The zinnia and milkweed patch has been attracting a magical assemblage of butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, hover flies, and other insects throughout the summer. Stay tuned for part two coming soon – Monarchs and Friends in Marsh and Meadow!
Plant and they will come!
Monarchs and friends in the mid-summer garden. A host of pollinators finds sustenance in our zinnia and milkweed patch.
Cast
Monarch
Tiger Swallowtail
American Lady
Black Swallowtail
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Clouded Sulphur
Cabbage White
Various bees and skippers
Eyeing landscapes that are usually lushly verdant at this time of year, every where we look, wild places and yardscapes are prematurely shriveling and turning brown. This does not bode well for pollinators, especially the butterflies we look forward to seeing in August and September, including Monarchs, Painted and American Ladies, Buckeyes. and Sulphurs. These beauties depend upon wildflowers for daily sustenance and to build their lipid reserves for journeys south.
Six tips to help your garden survive the drought
1. In our garden, we prioritize what needs water most. Pollinator favorite annuals and perennials such as Zinnias, Phlox, Monarda, Joe-pye, and milkweeds provide nectar for Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies that are on the wing at this time of year, and they are watered consistently. Perennial wildflowers that Monarchs, the Vanessa butterflies, and Sulphurs rely on in late summer include asters and goldenrods and we give them plentiful water, too. Fruit trees, native flowering dogwoods and shrubs are also given plenty of attention because they take the longest to become established, give shade, and provide sustenance to myriad species of pollinators. Assess your own garden with an eye to prioritizing what you think pollinators are most reliant upon now and over the coming two months.
Plants such as daylilies, iris, lily-of-the-valley, grass, and hosta support nothing, or very few species. They are typically well-rooted and can afford temporary neglect.
2. Water by hand, selectively (see above). Hold the hose nozzle at the base of the plant to soak the soil, not the foliage.
3. Water deeply, and therefore less frequently. Fruiting and flowering trees and shrubs especially appreciate deep watering.
4. Watering after dark saves a tremendous amount of water as a large percentage of water (anywhere from 20 to 30 percent) is lost to evaporation when watering during daylight hours. The best time of day to water is after sunset and before sunrise.
5. Do not fertilize with chemical fertilizers, which promotes an over abundance of growth, which in turn requires more water. Instead, use organic fertilizers and amendments, which will improve the soil’s ability to store and hold water. Fertilize with one of Neptune Harvest’s excellent fish fertilizers, and cover the soil beneath the plants with a two inch layer of Black Earth compost. The soil will be healthier and able to retain moisture more readily.
6. Remove weeds regularly. Weeds suck up valuable moisture. To be clear, by weeds, I don’t mean plants that are misnamed with the suffix weed. So many of our native wildflowers were unfortunately given names that end in weed by the early colonists. For example, Butterfly Weed (Milkweed), Ironweed (Veronia), and Joe-pye Weed (Eupatorium), to name but a few. These native wildflowers are some of our very best plants to support native species of Lepidoptera.Canadian Tiger swallowtail drinking nectar – keeping the Zinnias well-watered to help the pollinators
“There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.” –Rachel Carson
Dear Friends,
It’s glorious outdoors today and I hope you have a chance to get outside. See below for photos from my morning Earth Day walk, although I can’t bear to sit at my computer all day when it’s so gorgeous out and will head back out this afternoon to see what we see.
For Earth Day this past week I gave several screenings of Beauty on the Wing (thank you once again most generous community for all your help funding BotWing!) along with presenting “The Hummingbird Habitat Garden” to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. For over twenty years I have been giving programs on how to create pollinator habitats. People are hungry for real information on how to connect to wildlife and wild habitats and each year the interest grows and grows. It’s truly a joy to witness!
Last night it was especially rewarding to bring Beauty on the Wing to Connecticut’s Sherman Conservation Commission attendees. We had a lively Q and A following the screening with many thoughtful questions and comments. My gratitude and thanks to Michelle MacKinnon for creating the event. She saw the film on PBS and wanted to bring it to her conservation organization. Please let me know if you are interested in hosting a Beauty on the Wing screening.
