PROVINCETOWN — Cape Cod has always had more dolphin strandings than anywhere else in the world. But 2024 was the worst year for strandings ever recorded here, and scientists have […]
Environment
MORNING FLIGHT
Nesting Instincts
In the birds’ realms, construction gets underway
Every day, before I head into work, I go to see what’s swimming around MacMillan Pier. In the winter, this mostly involves looking at ducks, checking on that one thick-billed […]
NATURAL SELECTION
The Stink of Spring
It’s officially spring at the Eddy Sisters Community Garden in Brewster when wafts of the scent of rotting flesh begin to carry over from the property’s adjoining bog, where the […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, April 15 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
GREAT WHITE
State Bans All Large-Shark Fishing on Outer Cape
To get around rules, fishermen claimed to be pursuing other species than great whites
WELLFLEET — A group of fishermen using baited hooks delivered by drones to fish for sharks at LeCount Hollow Beach last September got into an altercation with surfers that led […]
FRESH BROOK: PART 2
The Sea-Run Trout’s Return to Wellfleet
Understanding a subspecies that starts in fresh water but needs access to the sea
In May 1840, a small group of sport fishermen set out from Newport, R.I. in search of sea-run brook trout. Traveling first by ferry, then by coach and horseback, and […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Wishing on Neon Stars
There are two species of the New World genus Hudsonia, or false heather, on the Cape: a woolier one with fuzzy leaves and flowers that don’t have much of a […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, April 8 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
ENVIRONMENT
Adding Sand Could Help Salt Marshes Recover
Loose sand lessened crab burrowing and facilitated regrowth within a year
PROVINCETOWN — Across the Outer Cape, an ever-growing explosion in the Sesarma crab population is causing salt marshes to rapidly retreat — but a new study suggests that adding sand […]
ENVIRONMENT
The State of the Birds on Cape Cod
Shorebirds and saltmarsh sparrows are among those at a tipping point
WELLFLEET — A new report on research by leading bird conservation scientists, published by Cornell University, confirms that North American bird populations are continuing a steep decline. The North American […]
THIS WILD CAPE
Respect for the Gulls
Learning to look for yellow legs and other distinguishing features that make a bird not just a bird
[Here we are, anywhere on Cape Cod. We look up and see a gull. There’s a flock in a parking lot, or bobbing on a freshwater pond. Fifty miles out […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Good for a Pain in the Apse
The smooth red-brown buds opening like hatches across from the Methodist Church in Provincetown may belong to Salix discolor, the native pussy willow, or they could belong to an introduced […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, April 1 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
MORNING FLIGHT
The American Woodcock’s Got the Moves
A peent and a sky dance announce the arrival of one goofy bird
It was a still March evening, and I was watching the sunset along the Pilgrim Spring bike path in Truro. For what seemed like a long while, the marsh there […]
ENVIRONMENT
As Right Whales Shift, Cape Cod Remains Safe Haven for Now
With warming, whales follow food to new waters, and a key source declines
[PROVINCETOWN — North Atlantic right whales, critically endangered with a population of only around 370, move widely around our ocean. They have traditionally ranged from below Cape Canaveral, Fla., where […]
