Category Archives: Cape Ann

Thank You Seaside Sustainability and Chris Cefalo for Helping Clean Good Harbor Beach

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A huge shoutout to Rebecca Spencer, Colleen Meister Murdock, and all the volunteers with Seaside Sustainability for their tremendous clean up efforts at Good Harbor Beach.

This is the third week in a row that clean ups have been taking place at GHB, beginning with Cape Ann Climate Coalition Interfaith Group, followed by Applied Materials, and then Seaside Sustainability on Saturday. Each group of volunteers has come away with bags and bags of trash.

We are all so very grateful for these extraordinary good works by all the volunteers!

We would also like to give a ginormous shout out to USMC veteran Chris Cefalo. I have seen Chris often at GHB cleaning up trash but I didn’t realize until after speaking with him this morning that one of his main focusses is small pieces of plastics, roping, and monofilaments that you see entwined in the seaweed and debris at the wrack line. These bits of plastic are ubiquitous. They break down into micro plastics. We breathe them and they are now in our lungs and hearts. The bits of plastic are consumed by sea creatures of every imaginable shape and size. And it was monofilament wrapped around Super Mom’s foot that caused her to lose her toes.

Chris’s bucket this morning was overflowing and he had only traveled half the distance he had planned. Several years ago, Jill Ortiz, one of our Plover ambassadors, had been lobbying to get a (free) micro plastic bin set up at GHB. This would have helped volunteers like Chris dispose of the plastics. Unfortunately, the City showed zero interest and nothing came of her efforts. Perhaps now is the right time to revisit the topic. Just saying!

Many, many thanks again to all the super volunteers working so hard to keep Good Harbor Beach clean and safe for people and for wild creatures <3

The Wonderfully Joyful Empty Bowl Circus!

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Photos of just some of our incredible community members who make the annual Empty Bowl Circus a tremendous success. Thank you Open Door for the invitation to photograph; it was my joy <3

Enchanting Seaside Circus at the Open Door’s Empty Bowl Event!

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This evening’s Open Door’s Empty Bowl Circus was a magnificent success. It is such a joy to see  the community come together to help support the tremendous work done by Julie LaFontaine and her team. Lots of photos to come but in the mean time, the following is a short video of some of the marvelous Seaside Circus performances.

Seaside Circus Cape Ann was founded by Eileen Little. Performers include  Joel Hart, Erin DeMay, Kylie Rose, Katelyn Beaudoin, Judith Ngari, Soni Razdan, Ky Bernard, and Jessica Guilmain.

Music obtained from the Internet Archive of Royalty Free Music. Sway (Quien Sera) by Bob Carroll, Frank DeVol

Happy Earth Day feat. Red-winged Blackbirds!

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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

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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”

STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL ECLIPSE REFLECTIONS

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The small glowing green crescents and orbs to the lower right of the sun are different stages of the eclipse, reflected in the flares created by the camera’s lens!

The music is the instrumental track to a gorgeous new song by my husband Tom (Telamor)  “Beautiful to Me” 

Charlotte and her friend Ellie thoroughly enjoying the glasses as much as the eclipse

 

Gloucester Dogbar Breakwater Nor’easter

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One hour before hight tide with, reportedly, 20 -30 foot waves and 67 mph wind gusts off the coast of Cape Ann.

MIKE TARANTINO AND TYLER CURTIS MEASURING GOOD HARBOR BEACH FOOTBRIDGE FOR SOME NEEDED REPAIRS

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Mike and Tyler were at GHB measuring the footbridge for some new planks. They had just finished the new concession stand boardwalk the day before, which looks great btw. Thank you to Gloucester’s amazing DPW crew for keeping Gloucester beautiful, and especially for keeping beachgoers safe at Good Harbor Beach!

The mobi mats will again be installed this summer.


Happy Easter!

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The best kind of Peeps – Plover Peeps. Happy Easter, Happy Spring Friends!

Piping Plover chicks one-day-old

PIPING PLOVER PEEPS AT ALEXANDRA’S BREAD!

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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 INN DEMO UNDERWAY

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Last wall of the Inn –

Saying farewell to the old, much enjoyed Inn, to make way for the new Good Harbor Beach Inn.

While filming the demolition, I had a pleasant conversation with one of the new owners, Mark Martignetti. Mark is also leading the construction on the project. Mark expressed his deep love of Gloucester and the family’s hope to make the Inn welcoming and equally as iconic as the old Inn. He showed me a rendering of the new GHB Inn, which appeared nearly identical to the old. One change that can’t be helped is the height. Some of the units will increase by 18 inches to adhere to FEMA’s coastal flooding regulations.

Mark also spoke about his family’s new restaurant Sogno, located in Woburn. Sogno, pronounced Soñ-yo, means dream in Italian. His Dad’s dream had always been to one day own his own restaurant.  Everything on the menu sounds wonderfully delicious and we can’t wait to give it a try! Link to menu – https://sognoitalian.com/menu/

OVERJOYED WITH GREAT NEWS FOR HORSESHOE CRABS!!

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MASSACHUSETTS MOVES TO PROTECT HORSESHOE CRABS DURING SPAWNING!!!Good Harbor Beach Horseshoe Crab

From WBUR  and the Associated Press

Wildlife protection advocates are welcoming a decision by the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission to approve protections for horseshoe crabs during spawning, which is when the creatures are at their most vulnerable.

The move comes as interstate regulators are limiting the harvest of the primordial species of invertebrate to try to help rebuild its population and aid a threatened species of bird.