Monarchs are on the move! The leading edge in the central part of the country is at 39 degrees latitude in Illinois and Kansas: the leading edge along the Atlantic Coast is also at 39 degrees latitude; Monarchs have been spotted in both Maryland and New Jersey. Cape Ann is located at 43 degrees — it won’t be long!
Monarchs are heading north! Female Monarch depositing egg on Common Milkweed
Hummingbirds have been seen in Mashpee this past week (41 degrees latitude). Don’t forget to put out your hummingbird feeders. Dust them off and give a good cleaning with vinegar and water. Fill with sugar water and clean regularly once installed. The sugar water recipe is one part sugar to four parts water; never replace the sugar with honey, and never use red food coloring.
Happy Glorious Earth Day!
Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Super surprised to see this mystery duck asleep on a rock. I was so curious and kept hoping he would wake up so as to identify. He at last lifted his head for all of ten seconds and then promptly tucked back in and went back to sleep. I’ve only ever seen Surf Scoters bobbing around far off shore in the distance. Skunk bird- what a cutie!
American Kestrel, male, too far away to get a good photo but a joy to see!
Beautiful, beautiful Great Egret preening its luxurious spray of feathers. An egret’s spray of feathers is also referred to as aigrette.
No Earth Day post would be complete without our dear PiPls – Mom and Dad foraging at the wrack line this am, finding lots of insects for breakfast.
SOOOO many Monarch eggs!Female Monarch depositing eggs on Common Milkweed buds
My goodness, I don’t recall a July like this in forever. The females are depositing eggs on leaves, buds, and for the first time that I have ever observed, today depositing eggs on seedpods! Not sure if I captured that but will post if so.
Female Monarch depositing egg, left, drinking nectar, right
Please join me, along with the youngest members of your family. I have created a short film for Cape Ann young people for the Sawyer Free Library titled TheMarvelous Magnificent Migrating Monarch – here is the link and more information: August 3rd – August 6th, Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 to 10:30. Children’s Services Summer Reading Program “Tails and Tales” presents Monarch Butterflies with Kim Smith! Kim created a short film and virtual presentation to share these beautiful creatures with children and families, and see how Gloucester is a part of their amazing migration journey! Register here and we will send you the link to enjoy this presentation throughout the week starting Tuesday August 3rd.
While sitting in my garden watching the female Monarchs bump into each other in their eagerness to deposit eggs, our resident Mama Ruby-throated Hummingbird stopped by for her (at least) three times daily sips of nectar from the native honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens ‘John Clayton.’ At this time of year she’s also drinking nectar from the Rose of Sharon, Mexican Sunflowers, Zinnias, Cardinal Climber, and several other species of honeysuckle.
Plant and they will come.
I would love locate her nest, but it’s such a jungle of pollinator plants in my garden I know I’ll never find it. Ruby-throated hummingbirds nest are about the size of a walnut half and the egg, only as big as 8mm pearls.
$12,000.00 raised the first week! I am so humbled by everyone’s kind generosity THANK YOU, THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ARE DONATING TO OUR ONLINE FUNDRAISER FOR BEAUTY ON THE WING: LIFE STORY OF THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY!
We currently have one underwriter (with thanks and gratitude for her extraordinarily generous gift) and a number of wonderfully generous contributors. We are more than one fifth of the way to meeting our goal of $51,000.00!!!
Thank you with all my heart to the following donors who have contributed so generously to this second phase of fundraising and are helping to bring Beauty on the Wing to a national television audience.
Lauren Mercadante, James Masciarelli, Sally Jackson, Marion Frost, Karrie Klaus, Lillian and Craig Olmstead, Suki and Fil Agusti, Nina Groppo, Nubar Alexanian, Marguerite Matera, Claudia Bermudez, Thomas Hauck, Judith Foley, Jane Paznik-Bondarin, Paul Vassallo, Stella Martin, Liv Hauck, Julia Williams Robinson, Cynthia Dunn, Diane Gustin, Heidi Shiver, John Ronan, Karen Maslow
Please consider making a tax deductible contribution to funding distribution for Beauty on the Wing. We need underwriters and donors for the next phase, to distribute Beauty to a national public television audience. All contributions, large and small, will be listed on the film’s website and on American Public Television’s website. For more information, please go here:
Underwriters, those donating substantial sums, will be featured at the beginning and end of the film. For more information about underwriting, please email me at kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com
Thursday I am super excited to be presenting Beauty on the Wing to the Spanish students at O’Maley Innovation Middle School. This program was organized by Heidi Wakeman. I plan to do more of these screenings and QandAs with young people and will let you know how it goes!
