Herring Gulls in flight after the recent storm, with music by Telamor “Beautiful to Me.”
Happy Earth Day feat. Herring Gulls in Flight and Beautiful to Me by Telamor
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Category Archives: Cape Ann Wildlife
Happy Earth Day feat. the Carolina Wren and why we LoVe leaf litter!
Joy in the wild garden- What fun to observe our resident Carolina Wren vigorously tossing leaves around while looking for insects. Just one in a million reasons why we leave leaves on the ground, and don’t cut down expired flower stalks. Leaf debris and stalks create the ideal inset habitat, and insects are the number one food for birds during the breeding season. Songbirds need the extra protein to make eggs and keep their young well-fed.
Happy Earth Day feat. Red-winged Blackbirds!
A most welcome sign of spring!
Male Red-winged Blackbirds establishing their territory, in flight display and with their wonderfully varied courtship calls. Towards the end is a brief shot of the object of their desire, the elusive female.
Good Harbor Beach Erosion and Piping Plover Update
Good morning PiPl Friends!
Our PiPl population is returning to GHB! In addition to Super Dad and our footless Super Mom that arrived on March 24th, the male that nested successfully last year and whose mate is the very pale female, has returned, along with two additional males that arrived just after the nor’easter- for a total of five! The morning after the nor’easter also found three Sanderlings and a charming pair of Savannah Sparrows. I think the Sparrows may be sticking around as I saw them again this morning!
Newly arrived Savannah Sparrow
Filming at Good Harbor Beach the day after the nor’easter I felt an odd mix of awe and fear. Awestruck by the atmospheric beauty of the beach in the lifting storm, and also dismayed to see the damage to the dunes and how all the fantastic work the DPW had done in preparing the beach for the coming season had taken a real hit. The tides have been extremely high, I think higher than is usual for these spring storms. Recently, at full high tide, there was no beach. In the past few days the the tides seemed to have receded somewhat and hopefully the shifting sands will continue in that direction.
Sanderlings resting after the nor’easter
The most remarkable thing to see is how the one area that has been roped off consistently for the past eight years, going on nine, that very specific nesting area at #3, has been damaged the least by storms of the past several years. It is a real lesson in dune ecology that when you protect the base of the dune from foot traffic, which allows native flora to take hold, we can give the beach and dunes a fighting chance against rising sea level.
DPW crew at GHB. They are working to restore all that they had done the week prior to the storm.
Update on our PiPl documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay: We are in the home stretch and still on track to have a final cut ready by May 1st (please keep your fingers crossed with me!). I gave a wonderful local conservation minded organization a ‘test run’ of the first half of the film and was overjoyed to see they were thoroughly engaged. I am working with the amazing team at Modulus Studios, Eric and Shannon, and we are at the finals stages of finessing, finessing, and more finessing!
March was truly a fantastic month for fundraising. My deepest and most heart felt thanks and gratitude to our wonderful supporters.
Please consider making a tax deductible donation to our online fundraiser here at Network for Good. We are also looking for underwriters. If you know of an organization that would like to be associated with themes of nature, bird biology, shorebird and Piping Plover protections, and conservation of beach habitat, along with receiving the benefits of becoming an underwriter — promotions at both the beginning and end of the film for their organization, each and every time the film airs, please contact me at kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com. Our sister project, Beauty on the Wing, has aired in PBS stations covering 85 percent of US households and is still continuing to stream on public television. As an underwriter, your organization will have the potential to receive tremendous good will from underwriting The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay!
Returning male, mate of very pale Mom
With gratitude to the following PiPl friends for their kind contributions – Lauren Mercadante (New Hampshire), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Brace Cove Foundation (Gloucester), JH Foundation/Fifth Third Bank (Ohio), Jane Alexander (New York), Janis and John Bell (Gloucester), Jennie Meyer (Gloucester), Alice and David Gardner (Beverly), JoeAnn Hart (Gloucester), Kim Tieger (Manchester), Joanne Hurd (Gloucester), Holly Niperus (Phoenix), Bill Girolamo (Melrose), Claudia Bermudez (Gloucester), Paula and Alexa Niziak (Rockport), Todd Pover (Springfield), Cynthia Dunn (Gloucester), Nancy Mattern (Albuquerque), Marion Frost (Ipswich), Cecile Christianson (Peabody), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Donna Poirier Connerty (Gloucester), Mary Rhinelander (Gloucester), Jane Hazzard (Georgetown), Duncan Holloman (Gloucester), Karen Blandino (Rockport), Duncan Todd (Lexington), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Amy Hauck-Kalti (Ohio), JoAnn Souza (Newburyport), Karen Thompson (San Francisco), Carolyn Mostello (Rhode Island), Susan Pollack (Gloucester), Peggy O’Malley (Gloucester), Hilda Santos (Gloucester), Maggie Debbie (Gloucester), Sandy Barry (Gloucester), The Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution, Mary Keys (Madeira, Ohio),and my sweet husband Tom 🙂
Surfer Salvatore Ruvolo at GHB morning after the storm, with music by Peter Dayton – “Perfect Wave”
Happy Easter!
