Soon to be in bloom all over Cape Cod

This wonderful bush is a true Cape Cod treasure with white fluffy flowers in spring and luscious fruits in late summer beloved by many old time Cape Cod cooks. Do you know what it is?

Look What's Up!

I found these lovely fiddleheads in East Sandwich. These will unfold into lush and lovely ferns. Do you know why they are called fiddleheads?

Knock, knock, who's there?

I was working in a garden today when I came across this new home someone was working on. There was lots of saw dust, both on the tree and on the ground.

Who do you think was building this home? I'll give the answer at the end of the week. If you missed an earlier post there are other animal homes here to identify, too. I will give those answers at the end of the week as well.

Spring is Springing all over!

Just came back from a fabulous walk in one of Barnstable's many lovely conservation areas. This one was the Otis Atwood area in Marstons Mills and on a lovely sunny spring afternoon the mayflower was in bloom all over, the chickadees were phoebe-phoebe-ing like crazy and we got a great look at a Cooper's hawk that tried to stare us down but gave up and flew off. My favorite part of the walk was seeing my very first spring azures, the tiny little blue butterflies that seem to arrive just in time for the blooming of the mayflowers!

Mucking About in Swamps

is probably one of kids' favorite things to do.

It's got everything kids love. It is goopy, slimy, mucky, muddy, dirty, wet, creepy, crawly and even a little scary because you just never know what might jump, pop, slither, or crawl your way without warning.

It is a place to look under rocks and logs, to jump and splash, to find frogs, toads, salamanders, turtles and snakes. Yep, perfect kid place.

This swamp is in Wellfleet on Cape Cod.

Kids and Nature

Kids and nature are a natural mix and just a simple walk can be full of all sorts of wonders.

You might spy a painted turtle on a rock.
You could stop at a bird blind along the way to see what you could see.


You might see a red-winged blackbird singing and showing off his red epaulets.


You could find a caterpillar like this wooly bear crossing the path. Notice how it curls up to protect itself.
Or a box turtle. This lady was the first to be found on the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary this season. She was brought in to the center to be weighed and measured and checked to see if she was a sanctuary regular. The sanctuary has been keeping records of the box turtle population there for many years and kids love to be part of gathering the data.



Or some Fowler's toads. These gentlemen had taken a wrong turn and were found in a damp stairwell when we went outside to play some games after lunch. Their black chins and release noise told us they were males. Toads often can't seem to tell the difference between males and females if they are excited about mating and the males have a special noise they make to let other males know they are not females. The kids were very excited to touch and hold these little toads before we released them far from the stairwell.

What did you see today?

Happy Earth Day!

I'm old enough to remember celebrating the first Earth Day and am very glad it has had such a huge focus this year. I spent my day working with kids at a nature center all day so it was a pretty earthy day for me. How about you?