Look who came indoors with the nor’easter! A sweet Spring Peeper, also known as Tinkletoes. You can see in the video why they are nicknamed after their super grippy, super power.
We know of Spring Peepers for the male’s rhythmic calls, filling the late winter landscape with a welcome chorus of song. Their wetland melodies lend the Peepers their second nickname, that of Pinkletinks.
Like tree frogs, Spring Peepers have large pads on the tips of their toes that secretes mucus. The mucus enables them to grip surfaces as they are moving about in vegetation.
Only an inch or so in length, these minuscule frogs nonetheless survive extremely cold temperatures handily because of a special fluid they produce called cryoprotectants. Similar to to antifreeze, cryoprotectants allows them to survive tucked away for the winter in places like leaf litter or loose bark.
Scenes from Bass Rocks, Good Harbor Beach, and Eastern Point. This was today, Saturday, at high tide. Lots of people out and about taking in the dramatic wave action. It’s a an entirely different experience filming a nor’easter with wildflowers in the foreground and 60 degree temperatures. We haven’t seen the worst of the storm yet but at mid-day the GHB footbridge was still intact and the waves weren’t splashing over Nautilus and Atlantic Roads. Let’s hope for the best and hope too that in the places that are much harder hit everyone is keeping safe.
First the bad news – our Super Mom and Dad’s nest was washed away during Thursday’s nor’easter. We are very sad about this especially as chick hatching was imminent.
Our Original Pair have never before lost a nest because of a storm however, several years ago, a pair at GHB did lose their nest due to wash out as it was in a very unsafe place, smack dab in the middle of the beach. That pair successfully renested.
We are much more fortunate than some beaches. Our Plover ambassador friends at Hull lost a total of 25 nests and the high tides have destroyed miles of their symbolic shorebird protections.
Super Mom and Dad after the nor’easter
Fierce Dad catching breakfast after the storm
For the good news – Piping Plovers often renest, especially when this early in the season. One pair was documented renesting a total of seven times in one season. And it appears as though Super Mom and Dad are preparing to do just that. After a day of looking lost and forlorn, Dad is making scrapes in the sand and calling to Mom. Producing a new batch of eggs is very taxing for the female and our Super Mom is already very vulnerable due to her loss of one foot. A gentle reminder that when you see Plovers on the beach, please give them lots of space to forage, and hopefully, make new eggs.
Despite the extremely high storm tide going all the way to the base of the dunes, Good Harbor Beach survived the storm fairly well and looks better after this nor’easter than any nor’easter that I can recall. Why you may wonder? As a direct result of the symbolically roped off areas in place for the Plovers, beachgoers and pets are restricted from recreating right up to the base of the dunes. This has allowed native vegetation to take hold, and in some areas, to thrive. This vegetation, such as beach grass and Sea Rocket, holds the sand in place and is our very best defense against rising sea level and the ravaging effects of the highest of tides and gale force winds.
The photos tell the story best
Compare the above photos from storm damage in 2018 and how the dunes look in 2024.Note how far back is the dune, the sheer drop off, and complete lack of vegetation. I recall a time when people were so very worried about how much beach we were losing each year to severe storm damage. That is no longer the case!
Click on the above photos from 2018 to enlarge and get a sense of how much the beach has filled in and how much healthier are the dunes.
Good Harbor Beach 2021, 2024, and 2025 – vegetation gradually taking hold and the sand is filling in.
A plethora of Atlantic Surf Clams tossed ashore by the sea
What are these peculiar mounds dotting the beach after the nor’easter? The photos are included to show how much the sand shifted during the storm and how vegetation helps keep sand in place
Soooo much seaweed at Brace Cove! The insects attracted to the drying seaweed is fantastic for wildlife, but get ready for super smelliness!
Look what the storm brought in, on the backshore’s wave washed rocks! I don’t often see Purple Sandpipers in such large numbers.
