“It was a good one this morning,” some old gent walking past me remarked, smiling from ear to ear. Yes, I concurred, equally as full of joy to see the day begin on such a note.
Twin Lights Thacher Island
Tag: Twin Lights Sunrise
HAPPY ONE-MONTH-OLD BIRTHDAY MILESTONE TO OUR PIPING PLOVER LITTLE CHICK!
A simply glorious Good Harbor Beach morning on this weekend’s one-month-old Piping Plover milestone! Hatched on the morning of June 22nd, he is officially thirty-one-days old today.
Yesterday morning at daybreak it was warm and windless, and today, very chilly and windy. The chick’s foraging and resting habits reflected the weather. During the warmer morning he spent a great deal of time at the water’s edge feeding hungrily.
Today he was chilled and, within the roped off sanctuary, he tried several times to nestle under Papa. It looked super silly because Little Chick is nearly as big as Papa Plover. Papa rebuffed him and Little Chick found a clump of vegetation to warm under.
Little Chick on the left, looking not so little. Papa standing on one leg to conserve heat.
Papa Plover is an outstanding dad, never too far away, and always keeping a protective eye on Little Chick.
Folks are asking, where is Mama? With some Plovers, the female will leave the family to begin the southward migration, departing earlier than the male and fledglings. The GHB Mama has not been seen in over a week. This was not the case with the PiPl family that I filmed last year; they maintained a family bond through the end of the summer.
The Piping Plovers that migrate along the Atlantic Coast winter primarily from North Carolina to Florida, as well as the Bahamas and West Indies.
A sighting of Little Chick flying about ten feet across the beach has been reported!
Thirty-day-old Piping Plover Chick
Thirty-one-day old Piping Plover
Good Harbor Beach weekend sunrises
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LITTLE CHICK LEARNING TO FLY AND OTHER SCARY HAPPENINGS
Day twenty-nine, or I suppose we could say four weeks and one day, and our Little Chick is growing gangbusters!
It’s always a relief to see our one surviving Piping Plover chick at first light.
Foraging in the seaweed at daybreak.
Little Chick seemed a little less independent today and spent a good amount of time with Papa Plover. I wonder if something frightened the Plovers?
Chief McCarthy, who now takes his morning run at Good Harbor Beach, has noticed tracks from folks that are still walking their dogs in and around (and through) the sanctuary. Not to disparage dog owners (I love dogs), a drunk guy also insisted on walking through the sanctuary. A super, super scary thing happened this morning where a small group had gathered around the enclosure. Two Great Blue Herons came flying low and slow over the roped off area, where both baby and Papa were resting. A conservationist told me awhile back to try to discourage folks from gathering round near the Plovers because it could alert predatory birds. I didn’t quite believe it, but after seeing the GBHerons flying so low, and seemingly fearless of the humans, I believe it now. Great Blue Herons are super predators and although their primary food is fish, they eat practically every small living creature, including birds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, shrimp, crab, insects, and rodents.
Staying close to Papa Plover this morning.
Hmm, I think I’ll give flying another whirl.
Running to take off.
Hop Up?
Airborne for half a moment!
Landing, with a not-so-graceful skidding thud.
In the Pink
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QUESTION FOR OUR READERS RE TWIN LIGHTS
Question for our readers, If you are standing at Loblolly Cove and facing the Twin Lights, which is South Light and which is the North Light? Probably an obvious question to most but I am confused looking at the websites. Thank you!
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Beautiful Saturday September Morning
I awoke this morning before dawn to film sunrise and found a sweet gift of Virgilios sauce and amazingly fat rigatonis in the basket on my front porch. I am recovering from a leg operation and my friend Catherine Ryan called at the very moment that I was trying my personal recovery technique–on the floor doing a shoulder stand, with phone in hand–and she really got an earful. Thank you Catherine for listening to me complain about itchy leg braces and hospitals. I gave her the wrong impression though because I can walk and work–I just cannot sit or stand in one place for very long.
After putting the sauce and pasta in the cupboard I left to go film, and once again, the exquisite Great Blue Heron was there at Good Harbor Beach fishing amongst the reeds. For the third morning in a row I have observed a flock of cormorants leaving Salt Island en masse to fish with the gulls in the outgoing surf along the shoreline. I wonder, do they sleep there every night?
Next stop was to a friend’s home on Rocky Neck to drop off peaches from my garden. The light was hitting the Sailor’s Stan’s sunflowers perfectly and I just had to stop and take several snapshots.
By now it’s after 8:00 and I almost always go to yoga on Saturday mornings but because of the stitches, thought better of it and instead went to measure a new border at the Gloucester HarborWalk.
Blooming today at the HarborWalk are asters, goldenrod, annual rudbeckia, and salvia.
Next stop was the farm stand and then on to Pick Your Own at Long Hill in Beverly. In case any pollinators stop by, I prefer to leave my own zinnias growing in the garden and just love the array of colors in the Long Hill garden mix.
All this gorgeousness before 10:00 and I still have a work day if front of me, but it’s been a September Saturday morning I won’t soon forget! For all these gifts, of friendship and of the beauty that surrounds, I am counting my blessings.
Good Morning Gloucester 