Many thanks to Gail McCarthy and the Gloucester Daily Times for again featuring the Boston Film Festival and our Piping Plover premiere in Gail’s T.G.I.F. column. Second time we’ve been listed in Google Alerts for the BFF!
Thank you to everyone who is planning to attend. We are so very much looking forward to seeing you!
To reserve your tickets, please go here: https://rockportmusic.org/boston-film-festival/.
We are sooo delighted with the trailer for the Boston Film Festival for our film’s premiere. Thank you Ava and the Boston Film Festival!
Trailer edited by Ava Boudreau, created for the Boston Film Festival 2024. To contact Ava through Instagram, please go to: @avaboo_writing.
Music: Happy Days by Simon Fowler from Upbeat
To reserve your ticket, got to https://rockportmusic.org/boston-film-festival/.
Many, many, thanks to Gail McCarthy and Editor Andrea Holbrook for the very much appreciated write-up about the Boston Film Festival in today’s Gloucester Daily Times. Extra special shout out and thanks for featuring The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay!
See full article HERE: https://www.gloucestertimes.com/news/40th-boston-film-festival-closes-with-premiere-in-rockport/article_9a789c52-6edf-11ef-abc0-47c012851a0d.html
An utter joy this morning encountering the exquisite Bronze Copper butterfly, not often seen in Massachusetts (especially in Essex County). The butterfly is listed as endangered in New Jersey and a species of concern in Connecticut.
The Bronze Copper is larger than it’s much more commonly seen close relative, the American Copper, but still relatively small at only 1 and 1/4 to 1 and 7/8 in inches.
The male was drinking heartily from the Seaside Goldenrod. It’s caterpillar food plants are members of of the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae), including curly dock (Rumex crispus).
Compare to the American Copper
The bulging eyes positioned atop the head gives Bullfrogs a field of vision of almost 180 degrees. They can see to the side, in front, and partially behind them, allowing frogs to see both predator and prey.
Bullfrogs come in a range of shades of green and brown and I thought this was a particularly beautiful Bullfrog
Mature American Bullfrog Tadpole
Dear Friends,
I hope you are enjoying these wonderfully warm last days of summer. I can see the critters sure are! Herons, butterflies, frogs, dragonflies, beavers, bees, hawks, Kingfishers, (even a Merlin!); our ponds, meadows, and shores are teeming with wildlife preparing for winter.
I have been super busy fundraising and organizing deliverables for festivals and apologize for not sharing some of the incredible stories taking place right here in our own backyards. As soon as I get further along in all, I’ll share the images and footage. Some of the most fascinating moments have been watching a beaver. I think I posted on my website a video of a beaver rubbing his belly. A few days later, I observed him/her as he exfoliated (for lack of a better word) his face. First he dove down and retrieved a water lily tuber, which is an especially favorite beaver food at this time of year. After eating half, he then used the tuber to scrub the left side of his face. I thought perhaps this was an anomaly. Five minutes later he dove down, retrieved a second tuber, agan eating half. Then he scrubbed the right side of his face with the tuber. It was charming and funny and amazing to see and to film. Coming soon 🙂
Please be sure to reserve your seats at the Shalin Liu for the premiere of our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay. Here is the link: https://rockportmusic.org/boston-film-festival/ It’s a truly heartwarming story and I think Massachusetts residents especially will be delighted with the film. Also, we are having a Q and A following the screening. Tickets are free but you do need to reserve in advance. That the tickets are free is a wonderfully generous gift to our community from the Boston Film Festival and Rockport Music. The 23rd is a Monday and 5:15pm is early enough in the evening for kids to see on a school night. Please bring your family and friends. We would love to see you there!
Warmest wishes,
xxKim
From teeny hatchlings to the miracle of fledging on crowded urban beaches, come celebrate the beautiful life story of the Piping Plover with us!
When we think of cicadas, we think of the spring time periodic cicadas that emerge en masse, in some years, by the billions and billions. There are also annual cicadas and they typically emerge in late summer or the “dog days” of summer, hence the name, Dog Day Cicada.
