at Sandy Neck...
Ever since I was a little girl it has been one of my favorite beaches...
Even back in the day the snow/sand fences were there to keep the parking lot separate from the beach. You can walk along the beach into Sandwich toward the canal or you can walk back toward the tip of the neck to the point that protects Barnstable Harbor. In either direction you can walk for miles. The towns of Barnstable and Sandwich co-own this beach and I remember sitting up late at night waiting for my mother to come home to see if Barnstable had bought the land that extended out into the dunes and behind the great marsh. It was a long and hard battle and an expensive purchase and no one knew for sure which way the votes at town meeting would go.They had bought it! It was the largest piece of conservation land Barnstable had bought and managed at that time and today it is a true jewel in the Barnstable conservation and recreation system.
Even in winter the mystery and romance of the dunes lures walkers, horseback riders and hikers out to explore. The area is great for birding and other sighting of wildlife. Beware of hunters at certain times, however, for the area is also open to certain kinds of hunting. It is open as well to overland vehicles and campers, an agreement that irks some but has made huge supporters of the area in the larger community.
When I was in high school and college I spent untold hours roaming in the dunes, sitting in the sun with friends sharing bad poetry and hopeful dreams. We talked, we napped, we drew pictures, we rolled down the dunes in the warm sand. In winter we hid in the dunes to stay warm on sunny but cold days, days we should have been in a math classroom or history classroom but we were out in nature's classroom instead. At least that's what we told ourselves and in many ways it was true. The dunes are wonderful in the summer of course but they take on a very different quality in the winter, a quality that reminds young minds of quests and queries and questions about the meaning of life, survival and death.
Every time I walk on Sandy Neck there are layers and layers of memories of previous years, months and days spent walking here. And yet, as all good beach walkers know, no walk on the beach is quite the same as the one before, the one last year or 20 years ago....Like the birds flying above and the crabs buried below the beach is a living, breathing, ever changing thing....
Every visit is special but some days, like today, the morning is just picture perfect....
The view from Coast Guard Beach this week....
Walking the dogs with a friend at First Encounter (and yes, we did bring our little bags and clean up what was necessary ;-)
The rock walls at Fort Hill are always evocative, especially in winter...
Skunk cabbage is growing in wetland areas....
All the budding bushes and shrubs are giving the landscape a pink tinge....
And there's something different in the ponds....
Green plants are already growing, reaching for the sun!
And winter ducks, such as this male red-breasted merganser are courting and displaying even as they prepare for their long journey north to breed and nest.
Witch hazel is a funny bloomer and not always predictable. Often they will bloom in February if there is a warm spell but some bloom late in the fall and others bloom quite a bit later in the spring.
You can see here that the blossoms have lovely little tendrils.
This tree is quite well known to have medicinal qualities due to the volatile oil content in the bark and wood that also makes it resistant to pests and diseases. Over the years witch hazel has been used to cure or assuage all sorts of ills and can still be found on many drug store shelves as an astringent. It has a sharp, not unpleasant scent.
This winter there have actually been a fair number of eagles about, including this adult that has been hanging around in Mashpee. This photo is by Mary Noonan Keleher of Mashpee for although I did get to see the eagle I have no pictures to share. Let's just say the eagle is a dark speck with a white head in my photos.
The female is not as showy as the male but still quite beautiful in her subtle way.
The drakes are in fine dress all through the year with that bright yellow bill and shiny green head.
Mallards are easily recognizable to most families thanks to the famous story about the ducks at Boston's Public Garden, "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McKloskey
These guys were found at Dowse's Beach in Osterville this week. There were about a dozen mixed in with the local winter sanderlings. Turnstones don't generally winter here though they are seen sporadically. I don't know if these have been here all winter or if they are early arrivals on their way north. They are in winter plumage that is turning.
They have the most wonderful markings.
Here is one getting behind a stone or shell to turn it over.
What did it find? Mostly they are looking for invertebrates to eat such as worms, small crabs, etc.
In this picture above you can see the orange on the legs. Have you ever seen one of these birds?
