and a spare
Labor Day weekend- crisp morning air pairs
Tag: Cape Hedge Beach
Long Beach Little Cape Hedge Rockport MA
Historic maps and books from the 1800s label the landform between Cape Hedge Beach and Long Beach “Little Cape Hedge” or “Cape Hedge”, and the creek “Saratoga River”. I’ve heard the former (also “Eagle Rock”), but not the latter. So many generations of families return to Long Beach cottages. Do you remember family names for these coastal landmarks?
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PIPING PLOVER UPDATE SURPRISING TURN OF EVENTS
Dear Readers,
So sorry this PiPl update is so terribly brief but I am leaving shortly to go film Fiesta.
On the evening of the day our GHB Piping Plover Family were terrorized off Good Harbor Beach (between Tuesday 9:30 pm and Wednesday 4:40am), two were seen at Cape Hedge Beach by Rockport resident Gail Borgman.
The following morning, Thursday, I met Boston PiPl monitor Laurie Sawin at GHB. She had come all the way from Boston to check on the Cape Hedge report. We headed over to Cape Hedge to check on the sighting and met Gail and her husband there. Sure enough, a PiPl was going back and forth between the sandy beach and rocks at Cape Hedge! We didn’t stay long because of the downpour.
This morning, I met Essex Greenbelt Dave Rimmer’s assistant, Dave McKinnon. We were contemplating removing the symbolic fencing, when one, and then two PiPl entered the roped off nesting area. At first we thought it was the Mama and Papa, but it could also have been two males.
The symbolic fencing will remain at least for another few days. Although it is late in the season for nesting there is the possibility that the PiPl will re-nest. I guess we will all just stay tuned as to what our remarkable PiPls will do next!
We don’t know what terrorized the PiPl Tuesday night. There has been a great deal of dog tracks around the nesting area , as seen by all the morning volunteers, over the past week, as well as evidence of a party Tuesday night. A hypodermic needle was found on the beach by one of Coach Latoffs players early Wednesday morning. Friends, it is going to take a village if the PiPl re-nest. Please, please, if you see anything suspicious at GHB–bonfires, dogs, heavy drinking, and anything else along those lines, please, please call the police. Thank you!
Piping Plover Cape Hedge Beach June 28, 2018
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Repairing Long Beach Rockport Mass after storm damage|Busy New England DPW crews
Marveling at the tenacity of coastal towns- Cape Ann public works after winter storms are no joke.
Spring staircases
Rockport, Mass. The many access stairs for the Long Beach pedestrian walkway are put back each spring. Some years, the landing platforms on the sand side need repair. The 2018 winter storms pummeled each and every access point. Landings on sand and up top, the railings, and treads were entirely stripped. The rebuild for a few of the staircases will remain on hold until their immediate seawall areas are tended.
Water shoes this summer
From there to here: popples and rocks from the decimated barrier wall between Long Beach and Cape Hedge Beach were deposited along Long Beach.
Where’s the beach?
Spring 2018, the ocean is several feet deep at the rip rap line every high tide
Evolution of damage at beach barrier
Continue reading “Repairing Long Beach Rockport Mass after storm damage|Busy New England DPW crews”
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Music to My Ears
The boys, dogs, and I took a walk on Cape Hedge Beach on Saturday morning. It certainly wasn’t warm…nor was it bright and sunny….but the sound of the waves was wonderful nonetheless. Here’s a little video if you aren’t close enough to hear it yourself.
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Happy Place
One of my favorite summer happy places…although I have many. Cape Hedge Beach. Pretty blessed to have so many fantastic places calling my name as the warm weather approaches.
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House Hunting
A little known secret about me is that I am full blown obsessed with the shows House Hunters and House Hunters International on HGTV. And then there’s Island Hunters! Did you know there are actually people out there shopping for islands?!
I’ve been watching them both for years and they never get old…
I LOVE living here…that comes as no surprise…but, I’d be lying if I didn’t find myself watching episodes of couples picking up everything and moving to some beachfront location on some tropical island paradise. I live vicariously through them for 30 or 60 minutes whenever possible. Dork, I know.
So, yesterday, upon finding a vulnerable little hermit crab at Cape Hedge Beach who was “between houses,” my boys suggested we conduct our own beachfront version of House Hunters. We found several shell options for the squishy little guy, placed him and them under a clump of seaweed as much protected from hungry seagulls and bigger crabs as possible, and let him do his thing.
We watched him for a bit, but he was shy so we left him alone to take a look around his potential new residences. We weren’t sure what he was looking for…striped, solid, beach chic, room to grow, open floor plan, comfy cozy, etc.
When we went back later to check, he was gone. The boys were thrilled….even though there was no commission to be gained.
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Washed up Finback Whale Being Disassembled!
The finback whale that has traveled the currents of the Boston and the North Shore to rest, post-Superstorm Sandy, on Cape Hedge beach, was taken apart by a team of hearty souls armed with butcher knives and a whetstone this morning. It looked like bloody hard work, hacking away gigantic pieces of flesh and whale muscle from gigantic bones. Like butchering a school bus. Most of the people wielding the knives looked suitably attired with commercial rain gear covering all the parts that mattered, but a few looked like they had drifted over from the North Shore Mall with only sweatpants — sweatpants! — standing between their own flesh and that of the whale. Thousands of pounds of rotting whale flesh. I’m just guessing that those sweatpants, having absorbed dead whale moisture, are going straight into the trash can just off the beach, as it would be better to ride home naked than wearing sweatpants saturated with the smell of long-dead marine life.
The smell was epic when you were downwind, and on the car ride on the way home the air began to fill with an aroma suspiciously similar to that of our dead friend. It turns out that my 3-year-old managed to step in an infinitestimal string of whale flesh residue. His little shoes will probably be a casualty of the day along with the whale team members’ sweatpants.
It was an amazing sight and hats off to the team from Mass Wildlife and the New England Aquarium and the guy at the Rockport DPW who handled the backhoe with the delicacy of a surgeon. It was a rare privilege to see, here in New England and in this high-tech age, people on the beach breaking down a whale by hand, just like our ancestors. But in this case the whale died of natural causes and even better, he will live on in perpetuity, recreated piece by piece for display in a museum. Experiences like this remind me that living here on Cape Ann is a rare sort of gift.
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More Dead Finback Whale Photos From Halloween (Last Day Before Removal)
kim diebboll forwards-
hi joey,
here’s a few photos of the whale now that he’s resting on cape hedge beach. he’s looking rather sad and pretty beat up. the guts which i saw over by pebble beach yesterday, were cleaned up by the town today, so they are gone now.
i guess this is his last day, as i hear he is being removed tomorrow.
kim diebboll
Good Morning Gloucester 