Our daughter Liv spotted a Dog Day Cicada atop a 5-foot tall stalk of the Marsh Mallow plant.
Dog Day Cicadas are about half an inch larger than the periodic cicadas. We hear male Dog Day Cicadas in our gardens and neighborhoods and they are one of the wonderfully familiar sounds that immediately brings to mind the music of sultry summer nights. Unlike periodic Cicadas. Dog Day Cicadas emerge singularly; they need to “scream” loudly to attract a female.
Song of the Dog Day Cicada. You can hear the Cicada at about 4 seconds in.
The astonishingly loud sound that is emitted by cicadas comes from a pair of organs called “tympana” located at the base of the males’s abdomen.
Musical Geniuses
Arizona State University, “Ask a Biologist.”
Cicadas are most well-known for their very loud, constant chorus of song during the summer season. Although they sort of sound like crickets, it is pretty clear that cicadas are bigger and better at bringing the noise.
While crickets rub their wings together, male cicadas use a different, louder part of their bodies to make noise. Both sides of their thoraxes have thin, ridged areas of their exoskeletons called tymbals. Tymbals are made of a rubbery substance called resilin. The cicadas vibrate their tymbals very fast using muscles in their bodies. With every vibration, a sound wave is released, and cicadas can send out 300-400 sound waves per second! Females also make sounds to attract males, but they use their wings to make a clicking sound, rather than a high-pitched song like the males.
The cicadas you hear singing long into the night are male cicadas looking for females to mate with. Males are so loud because they have a couple other sound features that allow them to make very loud continuous noises. The abdomen of male cicadas are almost completely hollow. When sound waves from the tymbals enter this hollow area, they bounce around. This can change the sound, make the sound louder, or both.
Different size and shape cicada abdomens will change the sound in different ways. This explains why different cicada species make different noises. Cicadas, and all insects for that matter, also have hollow tubes running through their body called trachea. Trachea move oxygen and carbon dioxide around, sort of like our lungs. Trachea are also hollow, so they are also used by the cicada to make their songs louder. All in all, the cicada is one complicated insect instrument!
Saturday morning at the Dog Bar Breakwater –
Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship “Visions of the Sea”
Hello PiPl Friends!
I have the best news to share with you. Our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, has been accepted to the world-renowned Boston Film Festival. Even more exciting, we are having the live screening premiere locally at the Shalin Liu! The event is presented by the Boston Film Festival and Rockport Music.
The tickets are free, which is a wonderfully generous gift to our community from the BFF and Rockport Music. Please save the date, Monday, September 23rd, at 5:15pm, and make your reservations today! Here is the link to reserve seats: https://tickets.rockportmusic.org/9769/9770
The Boston Film Festival is celebrating 40 years with a record six premieres, including three feature films and three documentaries. Please find the stellar line-up of films and screening schedule here: https://bostonfilmfestival.org/schedule-and-tickets/
Each and every friend receiving this email note has contributed in some way or another to helping launch our documentary, whether a friend to the Plovers on the beach, a beloved Ambassador, an advocate, a well-wisher, or contributed financially with a generous donation. We are continuing fundraising in our efforts to launch the film on public television, part two of the fundraiser, so to speak however, launching our documentary at film festivals is a huge milestone and we are so appreciative of everyone’s generosity. My most heartfelt thanks and deepest appreciation for your caring kindness for the Plovers.
I hope to see you at the premiere!
Warmest wishes,
xxKim
To become an underwriter on public television for The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, please contact the director at kimsmith.designs1@gmail.com or visit our online fundraiser here.
Thank you to all the Schooner Captains and Crews for providing a glorious 40th Annual Schooner Fest for us all to enjoy!
Schooner Strombus – Parade of Sail
Schooners Adventure and Strombus
Canon in D major composed by Johann Pachelbel, performed by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Music from the Internet Archive of Royalty Free Music – Creative Commons – with attributes – non-commercial.
