HERMINE’S GIFTS!

Tropical storm Hermine’s rain has breathed new life into Cape Ann’s drought depleted freshwater ponds and brackish marshes. Perhaps it was her winds that delivered a surprise visit from the Yellow-crowned Night Heron, a rarity for Massachusetts as we are at the tippy northern end of their breeding range. Towering waves accompanied by a tumbling undertow tossed from the deep sea gifts of nutrient rich seaweeds, mollusks, and tiny crustaceans, providing a feast for our feathered friends. See all that she brought!

Yellow Crowned Night Heron, juvenile

Muskrat! Eating tender shoots and going to and from his burrow, via refreshed canals along the wetland banks.

Wind and weather worn Red Admiral Butterfly, drinking salty rain water from the sand and warming its wings in the sun.

Sanderling breakfast

Immature Great Blue Heron, Two Snowy Egrets, and Great Egret (far right)

A multidue of minnows for the herons and egrets

The Wingaersheek Piping Plover family has not yet begun their southward migration. Here they are foraging in the bits of shells, tiny clams, and seaweed brought to the shoreline by Hermine and not usually found in this location.

Injured Cormorant and Gull finding refuge and food at the pond bank.

Seaweed Swathed Pebble Beach in the lifting fog