If you are looking to be inspired by creatures and colors of the upcoming season, and what to plant to make your garden a welcoming haven for wildlife, please join me tonight at 7pm. I am super excited to be presenting “The Pollinator Garden” for the Mass Pollinator Network. Because it is a Keynote presentation, I was able to add and collage many more photos. The presentation looks great and is chock full of ideas for your pollinator paradise. I hope to see you there!
Please join me Wednesday evening, March 17th, at 7pm for “The Pollinator Garden” presentation, via Zoom, for the Massachusetts Pollinator Network.
From early spring through winter, I will take you on a journey of understanding the beautiful creatures found in your gardens and how you can create a welcoming haven by planting trees, shrubs, vines, native wildflowers, and non-invasive ornamentals. Some of the wild creatures covered include Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, moths and butterflies, bees, Baltimore Orioles, and much, much more.
This lecture is the second in a three part fundraising series. For more information and to register please go here: MA Pollinator Network: The Pollinator Garden with Kim Smith and please consider making a donation to MA Pollinator Network. Donations of any amount are welcome.
This World is But a Canvas to Our ImaginationPaul Wegzyn at School Street Sunflowers wrote to let us know they will be open to the public, beginning either Sunday or Monday (please check their website/FB/Insta pages for the most up to the minute updates). I met Paul last year, the first year School Street Sunflowers opened to the public, and we became fast friends. I am such a fan of his beautiful sunflower field!
Because of the pandemic, only a limited number of people will be allowed in the field at one time. Tickets will be available online and in person, but buying online will guarantee the date and time you want.School Street Sunflowers is my favorite sunflower field not just because of Paul’s kind, thoughtful nature and beautiful, gorgeous sunflower field, but because he has creatively woven themes into the sunflower experience. Last year, one of the themes was butterflies and this year he has chosen a pandemic perfect subject, transcendentalism. “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” – Henry David Thoreau. Take a moment to read the signs posted throughout the field.
School Street Sunflowers is located on School Street in Ipswich, behind the high school. For more information visit –
I went to the Sunflowers because…“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived…”
All photos above are courtesy of Paul Wegzyn
Photos below are of the field when it is was in bloom last summer. See post here –
We aren’t able to be on stage at the Village Hall this summer, but as a gift to the community, the Village Players will be presenting an online extravaganza. This happy show will preview songs from our summer 2021 live production of the beloved musical about everyone’s best-loved, practically perfect nanny, Mary Poppins. Some 50 present and past members of our company, ranging in age from 4-84, will sing favorites like Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious, Spoonful of Sugar, Let’s Go Fly a Kite, I Love to Laugh, Jolly Holiday and Step in Time.
Please join us Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 7:30 pm. The show will be broadcast from AVP’s brand new Youtube channel. And since you’ll be watching from home, you can sing along!
Try Backyard Birding – Please join John Nelson, Martin Ray, and myself for a virtual zoom hour of fun talk about birding in your own backyard. We’ll be discussing a range of bird related topics and the event is oriented to be family friendly and hosted by Eric Hutchins.
I am a bit under the weather but nonetheless looking forward to sharing this wonderful event sponsored by Literary Cape Ann.
Singing the praises of Cape Ann’s winged aerialists
Families are invited to join some of our favorite local naturalists and authors — John Nelson, Kim Smith and Martin Ray — for a fun hour talking about the many birds and natural habitats found on Cape Ann. Wildlife biologist Eric Hutchins will moderate this-one hour conversation.