Gloucester Schooner Challenge 2024
Schooner Adventure and the Schooner Isabella, built by Harold Burnham
Scene from last night’s Schooner Challenge –
Schooner Strombus, restored by local shipwright Geoff Deckebach, and the majestic Schooner Adventure
Love moments in the garden with Charlotte and her eagle eyes! The fabulously camouflaged Fork-tailed Bush Katydid seen here was poised on a Common Milkweed leaf. Katydids mostly eat foliage, but they also eat dead bugs and insect eggs (was he planing on eating the freshly deposited Monarch eggs?).
One quick, easy way to distinguish katydids from grasshoppers when out in a field is by looking at their antennae. A katydid’s antenna is super long and seemingly very delicate, sometimes as long, and possibly longer, than its body. Grasshoppers antennae are shorter and thicker.
Differentail Grasshopper
Fork-tailed Bush Katydid
Why is this adorable Beaver rubbing his belly?
The Beaver is waterproofing its fur! At the base of the tail are both a pair of inverted castor sacs and a pair of anal glands. The Beaver uses its front feet to get oil from the anal glands and then rubs it all over his body. Beavers are constantly grooming and oiling their fur not only to waterproof, but also to remove debris. The sticky yellowish substance from the castor sacs is used for an entirely different purpose, to mark their territory and to identify each other.
Our beautiful Mom Pipevine Swallowtail left several clutches of eggs and both hatched yesterday. They are so teeny tiny, but I think there are about 25 caterpillars in all.
She laid several additional clutches over a period of several days and these batches are way up in the treetops. Good thing our Pipevine plant is so vigorous, possibly about 15 feet high, with still plenty of growth left in it for the season.
The eggs were oviposited on August 13, emerging on the 20th – a one week gestation period.
Overjoyed to happen upon this one enjoying his breakfast of lily pad roll-ups! Or perhaps the technique is more enchilada-like. Either way, we were impressed by the speed and efficiency in how he ate the pads.
The stunning Pipevine Swallowtail that you see in the video is depositing a clutch of several dozen eggs. Her gift represents a success for me of sorts. Years ago, we had a Pipevine Swallowtail in our garden, a male, and he was investigating the heart shaped leaves of our Moonvine. I made a promise to the Pipevine Butterflies that the next time they made it this far north, I would have a Pipevine growing in the garden on which a traveling female could deposit her eggs. I can’t resist but to add – not a “pipe dream after all!”
You see, Dutchman’s Pipevine is one of the few caterpillar food plants of the Pipevine Swallowtail that grows well in northern climates. Like the Moonvine, the leaves of the Dutchman’s Pipevine are large and heart-shaped.
A hundred years or so ago, Pipevine Swallowtails regularly occurred in New England because people planted Dutchman’s Pipevine to embower their porches. In one season, the vine can grow two stories high and equally as wide, providing lush green cooling shade on a hot summer afternoon. When you look at old photographs of porches in New England, most often it’s Pipevine climbing up the porch pillars and along the roof. With the advent of air conditioning, folks no longer needed to plant Dutchman’s Pipevine to cool their homes The vine, and the butterflies, were forgotten.
Julia Lane, later Julia Wheeler, posed for Alice M. Curtis on August 12th, 1915, in Gloucester. Photo courtesy Fred Bodin.
Our visiting Mama Pipevine cautiously investigated the entire plant from top to bottom, fluttering in and out of the large leaves before deciding on this tiny tender leaf to deposit her treasure trove. We had a female come to our garden about ten years after the vine was planted. She deposited a clutch of eggs however, a tiny spider ate them all, every single one. I am not taking any chances this time and placed the stem with the eggs in a terrarium, covering the terrarium with several layers of cheesecloth, and a wire screen, in hopes of keeping the spiders out.
If you would like to attract the exquisite Pipevine Swallowtail to your garden, plant Dutchman’s Pipevine. It’s an enthusiastic grower, but no need to worry, you can cut it all down to the bare ground after the first frost and it will come back just as beautifully and plush the following spring.
Nearly five years ago, in late September 2007, I photographed a male Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly (Battus philenor) nectaring in my garden. I found mesmerizing its dark beauty, with black wings punctuated by brilliant orange spots and shimmering iridescence. The wings flashed electric blue in the fading late day sunlight and I became completely captivated!