The best kind of Peeps – Plover Peeps. Happy Easter, Happy Spring Friends!
Piping Plover chicks one-day-old
SUPER MOM AND SUPER DAD RETURN TO GOOD HARBOR BEACH #ploverjoyed
Good morning PiPl Friends!
We are overjoyed to share that handicapped Mom and Super Dad have returned for their ninth year nesting at Good Harbor Beach!!! The pair were spotted by Tom on Sunday, the 24th. I raced over to meet him and we watched with delight as they foraged hungrily at the Creek shoreline. This is a record for Mom and Dad, by one day. We have been checking daily and know for certain that they flew in sometime the night before. At first I thought it was not handicapped Mom because the two were running so vigorously along the water’s edge but I was mistaken and it is our Mom! Plover pairs don’t always arrive on the exact same day, together. We know from banding programs that pairs don’t necessarily share the same wintering grounds; it’s wonderfully mystifying when they do share the same arrival date.
Second bit of good news is that the DPW crew is at the beach now as I write this, installing the roping. Unfortunately, we do not yet know if Audubon is going to be working at GHB this summer. Trying to obtain a clear answer has been challenging.
I apologize for the delay in letting you all know and thought it best to wait until the symbolic fencing went up and they had a safe zone.
If you would like to join us this summer volunteering as a Piping Plover Ambassador, please leave a comment in the comment section or email at kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com.
I am working non stop on the PiPl documentary through Friday, when it goes back to the film finishing editors in Boston. I won’t be able to respond to emails until Saturday, unless it’s a PiPl emergency 🙂
Happiest of Springs <3
xoKim
P.S. I just dropped off a batch of cheery Plover Peep yellow tees and onesies at Alexandra’s if you are in need of an Easter gift 🙂
PIPING PLOVER PEEPS AT ALEXANDRA’S BREAD!
Just in for spring, we have a limited edition of Plover PEEP yellow unisex tees and onesies, perfect for your Chicks, big and small!
The T-shirts are a great length, longer than average, and both the tees and onesies are a beautiful super quality 100 percent cotton.
Question – do you think we should order kids sizes in the tees? I had one made for Charlotte in pink and i think it’s adorable. Let me know if you are interested in youth sizes.
And, Alexandra has a replenished batch of Cape Ann Piping Plover Project stickers!
All profits from the sale of the tees and stickers goes towards replenishing stock and toward our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, coming soon!
Alexandra’s Bread is located at 265 Main Street, Gloucester.
Open from 8:30 until 2:00 Wednesday through Saturday
Good Harbor Beach Gray Seal Update
The young Gray Seal pup at Good Harbor Beach has returned safely to the sea. He spent the day at the beach under supervision while most people and dog owners kept themselves and their dogs a safe distance from the resting seal.
This is the time of year when seals are becoming weaned from their Moms. They are found on shore for a variety of reasons, often simply to rest. Not always though. Sometimes they may be injured, starving, trying to escape danger, or ill.
Please keep at least 150 feet away from a resting seal and call the Seacoast Science hotline (603-997-9448) to let the staff there know of the stranding.
Turkey Mating Season!
Turkey boys in full display, with their stunning feathers and faces only Mama’s could love <3
Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly at the Essex Greenbelt Film Series!
Please join me for a FREE screening and Q and A of Beauty on the Wing as part of the Essex County Greenbelt Film and Lecture Series, tomorrow evening from 6:30 to 8:30.
Beauty on the Wing – Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly Mar, 14
WHEN: Thurs., March 14, 6:30-8:30 pm WHERE: HC MEDIA, Studio 101 2 Merrimack St., Haverhill WHAT: Experience the magical migration that happens in our midst, unfolding in backyards, farms, meadows, fields, and along the shoreline, wherever milkweed and wildflowers grow. Stay after the film for a Q&A with Director Kim Smith. Photo: Kim Smith
More from the Industrious Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Time to Hang Your Hummingbird Feeders!