Zoom in Friday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m. for an hour of fun as you celebrate the long-awaited summer solstice. See and hear birds, ask questions, learn some birdwatching tips and discover ways to document your bird sightings using your camera, notebook, blog or sketch pad.
This event is brought to you by Literary Cape Ann, a nonprofit group that provides information and events that support and reinforce the value and importance of the literary arts. LCA commemorates Toad Hall bookstore’s 45 years of service on Cape Ann. LCA’s generous sponsors include: SUN Engineering in Danvers, Bach Builders in Gloucester and The Institution for Savings.
All the photos you see here were taken in my East Gloucester neighborhood this past spring, from March 17th to this morning. A few were taken at the Jodrey Fish Pier, but mostly around Eastern Point, Good Harbor Beach, and in our own backyard. The Tree Swallows photos were taken at Greenbelt’s Cox Reservation. Several of these photos I have posted previously this spring but most not.
I love sharing about the beautiful species we see in our neighborhood – just this morning I was photographing Mallard ducklings, an Eastern Cottontail that hopped right up to me and ate his breakfast of beach pea foliage only several feet away, a Killdeer family, a male Cedar Waxwing feeding a female, and a Black Crowned Night Heron perched on a rock. I was wonderfully startled when a second BCN flew in. The pair flew off and landed at a large boulder, well hidden along the marshy edge of the pond. They hung out together for a bit- maybe we’ll see some little Black Crowned Night Herons later this summer <3
Please join John Nelson, Martin Ray, and myself for an hour of talk about the many birds and habitats found on Cape Ann. The event is hosted by Literary Cape Ann and will be moderated by Eric Hutchins, Gulf of Maine Habitat Restoration Coordinator for NOAA.
From Literary Cape Ann’s newsletter-
TRY BIRDING IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD!
Singing the praises of Cape Ann’s winged aerialists
Families are invited to join some of our favorite local naturalists and authors — John Nelson, Kim Smith and Martin Ray — for a fun hour talking about the many birds and natural habitats found on Cape Ann. Wildlife biologist Eric Hutchins will moderate this-one hour conversation.
Zoom in this coming Friday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m. for an hour of fun as you celebrate the long-awaited summer solstice. See and hear birds, ask questions, learn some birdwatching tips and discover ways to document your bird sightings using your camera, notebook, blog or sketch pad.
This event is brought to you by Literary Cape Ann, a nonprofit group that provides information and events that support and reinforce the value and importance of the literary arts. LCA commemorates Toad Hall bookstore’s 45 years of service on Cape Ann. LCA’s generous sponsors include: SUN Engineering in Danvers, Bach Builders in Gloucester and The Institution for Savings.
Order books by our guest authors at The Bookstore of Gloucester. For those interested, bird books make great Father’s Day gifts. Further down in this newsletter, you’ll find lots of great information about books and birdwatching organizations.
Thank you, Kim Smith and Martin Ray, for providing us with some of your beautiful photography to help promote this event. And thank you, John Nelson, for the annotated lists of books and birding organizations. Meet our panel!
Meet our panel!
Artist, author/blogger, and naturalist Martin Ray will talk about maintaining his fine blog, “Notes from Halibut Point,” and share stories discovered in that magical place.
Filmmaker, naturalist, and activist Kim Smith will share her own adventures chronicling Cape Ann’s vibrant bird life including the work she does advocating for the endangered piping plovers that nest at Good Harbor Beach.
Author-naturalist John Nelson will start things off with some birdwatching basics before getting into a few stories about local birds, their habits and habitats from his new book, “Flight Calls: Exploring Massachusetts through Birds.”
Our moderator, Eric Hutchins, is the Gulf of Maine Habitat Restoration Coordinator for the NOAA Restoration Center located in Gloucester. He has worked as both a commercial fisherman and government biologist on domestic and foreign fishing vessels throughout the Northeast and Alaska.
Martin Ray
“Cape Ann Narratives of Art in Life” — A collection of interviews and images tracing the creative lives of 28 contemporary artists.
“Quarry Scrolls” (2018)— 24 photographs of Halibut Point natural life and scenes with accompanying Haiku poems
Kim Smith:
“Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities!” — Written and illustrated by Kim Smith.