Although the Pipevine Swallowtail is not rare in its southern range, this exotic looking butterfly is an unusual occurrence in the northeast, and even more rarely found on the eastern outer reaches of Cape Ann. Mine was a stray, carried in on a southerly breeze. I imagined that if a male can drift into our garden, so can a female. And if a visiting female found in my garden her caterpillar food plant, she would deposit her eggs. The following spring we planted the Dutchman’s Pipevine (Aristolochia macrophylla) Read more here
Dear PiPl Friends!
I just had to share this study with all of you as many of us who have been looking after Plovers may relate to the following. This past week I attended the annual Northeast Coastal Waterbird Cooperators meeting, an event that brings together all the different conservation groups and individuals that monitor Piping Plovers, Least Terns, Roseate Terns, and American Oystercatchers from across New England and the mid-Atlantic. This outstanding meeting, with many moving parts, is organized by Carolyn Mostello, the Massachusetts Coastal Waterbird Biologist. I eagerly look forward to the meeting every year and it is so uplifting to be with such an incredible group of caring conservation minded organizations and individuals.
The morning hours may sound a little wonky, where all the different states and regions share data on pairs and fledged chicks for the different species, but I love it and find it very interesting to learn how individual beaches are faring and why and why not numbers are up (or down as is sometimes the case). Next on the agenda is Strange and Unusual, which is always engaging (our Good Harbor Beach Plovers have been featured several times!).The after lunch part of the meeting is especially interesting because people share reports and updates on shorebird studies that they are conducting throughout the regions. I was very happy to learn about several studies being conducted to determine how wind farms will impact migrating shorebirds and hope as much at least is being done for whales, dolphins, and other sea creatures.
Truly fascinating is an ongoing study that is taking place at Fire Island, Long Island. The research is about Piping Plover dispersal, with ten plus years of data collected. 600 individual banded Plovers were monitored. All of us Plover ambassadors know that adult Plovers show tremendous fidelity to nesting sites; for example, at Good Harbor Beach our Super Mom and Dad have nested within several feet of their previous year’s nest for the past nine years. Over the years we had learned that the offspring don’t generally return to the nesting site and it was assumed they traveled far and wide. This movement is referred to as “natal dispersal.” Well, this new study may very well prove otherwise. Roughly 85 percent of offspring at Fire Island return to the same area, the median distance is 5.5 km, and the closest returning offspring was only 5.1 meters. What does this mean? I think Good Harbor Beach has become populated with Super Mom and Super Dad’s offspring! We have all often wondered if the little chicks from one year are returning as adults the following year. For the most part, Plovers are not banded in Massachusetts; we have no way of knowing precisely but it sure is exciting to think that we have this wonderful little population of Super Mom and Super Dad’s extended family returning annually to GHB! Something to think about 🙂
Other wonderful news is that our documentary, The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay, was awarded Best Family Friendly Film by Cine Paris Film Festival. For local friends, the Newburyport Film Festival is running September 20th through the 22nd and as soon as we have a screening date, I will let you know, and hope you can come!
Happy August,
xxKim
P.S. We have Plover Lover T-shirts at Alexandra’s Bread (all profits go towards the film) and please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to our online fundraiser to bring The PiPls of Moonlight Bay to public television. LINK HERE We are also hoping to connect with possible underwriters – foundations, local businesses, corporations, and individuals. Please let us know of your thoughts and possible leads. Thank you!
Last week I posted a video and photos of the beautiful Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. Several comments led me to believe that people are confusing Clearwing Moth caterpillars with the caterpillars that may be eating your tomato plants.
Tomato Hornworm caterpillars, the ones that eat tomatoes, look like this –
Image courtesy wiki commons media
The adults look like this –
Manduca quinquemaculata MHNT CUT 2010 0 116 Schuylkill Haven, Schuylkill Co. Penna male dorsal Image courtesy wikicommons mediaHummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) caterpillars look like this –
Image courtesy wiki commons media
The adults like this –
This morning when I arrived home from filming I was fortunate to get a brief glimpse of the Bumblebee Moth, also known as the Snowberry Clearwing Moth (Hemaris diffinis).