Despite that our little woodpecker friend has an injury under her right wing, the extraordinarily industrious Yellow-bellied Sapsucker has, for the past five days, worked on, and dined from, her sapwells. She arrives each morning at sunrise, departing around noontime. The timelapse video shows only one hour of her morning, compressed into one minute.
Dubbed Miss Featherton by Charlotte, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker arrived bedraggled and injured but I think is becoming rejuvenated from the sap. Insects, too, are beginning to appear at the wells. I read that Ruby-throated Hummingbirds often follow the migration of sapsuckers as they too will imbibe on the sap and insects attracted. We usually hang our Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeders out at the end of March, but with all the sap flowing, we hung our feeders a few days ago.
Notice the red wound under her right wing from the still taken from the video
Sap-licker!
Friday evening’s International Women’s Day event at the UUChurch was beyond fantastic – Cape Ann women authors reading Cape Ann women authors. I kept the program with the list of authors and can’t wait to dive in to the books shared by the authors. JoeAnn Hart did a simply stellar job organizing the event, held in conjunction with the Gloucester Writers Center.
I was so inspired after being with these wonderfully gifted women and listening to the poignant words of so many inspiring Cape Ann authors, I wrote a poem that night about the weary female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that has suddenly appeared in our garden. I’ll keep working on it but here is the beginnings –
Sap-licker
Startled songbird silently flings
from approaching steps.
Behavior not usually seen by the insouciant
feathered friends that call our garden home.
Why so timorous?
Neatly arranged squares and holes
riddle the bark of the Dragon Lady holly.
The masterfully drilled, cambium pierced checkered grid is glistening
in the sun – with deep wells and narrow streamlets of sweetness.
A sap-lick!
I wait to see her, half hidden and as
quiet as the owl after a long night
Weary and bedraggled, the Sapsucker returns
An arduous migration, no doubt.
She pauses guardedly
No one must know of her creation
with its treasured life fluid seeping down branches.
Her soft yellow belly and stippled feather patterning
Mirrors the spotty bark.
Her camouflage is not blown. She dives in with tender gusto
Delicately excavating the holes with brush tongue.
Wind rustles through leaves and she flings off
Only to return again and again and again
To her life-giving channels of gold flowing through tree veins.
Now you see me, now you don’t –
Is the coast clear?
Nope!
The featured photo above shows an Eastern Screech owl pair, both the gray and red morphs. The Screechie in the nest box is a gray morph
Happy World Wildlife Day! #WWD2024
Every year on March 3rd, United Nations World Wildlife Day (WWD) is celebrated The purpose of the celebration is to recognize the unique roles and contributions of wildlife to people and the planet. Read more here.
A special event for World Wildlife day is being held at the UN tomorrow, March 4th, that anyone is welcome to tune into. Here is the link and more information:
#SaveTheDate 📅 🌱 Tune in online to watch the hashtag#WorldWildlifeDay 2024 UN Celebration!
When: 4 March (10AM-1PM EST)
Where: webtv.un.org
This year, we are exploring digital innovation and highlighting how digital conservation technologies and services can drive wildlife conservation, sustainable and legal wildlife trade and human-wildlife coexistence, now and for future generations in an increasingly connected world. 📱💻🐟🐯🌳
Meet our organizing partners: UNDP, ifaw, Jackson Wild, and WILDLABS Community
hashtag#WWD2024 hashtag#ConnectingPeopleAndPlanet hashtag#DigitalInnovation hashtag#TechForWildlife
Perturbed!
The Eastern Coyote was none to happy too happy to see me. I think I disturbed he/she and its mate from their breakfast.
Hooded Merganser Catches a Whopper!
Cinnamon Girl catches a large Yellow Perch! Her fellow female Merganser chased her around the pond as she tried to position the fish head first to swallow whole.
Female Hooded Merganser
Rock Envy
Just minding his own business! I don’t think it’s personal towards Quinnie as the gulls also continually push each other off the rocks.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM HUBBA HUBBA BOY AND CINNAMON GIRL!
With the warmer than average temperatures this past week, our winter resident ducks were in courtship mode. The spunky Hooded Merganser drake seen here positioned himself at the edge of the reeds. He threw back his head, exhibiting his striking crest, while calling repeatedly to his girl.
Listen to the Hooded Merganser’s distinct courtship call, which sounds more frog-like than duck-like. She, with her richly hued cinnamon colored crest, after a time appeared, and they then drifted off together to forage in the shallow waters of the pond.
Quinnie the Harlequin Catches a Crab!