John Nelson:
“Flight Calls: Exploring Massachusetts through Birds”
More books, recommended by John Nelson:
Sibley, David. The Sibley Guide to Birds
Kroodsma, Donald. The Singing Life of Birds. 2005. On the science and art of listening to birds, by a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts and a foremost authority on bird vocalizations.
Leahy, Christopher, John Hanson Mitchell, and Thomas Conuel. The Nature of Massachusetts. 1996. An excellent introduction to the natural history of Massachusetts by three prominent Mass Audubon Society naturalist-authors.
Sibley, David. What It’s Like to Be a Bird. 2020. Just published, a study of what birds are doing and why, by a longtime Massachusetts resident and renowned author/illustrator of a series of bird and nature guides.
Weidensaul, Scott. Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds. 2000. A Pulitzer Prize finalist study of bird migration by the naturalist and author of Return to Wild America, the subject of his memorable 2020 BBC lecture.
Zickefoose, Julie. Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest. 2016. Where art meets natural history, by a talented author/artist, former student of biological anthropology at Harvard, and keynote speaker at the 2014 Massachusetts Birders Meeting.
If you’d like to learn more or get involved in the birding life, here are some recommendations from John Nelson:
An excellent overall resource is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, especially the “All About Birds” sections, which includes free access to the MaCauley Library (the country’s best collection of vocalizations of birds and other animals), the free Merlin bird identification app, live bird cams, and other resources for beginners and intermediates. Some programs, like their “Joy of Birdwatching” course, require an enrollment fee, but many of their resources are free to anyone.
For bird conservation, the most active national organizations are the American Bird Conservancy and National Audubon. For state bird conservation, Mass Audubon (not affiliated with National Audubon) is most active and the best source of information, but many other organizations are involved in preservation of habitats, often with a local focus.
For birding field trips,Mass Audubon and the Brookline Bird Club both offer frequent trips at different seasons to Cape Ann, sometimes for just a morning, sometimes for a whole day. Both organizations welcome novices, and both have trip leaders who make an effort to be particularly helpful to beginners. Mass Audubon trips, generally sponsored by MAS Ipswich River or MAS Joppa Flats, require advance registration and some payment.
Brookline Bird Club trips are free, without any registration, but regular participants are encouraged to join the club with $15 as the annual dues. The name of the BBC is misleading; the club originated in Brookline in 1913 but is now one of the largest, most active clubs in the country and offers field trips across and beyond Massachusetts.
John Nelson is on the BBC Board of Directors and leads a few Cape Ann trips in both winter and spring. John reminds us that this is a strange time for beginners, since Mass Audubon has cancelled many field trips and the BBC has cancelled all trips through June, but eventually field trips will open up again, especially in places where social distancing is most possible.
The very active Facebook page, Birding Eastern Mass, has over 2,000 subscribers, from novice birders to experts. It’s a great site for sharing bird photos.
About Birding in Our Backyard
This Zoom event is for friends and families who are looking for safe, fun things to do close to home. Cape Ann’s abundance of natural wonders are here for us to enjoy and protect. Try chronicling your experiences in a new blog or a photo journal.
• • •
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.
— John Muir, from “Our National Parks”
The Beauport Hotel is now serving to go. Take out hours are Wednesday though Sunday from 5pm to 8pm. Call 978-491-5090 to order. They will bring your order when you arrive. Beauport Hotel is located at 55 Commercial Street, Gloucester.
Fishermen cast for new customers amid coronavirus pandemic
GLOUCESTER, MA – MAY 10: Leo Alvarado works to unload a fishing boat at Fisherman’s Wharf on May 10, 2020 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. (Staff Photo By Angela Rowlings/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
Massachusetts’ commercial fishing industry is finding new ways to stay afloat as the coronavirus pandemic has shuttered restaurants and halted seafood shipments, shaking up the normal course of business and leaving fishermen looking for customers to buy their seafood.
“We had a wholesale business and like the stock market, we were up, up, up and dependable — and then all of a sudden it went away,” said Nick Giacalone, who with his brothers owns the Fisherman’s Wharf Gloucester.