Bumblebee Moths are named as such because their colors resemble a bumblebee –
Images courtesy wiki commons media
Walking around Niles Pond at this time of year you can’t helped but be knocked out by the fabulous combined scent of the blooming Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) and Rosa rugosa. Summersweet, also know as Honeysweet and Sweet Pepperbush, is the large shrub that densely lines both sides of Niles Pond Road. With racemes that look like bottlebrushes, the many florets provide nectar for dozens of species of pollinators, of all sizes. The tiniest winged wonders attracted to the panicles provide sustenance to hummingbirds and I often see them zipping in and out of the Clethra blossoms, too.
The Summersweet shrubs growing so closely together creates a “Wall of Fragrance,” which always reminds me of Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound,” where his musical arrangements called for multi tracking multiple instruments, creating “symphonic saturation.” Niles Pond right now is a symphonic saturation of sweet summer scents – GO!
The following is an excerpt from a book that I wrote back in 2004-2007, which was published by David R. Godine in 2009. The book is about designing landscape habitats for wild creatures and for people, titled Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities: Notes from a Gloucester Garden, and all that I wrote then, still holds true to day.
“Summersweet is a native shrub that bears small white florets held on racemes, and depending on the cultivar may be shaded with varying hues of pink to rose-red. The tapering spires of fragrant blossoms appear in mid to late summer. Clethra has a sweet and spicy though somewhat pungent aroma, and when the summer air is sultry and humid, the fragrance permeates the garden, Summersweet is a nectar food attractive to bees and a wide variety of butterflies, notably the Silver-spotted Skipper.” See more at Oh Garden
Myriad species of bees and butterflies, along with Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, are attracted to Clethra for its sweet nectar, while American Robins, Goldfinches and warblers dine on Summersweet’s ripened berries.
Beach Rose (Rosa rugosa)
Don’t miss this delightfully magical production of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella, now playing at the Annisquam Village Hall. Once again, Director Terry Sands and Company have created a beautiful production, featuring the talents of local performers.
Miranda Joyce and Nate Oaks, both East Gloucester residents and theatre arts majors, are simply stellar, making their debut performances with AVP as Cinderella (Ella) and the Prince (Topher). What fabulous stage presence they both posses! Miranda’s parents are our neighbors and it was their first time seeing Miranda in the role as Cinderella. To say they were proud parents is the understatement of the decade 🙂
If you have never seen the original musical, the story is told with plenty of magical moments for both children and adults, and also witty and fun (and so very apropos for our times), adult humor. Bring the family, you will be delighted and uplifted.
Seven-year-old Charlotte’s critique – Charlotte was seriously dog tired after a long day at camp. I had told her we could leave at intermission if needed. When the lights went up at intermission she looked at me with a very determined expression and said she definitely did not want to leave. Her critique when the curtain went up – That was AMAZING, Mimi! And we had lots of fun singing the songs on the car ride home!
Cinderella is dedicated in loving memory to the AVP community’s beloved Evy Stewart
The following is a question I have been asked with increasing frequency, “should drone operators fly their drones over heron rookeries and other sensitive bird nesting areas?”
One of several unfortunate situations that I have witnessed while observing herons was watching a Great Blue Heron desperately try to escape a drone operator that was harassing it. As the drone operator tried to get close to the bird, the GBHeron flew from one treetop to the next, back and forth across the parking lot at the Lighthouse. Finally, the Heron left the area entirely. Great Blue Herons love to forage there in the marsh and the drone was clearly preventing it from feeding.
In the case of nesting shorebirds and herons, hovering drones are even more traumatic because as much as the parent bird would like to escape the drone, protectively, the bird also does not want to leave its eggs and nestlings. One of the most troubling situations we Plover keepers have to contend with is drone operators flying over nesting shorebirds. It is illegal and considered harassment under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to operate a drone over breeding areas. However, people are either unaware, feign ignorance, or even worse, are aware and simply don’t care. Countless times we have come onto our shifts to find all the birds in the area in complete meltdown mode. At first you may not see the drone and wonder what on earth is making the birds respond in such an extraordinary manner. And then there it is; whether flying high over head or close to the ground, the birds are in utter panic. Because they think the drone is a predator that has come to eat their eggs, hatchlings, or chicks. Oftentimes, the heron or shorebird will try to distract the drone, leaving the nest unattended and in even graver danger from predators.
