If you walk along the ocean beaches on Cape Cod, you are sure to see seals swimming along the shore, diving in and out of the waves. I’ve seen a lot of seals at Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Beach in the past few days.
If you walk all the way to Nauset Spit at low tide from either Nauset Beach or Coast Guard Beach, you can see what I call “seal island.” It is a sand bar, not too far from shore, that the seals pile on at low tide. You can hear their distinctive sounds from quite far away.
This 2nd photograph was taken from the end of Coast Guard Beach a few days ago.
I have seen snails such as this one at Fort Hill before, but always on the ground near the trail. This one really caught my eye as it was high (about 5’up) in one of the bushes on the side of the trail. I wondered how it got there, but then I saw that it was attached to the leaf. It must have made its own way up. Wow!
In the 2nd photograph, can you find the snail on the leaf in the center of the picture? Amazing that it was able to make its way up there on such small branches and leaves.
Have you ever seen one of these land snails?
I always love to hike the White Cedar Swamp Trail, part of the National Seashore, in Wellfleet on Cape Cod. It is so diverse taking you through scruffy bushes to oak trees to a forest to the White Cedar Swamp where you hike over a boardwalk and then back. It is a loop trail.
One couple summed it up perfectly today when we chatted on the boardwalk. They said it was such a “magical place.” I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it.
Put it on your “To Do” list when you visit Cape Cod!
If you’re hiking in the woods, look for the waxy white Indian Pipe wildflowers that are blooming in clusters. They have a whitish, waxy, scaly stalk with nodding waxy bell-shaped flowers. Indian Pipe does not have any chlorophyll so its nutrients come from decaying matter, thus they thrive on the forest floor.
Indian Pipe grows to 4-10″ with 1” flowers from July to September. I have been looking for them for a while and only have seen them the past week.
Have you ever seen Indian Pipe wildflowers? So unique, don’t you think?
