I was out in the yard yesterday when I kept hearing a little bird crying. There in a tree a little ways away was a Hairy Woodpecker chick clinging to the bark while crying away. He was so cute and so vocal! (Click on link to see more photos of the chick.)
The 2nd photo shows him crying in the tree. He looks like a little fluff ball! The 3rd photo shows him staring at me. He must’ve seen me taking his photograph. So cute!!
The next thing I knew, he flew to another tree and mom flew right over to feed him as you can see in the first photograph. It was precious!
Phil was making dinner the other night when he looked out the front window and saw this brown butterfly on the railing. I got my camera and went outside to take some photographs, not knowing what kind of butterfly it was. (Click on link to see other photograph.)
In doing some research, I found that the brown is the underside of a Question Mark butterfly and acts as camouflage. These Question Mark butterflies are frequently called “anglewings” for the shape of their wings which you can easily see in both photographs.
It stayed on the railing until dark, so I never got a photograph of the upper side. The 2nd photograph is from Wikipedia so you could see difference between the upper side and the underside. Quite a difference, don’t you think?
There is never a dull moment in our yard here on Cape Cod! The other morning Phil called out, “There’s another turkey in the yard!” Sometimes they like to dig up the fallen bird seed which really makes a mess of the yard. So Phil went outside to gently nudge her into the woods when… (Click on link to see other photo.)
This gorgeous male Wild Turkey came strutting into our yard, his feathers displayed in regalia. He was following the female everywhere and he was magnificent!
“Male Ritual: The male Wild Turkey has a conspicuously bright coloring of plumage. In the way of attracting females, they are very much like peacocks. They have fan-like fancy tails and a cocky strut.”
After about 15 minutes of watching him follow her all around the yard, they both sauntered into the woods.
The Canada Mayflowers are blooming all over Cape Cod. They are a small woodland plant with tiny 4-petaled flowers clustered on stems like miniature bottle brushes. They only grow to about 4.”
I saw this Canada Mayflower at Fort Hill. There were many around, especially along the boardwalk on the Red Maple Swamp Trail.
The road to Coast Guard Beach looked quite different before the Blizzard of 1978. (Click on blog to see old photograph from the Cape Cod National Seashore.)
Before the Blizzard of 1978, there used to be hundreds of parking places for people could access the beach. You can see these in the 2nd photograph. It all washed away in the Blizzard of 1978. Now people are shuttled to and from this gorgeous beach.
The first photograph is the old road by the Coast Guard Station that used to lead to the old parking lots. You can see the road on the top left of the old photograph. Now the road just stops on top of the dunes by the edge of the beach. You can view the ocean and the beach from there. You can walk to the beach along a path to the left by the bathhouses. But the huge parking lots and roads are no longer…
Amazing, don’t you think?
Cape Cod daily articles on the wonderful Cape Cod places to hike, experience and photograph. A Cape Cod Outdoor Adventure Series.