Restaurant closures amid the pandemic and the grounding of hundreds of planes that typically carry local seafood to overseas markets have decimated the demand globally and threatened to send prices crashing. It’s a sobering reality that has led many fishermen and related industries to tap an obvious but previously neglected market: Direct-to-consumer sales.
Up in Gloucester, haddock, pollack, scallops and lobsters arrive by the thousands of pounds at Giacalone’s Fisherman’s Wharf. The company entered retail sales for the first time last month as it looked to move its product and help the fishing boats it works with stay in business.
“We are adapting, we are pivoting,” said Vito Giacalone, Nick’s brother. The warehouse cuts, cleans and sells about 20 million pounds of seafood to grocery chains, restaurants and other processors annually.
The brothers say the entry into retail business has helped keep their heads above water.
On Sunday alone more than 300 people purchased seafood at fisherman’s Wharf and Vito said they’ve been processing roughly the same amount of seafood as they did before the pandemic hit. The Giacalones have so far been able to keep all 15 of their employees working.
“People are buying local and it’s keeping fishermen and industry in business,” he said.
Tonight on WGBH’S “In it Together,” Arun Rath will be interviewing Dogtown Books for a segment on how bookstores are faring during the pandemic. FOLLOW THIS LINKor listen on the radio at 89.7 at 7pm.
We continue to be steadfast in our commitment to getting the community growing again! In the last two weeks, we have delivered 832 items from our online shop to 91 households in Gloucester and Rockport. This weekend, we launched our annual April seedling sale through a new pre-order only system. See below for information about how to order for curbside pick-up this Saturday. We have also continued with our Backyard Garden Program builds for low- to moderate-income seniors. Our new community garden members now have access to our weekly virtual garden planning training, and we will soon launch more virtual training content that will be open to the public. In the meantime, we’ve updated our Resources page with information to get you started. Read on and stay tuned for more!
This has been an unprecedented week and its only Tuesday! After a lot of thought and consulting our team we decided to open and serve our community as long as we are able.
At Cake Ann we have:
– Stepped up hand washing and continue to use all good health practices for safe food handling
– Removed our small seating and waiting area
– Clean the Point of sale after every customer interaction.
– Sanitize all surfaces and equipment on a continuous basis
– Serve coffee to limit cross contamination of equipment
We ask you to:
– You not travel if you and or your family is not well
– Please do not help yourself – we will help you.
– Be patient and realize that we are working in extraordinary times.
– Support your local businesses as you can
– Reschedule – not cancel your existing event.
I am working on online ordering and starting today we will accept prepaid orders that we will be delivered within a window of 4-6 PM in Rockport and Gloucester. We will continue to update you as more information becomes available.
Although I am not suggesting that this case of attempted abduction correlates to the disappearance of Abbie Flynn, it illustrates how easily a woman of any age could be abducted. Ipswich Local News
John P. Muldoon
March 6, 2020
IPSWICH — A Mattapan man is being held on cash bail after he allegedly tried to force a woman into his car at Pavilion Beach Tuesday.
The woman escaped by pretending a man nearby was her husband, police said.
Police said they arrested the suspect after a 30-minute standoff on Jeffreys Neck Road where they had to smash a car window to haul the man out.Pavilion Beach
The suspect, Anson V. Frazier, 30, of 27 Briarcliff Terrace, Mattapan, was still in custody Friday afternoon on $5,000 cash bail, according to records in Ipswich District Court.
Records said Frazier was charged with:
Attempt to commit a crime, to wit kidnapping
Resisting arrest, and
Assault and battery.
Should he make bail, he will have to wear an electronic monitor, stay away from Ipswich and the victim, not leave the state, remain drug and alcohol free and undergo random screening, and not possess any firearms or dangerous weapons, the court record said.
The incident reportedly happened around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, the police complaint on file said.
According to one report written by Officer Ryan Mayer, police were told a man “attempted to grab a woman and pull her into his vehicle.”