There is accumulating evidence that the mere presence of drones causes direct harm to birds. The unfamiliarity and noise interrupts courtship, mating, and feeding. Entire tern and heron colonies have abandoned their nests due to drone disturbances.
Least Tern and two chicks
Over millennia, nesting birds evolved with the constant threat of avian predators, including hawks, falcons, crows, gulls, and eagles. They have not adapted to understand that a drone is not a predator, no matter how much the drone operator protests that the birds are unbothered by the drone and have become used to its presence.
It is imperative for the safety of the birds that they have a healthy fear of drones. The last thing we want are nestlings thinking that hovering airborne shapes are nothing to be afraid of.
In our collective experiences monitoring the Plovers, we come across unethical behavior not only on the part of drone operators but also by fellow wildlife enthusiasts. We have seen photographers mashed up against the symbolically roped off areas, despite massively long telephoto lens, parking themselves for hours on end, and also following the birds relentlessly up and down the beach, despite the bird’s clear signals it is trying to get away and/or tend to its chicks. Early on in the pursuit of my dream to document wildlife, I was part of crowds that photographed owls. Observing how sensitive are owls, I no longer film owls in known locations. If I come across an owl or rare bird when out filming, I take a few photos and footage and go on my way. Crowds and hovering persons are also the reason why I no longer post specific locales and keep location information general.
The American Oystercatcher is a relatively new-to-our-region and wonderful species of shorebird that has been trying to nest in the North of Boston area over the past several years. Tragically, word got out this past spring on one of the birding alert websites telling folks exactly where to look for the pair and their nest. The crowds of photographers was untenable for the nesting parents. With all the unwanted attention, the Oystercatchers became very confused and lost their first nest, where one of the chicks had already hatched! The pair re-nested. Again, word got out, the nesting area was again inundated with photographers and the Oystercatchers abandoned their second nest.
American Oystercatchers, New Jersey
To ethically document wildlife requires thought and is also a tremendous responsibility. We can all do our part to protect the beautiful creatures in our midst by being mindful and sensing their boundaries, especially, especially during the time of year when they are breeding.
Thank you for taking the time to read this information. I hope your question is answered, and why.
Just some of the birds negatively impacted by drones during the breeding season –
Great Blue Herons courting
Juvenile Glossy ibis
Little flashes of blue iridescence flitting through the garden quickly caught my attention.
A number of black butterflies sport blue iridescence in their wing scales, including the Pipevine Swallowtail, female Eastern Black Swallowtail, Red-spotted Purple, and the Spicebush Swallowtail. Which one was gracing our garden today?
The newly emerged beauty was a Red-spotted Purple, which I had not seen for several years! The much tastier (to birds) Red-spotted Purple Butterflies are thought to have evolved to mimic the foul tasting and toxic Pipevine Swallowtail. Red-spotted Purple caterpillars eat non-toxic leaves of Serviceberry, oaks, Black Cherry, aspens, birches, Eastern Cottonwood, and hawthorns, which would make both the caterpillars and adults appetizing to birds. By mimicking the Pipevine Swallowtail, which eats toxic foliage of plants in the genus Aristolochia, the mimics–Red-spotted Purple, Spicebush Swallowtail, and female Eastern Black Swallowtail–find some protection, to a certain degree.
Under wing, or ventral wing pattern
Upper wing, or dorsal, wing pattern
The beautiful blue iridescence in butterfly wings is created from the microscopic ridges, cross-ribs, and other structural layers of the individual scales, which play with light waves to reflect brilliant blues and speckles.
We had just watered the garden and I think the Red-spotted Purple was drinking up droplets of water. Perhaps there was salt or some necessary nutrients in the droplets when mixed with the foliage.