These pot bellied shorebirds mostly forage along rocky shores and especially love periwinkles
The storm also delivered a flock of Scaups (very weary), Killdeers, and Scoters. Spring migration is underway! And the five American Pipits are still here 🙂
Conserve Wildlife NJ senior biologist Todd Pover makes a site visit to Cape Ann beaches, summer long updates from “Plover Central,” GHB Killdeer dune family raise a second brood of chicks, Cape Hedge chick lost after fireworks disturbance and then reunited with Fam, Great Black-backed Gulls are eating our Plover chicks, thousands of Moon Snail collars at Cape Hedge, Monarchs abound, #savesaltisland, missing Iguana Skittles, and Earwig eating Cecropia Moth cats.
August 2021
New short film for the Sawyer Free Library The Marvelous Magnificent Migrating Monarch!, Coastal Waterbird Conservation Cooperators meeting new short Piping Plover film, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in the garden, why we love Joe-pye and other wildflowers, butterfly friends, Monarch cats in the garden, what is the purpose of the gold dots found on Monarch chrysalides?,Black Beauty came calling, Tigers in the garden, School Street sunflowers, Hoverflies, luminescent Sea Salps return to Cape Ann beaches, Petal Dancers and lemony Yellow Sulphurs on the wing.
September 2021
Flower Fairies, irruptive Green Darner migration, mini glossary of late summer butterflies, what to do if you find a tagged Monarch, Painted Ladies, White-tailed Deer family, Monarchs mating, Tangerine Butterflies, yellow fellow in the hood, and Beauty on the Wing first ever live screening at the Shalin Liu.
October 2021
Bee-sized butterfly the American Copper, Monarch conga line, Thunder and Cloud, abandoned Piping Plover egg, School Street Sunflowers, Monarchs migrating, quotidian splendor, Monarch fundraiser updates, collecting milkweed seeds, the Differential Grasshopper, Cooper’s Hawk – a conservation success story, #ploverjoyed, and nor’easter from the EP Lighthouse.
November 2021
Bridges between life and death, ancient oak tree uprooted, autumn harvest for feathered friends, Monarch migration update, we have achieved our fundraising goal!, Harbor Seal pup hauled out, flight of the Snow Buntings, and a very rare for these parts wandering Wood Stork calls Cape Ann home for a month.
A heads up for all the many people who enjoy walking the loop around Niles Pond. The berm is no longer a compacted path but is awash with rocks, pebbles, popples, and even some of the large boulders have become dislodged and knocked about.
A few snapshots more from Brace Cove after the nor’easter
The footage of the Eastern Point Lighthouse and Mother Ann was shot Wednesday afternoon as the storm was waning, about an hour and a half after high tide.
The arduous work of rebuilding the Niles Pond Brace Cove causeway continues, despite the mid-week blizzard. I walked the causeway Tuesday night and then again the past several mornings–the pace of the restoration is fantastic and will soon be completed. Many, many thanks to the generous residents of Eastern Point who are striving to keep Niles Pond from being engulfed by the sea.
R. B. Strong’s Larry expertly operates the John Deere excavator, deftly extracting and moving boulders around as if they were pebbles on the shore. The track-hoe not only scoops and lifts the massive rocks, the bucket is also used to tamp down the boulders once in place, as you can see in the video below.
Covering storms back to back, I didn’t have time to post on both Good Morning Gloucester and on my blog. The following are links to storm posts from the region’s three March nor’easters, beginning on March 2nd.
With the third nor’easter to hit our shores during the month of March expected to arrive tonight, track-hoe excavator Larry shares that the work continued today to fortify the causeway, and to possibly get more water to flow through the clogged drain that is preventing excess water from leaving Niles Pond.
For our readers general information, the cost of the repairs, restoration, and continued ongoing maintenance of the causeway, and surrounding area, are paid for entirely by the generous residents of Eastern Point, not tax payer dollars.
Large track-hoes (excavators) are needed to repair the damage done by the March nor’easter storm known as Riley.
The narrowest slip of land between a body of fresh water and the sea.
Native pussy willow trees survive storm after storm after storm after storm. More pussy willows, as well as other deep-rooted natives, need to be planted to help with the unending erosion.
Niles Pond water overflowing the bank and littered with debris swept in by the sea.