Mayer, who arrived first at Pavilion Beach, said he was met by a “distraught” woman, 65, who said she saw a man doing yoga on the beach.
The suspect “approached her and grabbed her right arm with both hands and began forcibly pushing her towards his car saying that he had a dog service that she would be very interested in,” the complaint alleged.
Police said the woman pointed to the vehicle next to her and said the man inside was her husband and they could talk with him about the service.
Mayer said that was a ruse to have Frazier let her go while simultaneously signalling for help.
Frazier “then let go of [the woman] and got in his vehicle and attempted to leave the scene at a high rate of speed,” the complaint alleged.
One man who said he witnessed the alleged abduction attempt told police Frazier “was acting strange on the beach, doing yoga poses near the water and believed he may have been on drugs due to his actions.”
Another witness told police “Frazier went near the water and started performing yoga [and] seemed to be laughing and talking to himself, and pacing around.”
The woman, whose daughter and grandchildren witnessed the alleged incident, “was in fear for her safety and stated that she thought Anton Frazier was there to grab whoever he could get his hands on,” Mayer’s report said.
With a number of witnesses in the area, police were given a license plate and a description, it added.
One man attempted to follow the car while another woman called 911, police said.
On the lookout for a gray Hyundai on his way toward the beach, Officer Daniel Holway saw the car, turned around and pulled the Hyundai over near 37 Jeffreys Neck Road, his report said.
Holway said he approached and asked the driver for license and registration, which was supplied, the report added.
Holway said his plan was to get Frazier’s side of the story while waiting for more information from Mayer and Officer Kelly Phelan, who had joined him at Pavilion.
He said he asked Frazier if he was at the beach. The driver replied that he had completed a delivery to Gloucester.
“But he later told me that he came here from Mattapan to enjoy the weather and meditate on the beach,” Holway said.
Frazier reportedly said “he only approached people and asked them if there were into dog massages and he didn’t touch anyone,” Holway’s complaint said.
Holway said he then heard back from the beach and told Frazier he was under arrest, the report added.
At that point, “he rolled up his window and locked his vehicle doors,” Holway said.
Officer Mark Ruggiero was at the scene at this point and the officers reportedly tried to talk Frazier out of the car for around 30 minutes, Holway said.
At one point, Frazier told police he wanted to get back to work, Holway added.
“Frazier was advised by me several times that his actions were making the circumstances worse and that his actions would result in further criminal charges,” Ruggiero’s report said.
However, Frazier reportedly lowered the driver’s side window a little for a few minutes “to allow limited conversation,” he added.
Although the Hyundai was boxed in, police said the engine was still running, and that presented an unsafe situation.
“After all options were exhausted,” Mayer said police decided to use a special tool to break the passenger side window to pull Frazier from the vehicle.
“This was explained to Anson very clearly at which point, Anson indicated he understood what I was explaining to him and what was about to happen,” Holway said.
After the window was smashed, Holway said he reached in, unlocked the passenger door and two officers reportedly hauled Frazier out, pinned him to the ground and arrested him.
In October of 2018 Josephine Taormina was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Her team of doctors swiftly and aggressively started treatment with chemotherapy. After 70 days in the hospital, Josephine was released knowing that she would receive a stem cell transplant over the next few months from her daughter.
The stem cell transplant was considered a success and everyone thought Josephine was on her road to recovery.
Her first relapse happened in September 2019. She was back in the hospital which was becoming an all to familiar place for her and her family. During her hospitalizations, Josephine acquired many side effects both common and rare.
Today marks the fourteenth day that Abbie Flynn mysteriously vanished from her home on Saint Louis Avenue.
For those many of us who continue to walk the beaches and trails around Eastern Point there remains a haunting sadness. Abbie is first and foremost on everyone’s mind. We ask friends and neighbors if they have heard anything, anything at all about Abbie.
We hope with all our hearts that answers to Abbie’s disappearance are found soon and we’re praying mightily for Abbie’s family and friends.
PLEASE CONTACT THE GLOUCESTER POLICE DEPARTMENT WITH ANY INFORMATION ABOUT ABBIE’S WHEREABOUTS. 978-283-1212
