You can see the water coming in pretty fast on the Nauset Marsh Trail by the Salt Pond in Eastham and there was still almost an hour until high tide. Thank goodness there is a trail up a hill that circumvents the rising water or you would be wading pretty deep.
Make sure you always check the tides if you are hiking or walking near the ocean or the marsh. You never know just how high that water will come and you don’t want to be stuck on the wrong side!
We were taking a walk out on the flats at Rock Harbor at dusk the other day, waiting for the sun to set but there were a lot of clouds in the sky. The flats were so pretty with their little tidal pools.
And then the sky opened up for just a few seconds and I clicked away. This is what I got. The pastel colors were so pretty. What do you think?
I love the hike from Doane Rock to Coast Guard Beach and the little off-shoot trail that overlooks Nauset Marsh. I thought this was such a cool photograph of the tall cattails with Nauset Marsh and Nauset Beach in the background.
And then I was editing it with my new camera and couldn’t decide which one I liked better. What do 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?
