impacts other species.”
Very interesting, don’t you think?
We looked out the window the other morning and had to laugh. There was a squirrel walking around on the ice that had formed on our birdbath, looking for a drink of water. Oh dear! We had put our birdbath heater away too soon!
We thought, perhaps, that spring was almost here and the nights would not freeze anymore, but we were sorely mistaken as you can see this squirrel skating on our birdbath!
Our motion detector lights went on last night and there were two beautiful Whitetail deer meandering through our yard. Such a sight to see wildlife so close by.
Then, this morning about 7:30 AM Phil yelled, “Come see this!” There in the backyard were the 2 Whitetail deer munching from our bird feeders, one at each feeder. At first we thought, “How cute.” After about 10 minutes of watching them inhale about 5″ of the bird seed out of each feeder we thought “This is cute, but we are going to go broke as those are shelled sunflower seeds they are inhaling!”
Priceless, don’t you think?
Boat Meadow Creek has frozen over in the past few days. When we were driving by yesterday morning we saw something large on the ice and we had no idea what it was. I got out of the car to investigate (hope you enjoy the whole story with photographs).
It was a Harp Seal that was resting on the ice. According to volunteer Andrea Spence, soon to be an intern at IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare), Harp seals migrate from the Arctic and are very comfortable on ice and ice packs. As long as they are moving and stretching, they are fine. This seal was doing both. It must have made its way up the creek from Cape Cod Bay, maybe before it was frozen over. (We’ve kayaked this part of Boat Meadow Creek in the summer and this is a long way up the creek from Cape Cod Bay.)
“IFAW is a global non-profit organization that protects animals and the places they call home.” Andrea is based out of IFAW in Yarmouth Port, MA and helps to monitor marine mammal rescue and research. She was very informative as I clicked away.
You can see by the photos that this guy was quite at home on the ice. I especially like the photo where his back flippers form a heart.
Quite a surprise for a Sunday morning as you can see me photographing the seal from the bridge! Have you ever seen a Harp Seal?
