Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, May 14 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
Environment
ENVIRONMENT
U.S. Proposes 8 Wind Energy Areas in Gulf of Maine
Local fishermen’s alliance will question effects of offshore turbines
The U.S. Dept. of the Interior announced last week the proposed auction of eight offshore wind lease areas in the Gulf of Maine. The areas selected by the department’s Bureau […]
MORNING FLIGHT
The Magic of Peak Migration
Over the next two weeks, millions of birds will be coming our way
As I sit down to write about the birds I’ve seen recently — classic summer birds like barn swallows and Baltimore orioles, the first yellow warblers, and common terns are […]
THE SCUTTLEBUTT
Too Soon to Tell, But Not Too Soon to Worry
Seeing fewer striped bass and bigger storms in the Caribbean
The striped bass are continuing to move into our area, and there seem to be a fair number of fish in Buzzards Bay, but the fishermen to our south in […]
DIG IT
The Shuffle Bushes Are in Bloom Again
The spring-blooming shrubs and trees of the widespread, mostly North American genus Amelanchier have a long list of common names, many referring to their timing. Some people call them Juneberries because their […]
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 7 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
BLOODSUCKERS
Winter Floods Set the Stage for More Mosquitoes
Flood waters abate and larvicide is sprayed, but a lot depends on the weather
WELLFLEET — Barton Morris stands in the Duck Harbor parking lot and surveys the floodplain to the north. It’s a cool April day, and it’s been about two weeks since […]
KINNIKINNICK
Give a Bear a Grape
There’s a path off North Pamet Road in Truro that slowly climbs around a bearberry-covered dune up to a soaring overlook of the Atlantic at the top, but there’s another […]
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 30 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
BUGS
Southern Pine Beetles Arrive on the Outer Cape
Warmer winters bring bark eaters to devour — or maybe just thin — our woods
The forests of the Outer Cape have undergone major changes throughout their history, affected by big forces, from fires to farming to 20th-century development. The next wave of change, however, […]
FLOW STATE
Gardens That Make Runoff a Resource
How fanya chini and Hügelkultur inform Peter Jensen’s Cape Cod permagardens
ORLEANS — Agroecologist Peter Jensen placed a hose along the road above the Church of the Holy Spirit and turned it on. The water flowed into a dirty channel between […]
MORNING FLIGHT
Hang a Feeder for an Extraordinary Bird
Helicoptering, speed sipping, cold sleeping, and other evolutionary marvels of the hummingbird
In the couple of seconds it takes you to read these first few words, a ruby-throated hummingbird will flap its wings approximately 110 times. Its heart will beat 42 times. […]
FAKE FRUIT
Rogues Callery
If the endangered plants and animals of the Shank Painter Pond Wildlife Sanctuary are the rubies and diamonds of Provincetown’s ecological crown jewel, as the sanctuary is often described, then […]
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 23 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
SAILING AWAY
Pause for Plovers
With the piping plovers returning to their breeding grounds here to nest in the dunes, April 14 was the last day paragliders could launch from their favorite Outer Cape spot […]