Horseshoe crabs predate the dinosaurs, having inhabited ocean environments for more than 445 million years, but their populations have been depleted for decades due to harvest in part for bait to catch eels and whelk, a species of sea snail.

Their blood is also used to test for potentially dangerous impurities by drug and medical device makers.

The regulation needs final approval by Gov. Maura Healey, expected in the coming months.

David O’Neill, president of Mass Audubon, said he was ecstatic over the new regulations.

“Protecting horseshoe crabs during spawning season is incredibly important to getting this keystone species back to historic population levels that are critical to the health of coastal ecosystems, including the migratory birds that rely on them,” O’Neill said in a statement.

He said Massachusetts had been lagging behind other East Coast states that have strengthened protections for horseshoe crab populations including New Jersey, Delaware and South Carolina.

The animals have been declining in some of their range, and they’re critically important as a food source for the red knot, a migratory shorebird listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said it will allow no harvest of female horseshoe crabs that originate in the Delaware Bay during the 2024 fishing season, but it will allow more harvest of male horseshoe crabs in the mid-Atlantic to help make up for that.

Despite their names, horseshoe crabs are not really crustaceans but are more closely related to spiders and scorpions, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

VIVA SAN GIUSEPPE!

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The Groppo family and friends St. Joseph Feast preparations underway-

Getting ready to feed an army, including the mail lady and the construction workers fixing the road out front! The Groppo home overflows with love, friendships, and faith. Viva San Giuseppe!

Good Harbor Beach Gray Seal Update

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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!

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Turkey boys in full display, with their stunning feathers and faces only Mama’s could love <3

 

USCGC William Sparling in the Outer Harbor at Sunset

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Love seeing the Coast Guard cutters from Niles Beach.

From wiki –

Design
Like her sister ships, William Sparling is designed to perform search and rescue missions, port security, and the interception of smugglers. She is armed with a remotely-controlled, gyro-stabilized 25 mm autocannon, four crew served M2 Browning machine guns, and light arms. She is equipped with a stern launching ramp, that allows her to launch or retrieve a water-jet propelled high-speed auxiliary boat, without first coming to a stop. Her high-speed boat has over-the-horizon capability, and is useful for inspecting other vessels, and deploying boarding parties.

The crew’s drinking water needs are met through a desalination unit. The crew mess is equipped with a television with satellite reception.

Operational career
On 15 August 2022, it was announced that William Sparling would be homeported in Boston, Massachusetts.

The vessel’s manufacturer, Bollinger Shipyards, of Lockport, Louisiana, delivered the ship to the Coast Guard, for her sea trials, in Key West, on July 20, 2023. She was commissioned at Station Portsmouth Harbor in New Castle, New Hampshire on October 19, 2023. Her sponsor was William “Bill” Sparling’s widow Caroline Sparling and her first commanding officer was Lt. Jacklyn “Jackie” Kokomoor.

From the Coast Guard’s website –

The Coast Guard accepted delivery of the 54th fast response cutter (FRC), William Sparling, July 20, 2023 in Key West, Florida. William Sparling will be the fifth FRC to be homeported in Boston.

William Sparling was one of the first Coast Guard enlisted members to be awarded the Silver Star Medal, one of the nation’s highest military awards for valor in combat. Sparling served as a landing craft coxswain during the Battle of Tulagi, a strategically important island in the Pacific theater, during World War II. The island was captured by enemy forces in May 1942, and Allied forces were concerned that the occupation of Tulagi would be used to threaten Allied units and supply routes in the region. Allied forces arrived at Tulagi on Aug. 7, 1942, to reestablish control of the island. The amphibious assault, supported by the landing craft piloted by Sparling and other coxswains, was the first U.S. offensive of World War II and was one of the first in a series of battles that defined the Guadalcanal campaign.

During the invasion, Sparling and other coxswains landed the first wave of U.S. Marines from USS McKean on the beaches of Tulagi. Over the next three days of fighting, Sparling and others made repeated trips between the Navy destroyer and Tulagi to deliver equipment, ammunition and other supplies to Marines as they engaged a determined occupying force of 800 troops. On Aug. 9, the remaining enemy forces surrendered, and the Allies successfully secured Tulagi.

The Coast Guard has ordered 65 FRCs to date. Fifty-two are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six in Bahrain; four in California; three each in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Texas, New Jersey and Massachusetts; and two each in Mississippi and North Carolina. Future FRC homeports include Astoria, Oregon, and Kodiak and Seward, Alaska.

For more information: Fast Response Cutter Program page

Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly at the Essex Greenbelt Film Series!

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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!

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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!

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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.

Good Harbor Beach Wild Waves

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Wave drama all along the back shore this morning

Now you see me, now you don’t –

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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

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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:

https://www.linkedin.com/events/worldwildlifeday2024uncelebrati7163493005688041473/comments/

#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

 

Our favorite bandits, the Cedar Waxwings

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Don’t you just love the gorgeous wing patterning of the Cedar Waxwing!

Cedar Waxwings dining on multiflora rose hips at Niles Pond

Perturbed!

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The Eastern Coyote was none to happy too happy to see me. I think I disturbed he/she and its mate from their breakfast.

 

A CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

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Cape Ann women writers reading selected works by Cape Ann women’s writers!

Join host JoeAnn Hart and a group of Cape Ann writers at the Unitarian Universalist church for this collaborative reading.

The event takes place on Friday, March 8th at 7pm at the UU Church.