Dear Friends,
I had to take the week off from posting wildlife stories as I am in the home stretch of getting our Piping Plover documentary back to the film finishing editing studio. The film is coming along beautifully and we are already getting requests from communities to schedule soft screenings (unofficial screenings). One of the primary goals of the film is to help beachgoers better understand why we want to protect these valiant little shorebirds that are nesting in our midst and I think/hope/pray it will be successful in that regard <3. I can’t wait to share it with you all!
Although I haven’t been posting, I am still filming on early morning walks and am getting a backlog of wonderful wildlife scenes to share. There just are not enough hours in the day!!
With thanks and deepest appreciation to everyone who has so generously contributed to our film. If you would like to make a contribution, please go here to our tax deductible online fundraiser. All contributions go to the film finishing studio and to applying to film festivals.
With gratitude to the following PiPl friends for their kind contributions – Lauren Mercadante (New Hampshire), Jennie Meyer (Gloucester), Alice and David Gardner (Beverly), JoeAnn Hart (Gloucester), Kim Tieger (Manchester), Joanne Hurd (Gloucester), Holly Niperus (Phoenix), Bill Girolamo (Melrose), Claudia Bermudez (Gloucester), Paula and Alexa Niziak (Rockport), Todd Pover (Springfield), Cynthia Dunn (Gloucester), Nancy Mattern (Albuquerque), Marion Frost (Ipswich), Cecile Christianson (Peabody), Sally Jackson (Gloucester), Donna Poirier Connerty (Gloucester), Mary Rhinelander (Gloucester), Jane Hazzard (Georgetown), Duncan Holloman (Gloucester), Karen Blandino (Rockport), Duncan Todd (Lexington), Sue Winslow (Gloucester), Amy Hauck-Kalti (Ohio), JoAnn Souza (Newburyport), Karen Thompson (San Francisco), Carolyn Mostello (Rhode Island), Susan Pollack (Gloucester), and my sweet husband Tom 🙂
If you do not see your name listed above, please, please let me know. I absolutely do not want to leave anyone off. My computer crashed again and am working like crazy to recover all the data lost. Thank you!
Stay safe in the pending storm, and have lots of fun, too!
Warmest wishes,
xoKim
The handsome drake Harlequin we nicknamed Quinnie is finding a veritable feast while staying the winter on the shores of Cape Ann. He dives into the fast moving incoming tide, surfaces with a crab, then heads to a nearby rock to floof and digest his lunch.
Long Beach Seal
Thank you to all who took the time to report the Harbor Seal struggling at Long Beach over the weekend. I am so sorry to share that the seal did not survive.
There were a number of people, and their dogs, touching and sniffing the seal when it was still alive. Please don’t, as much as to prevent terrifying the pup, as to prevent you or your pooch from being bitten.
I have had the greatest success with stranded or injured seals by contacting the Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire. The SSC team is outstanding! Here is the number where you can report an injured seal: 603-997-9448
The following is advice from the Seacoast Science Center –
What should you do if you spot a live or dead seal or other marine mammal on a beach?
Marine Mammal Response Hotline: 603-997-9448
- Watch quietly from at least 150 feet away
- Keep dogs away from the animal
- Do not pour water on the animal
- Do not offer the animal food or water
- Do not cover the animal with a towel or blanket
- Do not try to move the animal
- Call 603-997-9448 and report the animal’s location, size, coloring, and behavior.
The Gray Seal pup in the video below was rescued last year from Eastern Point by the Seacoast Science Center.
Gray Seal Adults
HARLEQUIN DUCK QUINNIE UNDERSEA!
Elated to film Quinnie undersea! It was pure happenstance. The late day sun angled through the water, making for fantastic visibility. His highly contrasting feather patterning I think helped also to better capture her underwater. The long version is posted here and the shorter clip on Instagram and Facebook.
Notice how he moves rocks aside while foraging for prey. I think he was capturing baby fish, but I can’t really tell, even when the prey is splashing above the water. The biologists at the Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire thought perhaps the fish may be baby flounder, but they only thought that from my description, not from seeing the clips.
It’s truly heartbreaking to learn that East Coast Harlequin numbers have declined from perhaps 10,000 birds in the 1800s to fewer than 1,000 currently. “This population is doing terribly and may be headed for oblivion,” says Jim Reichel, a zoologist with the Montana Natural Heritage Program. Before its prohibition in 1989, sport hunting was most likely the main mortality factor for eastern Harlequins. Now, oil spills and dams are the primary problems.
