This Northern Flicker was the cutest thing to watch in our bird bath. He first stopped to get a drink of water. Then he put his beak in the water and starting flinging the water in the air over his head.(Scroll down to see the sequence of 4 photos.) So cute!
He then stood in the bath for a little bit and then put his head under water. Next thing we knew, he was dunking up and down and shaking his feathers everywhere!
It doesn’t get much cuter!
I love to go to Wellfleet Harbor and just sit there and relax on one of the many benches on the beach. It is so pretty as you look across the harbor, past the rock jetty, at Jeremy Point way in the distance. At really low tide you might even be able to see Billingsgate Island, off of Jeremy Point.
“Billingsgate Island was originally settled as a fishing and whaling community. Local historians sometimes call it the Atlantis of Cape Cod. At its height in the early 19th century there were over thirty homes on Billingsgate Island; later it even had its own baseball team. The first lighthouse was built in 1822. After an 1855 storm divided the island in half, a second lighthouse was built on higher ground in 1858. The new structure was made of brick with a granite foundation; the foundation stones and a scattering of bricks can still be found on the shoal.
The island continued to erode away with heavy flooding of the tower itself in 1873, 1875, and 1882.[3] The lighthouse keeper died in the flooding of 1875. More than 1000 feet of sea wall was built in 1888 to protect the lighthouse, but erosion continued at a fast pace. Early in the 20th century the last families moved off Billingsgate, leaving only the lighthouse keeper and a man who guarded the shellfish beds. Many of the houses on the island were floated across the harbor to Wellfleet on rafts to prevent their loss. (Some are still standing and are known locally as Billingsgate cottages.) The 1858 lighthouse was abandoned in 1915 and destroyed by a storm in December of the same year. The last light tower was torn down in 1922.”
Phil and I kayaked out there a few years ago. What an experience… to think that so many families used to live on this island that now only can be seen at low tide.
This beautiful purple wildflower, Purple Dead-Nettle, is growing along the sides of the trails at Fort Hill. It grows low to the ground and the flowers are only 1/2 – 1″ so it might be a bit hard to see.
Purple Dead-Nettle, which has irregularly shaped flowers, blooms from now through September. I was so surprised to see how exquisite it was when I saw it blown up on my computer.
Gorgeous wildflower, don’t you think?
It was such a treat to see that the Piping Plovers are back on Coast Guard Beach. You can see the sign and the string (in the photograph below) that ropes off the beach above the high water mark so that the Piping Plovers can nest right on the sand. The Piping Plovers are considered either endangered or threatened (depending on their location in north America) as there are approximately only 8,000 birds left in the world today.
“The Piping Plover is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange legs, a black band across the forehead from eye to eye, and a black stripe running along the breast line.”
This little Piping Plover, who blended in so well with the colors of the sand, has a flag band marked #55 on the top right leg. Excited, we had to do some research and see if what we could find out about this bird.
NEWS UPDATE! Phil did some research and found the names of the world organization that bands and tracks the Piping Plovers. We had to figure out who to send the information to based on the type of band, where it was located on the leg, which leg(s) the bands were on and the colors of the bands. Last night we sent to Canada: three photographs, the gps location of the the bird, the time of day, the description of the band, etc. I received an email back early this morning saying “Terrific! White Flag 55 is band 93984, banded as an adult male on 12 July, 2018 at La Digue, Magdalen Island, Quebec. This is his first nonbreeding resighting. Much appreciated!” She had forwarded my email to many people who are involved in saving the Piping Plovers.
We made a very small contribution to saving the Piping Plovers and we felt great about what we did. It was awesome to wake up to such exciting news!
