Not far into the Audubon sanctuary’s Bay View Trail, which skirts the shore on South Wellfleet’s bay side before making a long loop back to its starting point, a side […]
Environment
BIRDWATCHING
Drink-Your-Tea, the Towhee Sings, and Don’t Clean Up the Understory
Berries and brambles provide food and shelter for birds and other animals
I wasn’t sure I’d heard it at first. The rustling might just have been a pine cone dropping into the leaf litter. But another rustling sound made me stop in […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Frogs and Worts
The Virginia marsh St. John’s wort is no longer placed in the Hypericum genus with the others; its pink-blooming flowers each have three orange glands and nine stamens grouped in […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, May 27 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
BLUE ECONOMY
Rock Harbor Redevelopment Is Delayed by Weather
With a new bulkhead installed, wharf will be operational by mid-June
ORLEANS — The wharf renovation on the Orleans side of Rock Harbor that was expected to be completed by early May won’t be finished before the summer boating season begins, […]
SUMMER TRAFFIC
Beachcomber Gets Go-Ahead to Add Parking
Wellfleet bar will demolish a building to gain spots, but not ’til next year
WELLFLEET — At the Beachcomber here, as at many other Outer Cape summer spots, the menus are set, the merch is unpacked, the live music is booked, and the countdown […]
ON THE BEACH
A Cormorant Offers Some Fishing Advice
How I learned to love, or at least respect, that damn bird that stole my trout
On a balmy afternoon at the end of April, I spent a solitary hour casting from my favorite spot up the Herring River to see if any early bass had […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Starflower Power
Though Lysimachia borealis is a diminutive plant in the understory, found in colonies that help roll out the spring carpet along with Canada mayflower and wild sarsaparilla, its beauty is […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, May 20 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
INTO THE WOODS
Friends of the 1651 Forest Start the Season of Habitat Restoration
A group combats runoff from foot and paw traffic with native plantings
EASTHAM — Step into the woods near Wiley Park and you’ll find yourself stepping back in time. That’s the idea, at least. Since 2001, Eastham’s 1651 Forest Advisory Committee has […]
ENVIRONMENT
Beebe Wants to Get Real About the Eastham Sewer
Questions range from purpose to location to smells from future wastewater treatment facility
EASTHAM — Last month’s news that the town had qualified for a renewable $50-million low-interest loan from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection for a sewer system to protect the […]
WATER POLITICS
Truro Makes Plans for Water, and for Misinformation
As housing and infrastructure advance, the town aims to communicate more clearly
TRURO — At a recent meeting with residents of Short Lots Lane, which runs just south of the 70-acre town-owned Walsh property, zoning task force chair David Bannard heard a […]
WALK IN THE PARK
Pitch Pines on the Path to Eastham’s Forest Primeval
New clearings and pioneer species were probably always part of our old oak forests
The idea behind Eastham’s rather grandly named 1651 Arboretum was to cultivate the sort of mature forest that the first European settlers might have encountered and, theoretically, enjoyed before subsequent […]
BIRDWATCHING
Allowing a Chipping Sparrow to Stop Time
The wonder of communion on watching a conspicuous and social bird
I am always startled by its appearance. Streaked and mottled brown like sandy soil or like the dried blades of last year’s grasses, it rises up: a leaf? A bird. […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Fringe Festival
The trail that leads down to Wellfleet’s cedar swamp, where majestic Atlantic white cedars grow from a bed of standing water, begins up on the heathland. There, the path winds […]