FATAL ATTRACTION – ROBIN TRAPPED IN BIRD NETTING
Over the weekend I came upon a sweet American Robin trapped in green bird netting and fighting for it’s life. I waited several moments before approaching, hoping it would set itself free but the more the Robin struggled, the more tightly he became enmeshed. I approached cautiously so as not to stress the bird any more than it already was and was able to very carefully untwist the netting and release.
I was grateful for this easy extraction. Once before Charlotte and I had found a Robin wrapped tightly in bird netting. It took the farmer and I half an hour to carefully cut away the netting digging into the birds flesh and choking the life out of him.
Bats, birds, turtles, frogs, and small mammals all too often become entangled in the green netting draped over trees and shrubs. I could write more about the fatal attraction in planting an ornamental shrub with brilliant red bird-attracting berries, and then covering it with deadly dangerous netting, but what is the point of that?
Instead, the following are just only a few suggestions to help prevent deer browsing:
Wrap in burlap.
For new plantings, consider using individual cages. Paint white as wildlife can see that best at night. Please inspect exclosures regularly to ensure no little wild friends are trapped within.
Hang bars of the strongest smelling deodorant soap you can find, Irish Spring comes to mind.
On a positive note, the ‘winter’ Robins are here, dining on every berry in the neighborhood they can locate. One of the most joyful sights in winter is the criss crossing of Robins through our landscapes as they devour the fruits. For over a month, I have been filming them eating the following: winterberry, which must be the tastiest as it was the first to go, sumac, crabapples, privet, rose hips, euonymus, and cedar berries.
Many, many thanks to the home owners of the hollies with the green mesh. I knocked on their door to let them know what had happened. Shortly after that, they cut away the green netting. Thank You!
Quinnie the Harlequin, the Most Beautiful of Ducks!
In mid-December, my friend Jill sent a snapshot of a Harlequin Duck that was foraging inshore. He was easy to re-find and surprisingly, this beautiful male seaduck has not left the area. It seems unusual for a Harlequin Duck to remain so close to shore. During the winter months, I mostly see them congregating further from people, forming mini tribes on rocky outcroppings in Rockport.
Charlotte suggested the nickname Quinnie. We have been keeping a close eye on him over the past month as I think he is recovering from a foot injury. He favors his left foot and does not put much weight on the right. And in all these weeks of filming, I have never seen him fly!
Harlequin Ducks often suffer injury as they breed in roaring whitewater mountain streams and forage on the roughest rocky shores. I was supremely worried about Quinnie during the recent spate of wild wind storms and extreme tides. Despite his foot injury, our little Quinnie is managing. He loves deep diving, as the tide is coming in and the waves are roughly splashing against the jutting rocks, but he also does quite well foraging on days when the water is crystal clear and as smooth as glass.
Bright days are best for observing the magnificently beautiful feather patterning of the drake Harlequin
Drake Harlequins have to be one of the, if not the, most strikingly beautiful ducks to grace our shores. Rich rusty red, graphite gray, and brilliant blues, accented with slashes of white make a sharp contrast to the plain subdued brown and gray of the hen. Only weighing about a pound and a half, Harlequins are about half the size of Mallards.
Harlequin ducks are monogamous. Initially, I thought we had a pair of Harlequins, but what I mistook for a female Harlequin was actually a female Long-tailed Duck. The two hung out together for about a week before she departed.
Quinnie appears to be all alone but unfazed by his predicament. He forages with great gusto and holds his own, even against the gulls who occasionally dive bomb him for what appears to be no other reason than “rock envy.” The gulls also displace each other over choice rocks so I don’t think (or hope), it’s not personal towards Quinnie.
A FLURRY OF ACTIVITY IN WOODPECKERVILE!
The day before the most recent snowstorm, I was taking an early morning walk along a wooded lane and was delighted by the flurry of activity taking place. There were at least half a dozen woodpeckers (of three different species), busily foraging and storing various food items. I wondered if they sensed the pending storm. The Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers were tapping at deadened bark (and the shingles of a neighbor’s home), and the Red-belied Woodpeckers were calling from the treetops and tucking dried fruits and nuts into their carved out holes.
For a brief few moments I felt as though I was in an enchanted forest. Not only surrounded by the earnest yammering and quick flashes of black and white woodpecker wings, but three does charged past, the Coyote pair was spied at the edge of the woods, a small flock of Cedar Waxwings and winter Robins were dining on rose hips, and a cheery pair of Carolina Wrens,. perched on a granite outcropping, were all on the scene.
Red-bellied Woodpecker storing dried fruits and nuts
#storm #waves Good Harbor Beach
I shot a bunch of B-roll this morning, for various projects, and because it was so atmospherically mesmerizing. Here’s one more clip from today 🙂