The birds were loving the huge feeding frenzy at Nauset Beach, part of the National Seashore. There were birds everywhere, diving into the water, so there must have been fish everywhere in the water. It was really beautiful to watch.
I couldn’t decide which photograph I liked better, What do you think?
It was low tide the other day when we went to Coast Guard Beach in Eastham. The fence and sign “No Beach Access” were not up so we could take a walk on the beach. It’s obvious that at high tide the beach is pretty much nonexistent. Maybe that will change by summer. There are also a lot of new sandbars where there we no sandbars before.
The dunes gotten eaten away as you can see in the photograph. That is Phil in the distance where the trail meets the beach. You can see the new sandbar on the right.
Pretty huge dunes, don’t you think?
We were so surprised to see a hawk sitting by our bird feeders in our backyard. We’ve seen hawks in trees in our yard but never at the feeders. And this hawk looked a little different than the ones we usually see around here.
So, we looked got our binoculars and checked it out and looked it up on our iBird PRO and found out that it was a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk. We had never seen one before. Very cool.
“Sharp-shinned Hawks are small, long-tailed hawks with short, rounded wings. They have small heads that in flight do not always project beyond the “wrists” of the wings. The tail tends to be square-tipped and may show a notch at the tip. Sharp-shinned Hawks are agile fliers that speed through dense woods to surprise their prey, typically songbirds. They do not stoop on prey from high overhead. They may also pounce from low perches.”
We had no birds at our feeders for the rest of the afternoon and I didn’t see any feathers in the yard so I think they were all safe. He stayed for quite a while and then flew away.
Have you ever seen a Sharp-shinned Hawk?
Le Count Hollow Beach in Wellfleet was another beach that got hammered by the Nor’easter last week. You can walk to the edge of the parking lot and look out but the dunes are really steep and we couldn’t see any trail to descend anymore. There was also a “Danger, Keep Off” sign at the end of the parking lot, discouraging anyone from venturing past the parking lot because of unsafe conditions.
But it was a beautiful day and I loved this photograph of the rock between the sand fences. You can even see a ferry way out in the distance. The bank of clouds just above the horizon was so pretty.
What do you think?
