The Brant is a part of the geese family and can be seen on Cape cod during the winter months. This Brant was sauntering along the shore at Wellfleet Harbor.
It’s very distinguishable with its black head and belly and brown-grey upperparts. It has pale grey underparts. It’s easiest to identify by its broken collar pattern at its neck.
Have you ever seen a Brant?
Across the harbor from the Wellfleet Pier is a really cool jetty and beach that look to be open to the public. I’m not sure if you need a sticker in the summer. We decided to take a ride over and to look around.
Right next to the parking lot is a huge pile of shells… about 2-3 feet high. Without looking, I figured they had to be Oyster shells as Wellfleet is famous for its Wellfleet Oysters. But when looking closer, they are Scallop shells. Hmmm. Why would there be a huge pile of Scallop shells there? It looks to be a place where people can launch their smaller boats from the beach. But how did the Scallop shells get there? And why were they there? Is Wellfleet known for its Scallops too?
I did a little research and learned that the fishermen usually shuck the fresh scallops before selling them to the restaurants. But I couldn’t find out much more than that.
Does anyone know the answer as to why they are there? It would be really cool to find out!
We had such a problem last summer with all of the Grackles and Starlings and Crows eating all of the Bluebird’s mealworms (very expensive food but the Bluebird’s favorite), Phil decided he had to do something about it. He designed his own Bluebird bird feeder that only allows the “little” birds to eat from it. (Click on link for a better photo.) It has worked wonderfully!
We bought a bird feeder from the Bird Watcher’s General Store in Orleans and then Phil “retrofitted” it with 10 screws going all around the inside of the dish and some electrical tape. The inside of the dish had to be raised so only the Bluebirds, sitting on the edge of the dish, could eat the mealworms. You can also adjust the height of the top cover so that only the Bluebirds can get in. It is amazing that they fly right in and out, even when lowered more than in the photograph.
The Bluebirds and a few other small birds have no trouble flying in for a meal, while the other “pesky” birds that eat everything in sight cannot get in.
Ingenious, don’t you think?
We saw this very interesting buoy on Nauset Beach the other day. It looked like someone had stood it up in the sand. As we got closer, you could see all of the mussels attached to the buoy. (Click on link to see the whole buoy.)
We wondered how long the buoy has been in the water with all those mussels. Wow! Pretty interesting, don’t you think?
