A very useful fact I learned this year is that after 4 pm the lifeguards no longer patrol, so the National Seashore beaches become free. This is ideal for me since I have no interest in actually swimming in freezing cold Massachusetts water, but do want to wander around beaches when the lighting is good. Last year I just paid for one beach on my last day and hit them all in succession on my way home. I remembered that last year that the last beach hadn't wanted to see the receipt, so wondered if there was a reason. Too bad I didn't find this out until the second to last day. I could have been to the beaches every night.
I took dozens of pictures one night as the seagulls rode the wind up and down the beach at sunset. Only 2 or 3 images came out focused as it was my first use of my long zoom lens in a few months.
I didn't position this feather, it really was sitting on the beach lined up nicely like that.
After 4 dogs are also allowed on the beaches. This came from a tiny little dog playing in the surf.
All three of these were the same day, though each is on a different beach. The clouds were awesome that day. I have plenty more pictures, but most have boats on the horizons, which I'm not too fond of. For some reason they were lining up to the left of the above picture.
On the last day I went on a Sand Dune Tour. It wasn't bad, but I've been on better tours. They drive you around to see some beach shacks, you get a little of the area's history and you get to take pictures at an overlook at the end. Overall not a bad tour.
Pine Tree at Province Sands Park Headquarters. It was the perfect time of day to catch the light on the tree, but have the sky dark enough to not wash out.
This is a trail I didn't try last year, so was all new this year. I quite enjoyed the chunk I went on. I arrived around low tide, which is really the best time to walk in tidal flats, or on a beach. The trail went much farther than I ended up walking, and the furthest parts are underwater at some high tides. Just like at Audubon's Wellfleet Bay there were plenty of fiddler crabs underfoot. The parts of the trail I went on had no shade whatsoever, so plan for a hot walk. I was a little disappointed by a huge house? being built quite close to the trail so construction noises echoed all around.
The clouds were a little better than I'd been getting previously, so I took lots of sand dunes with sky or clouds pics there. I also got there near noon, so my circular polarizer could work without heavily altering colors. Keep in mind this is a very cheap polarizer, it came in a set with a UV filter for $20.
^Circular polarizer set at diff rotations, same time as below
The polarizer limits light from diff angles from entering the lens, which has several uses, making skies bluer, killing reflections on wet surfaces, and at least partially removing reflections on shiny surfaces.
Sections of the beach were closed off for breeding birds, but the section that was open I found quite nice, and healthier seeming than the basic beach at the resort we all stay at. This beach had plenty of barnacles and snails on the rocks that were being exposed by low tide. I've found the resort beach to be a generic beach, ie it has sand, small amounts of shells, and rocks, but very little interesting life. The fact that they tractor it at least once a week to keep it neat likely doesn't help its sterility.
Several cement and stone poles, possibly left over from a dock, had awesome bright yellow lichen growing on them.
Other than the WellFleet Bay Sanctuary this is my next favorite place for photos on the Cape. It would have been even better if the dang darner dragonflies would have just landed.
I spent Saturday - Wednesday on the Cape. I'm going to break up my meanderings into a few posts though. First up is Saturday at Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary in Barnstable MA. I'm including the trail map since I like it better in color. This place wasn't too hard to find, but the directions need to be updated as the Christmas Tree Shop appears to have closed, and the Audubon signs are tiny. I was also confused for a bit about parking, as the entrance looked too small, but eventually I found the shaded parking spaces near the Visitor Center.
They had a very nice butterfly Garden, which was mostly full of bees, but quite nice on a sunny morning. The only trail I didn't hike was the Woodcock trail. Overall I enjoyed all of them, though I found the Bone Hill Trail, Lichen Trail and parts of the Beck Family Trail quite buggy. The trails also had the look of recent grooming, ie weed whacking. I believe Mass Audubon is working to restore the pasture into a pasture, apparently with goats and pigs. I saw quite a few farm animals on the edges of the trails and beware the electric fences.
Orange milkweed, I've been seeing a ton of this suddenly, though it might just be I've been going out a lot and it happens to be in bloom now.
My first spread wing damselfly, I'm not sure on species, but it was likely a female. There are some closer pics in an older post HERE. I saw plenty of monarchs, though none sat still long enough or close enough for a good picture.
I heard plenty of frogs, though didn't spot any on the actual trails. One snake spotted me and all I saw was the fleeing tail. A rabbit watched me for a time before hopping away. The goats, turkeys and chickens didn't seem to mind me much. All in all I spent about two hours there and found plenty of things to photograph before continuing on towards the upper cape.
I wasn't very happy with how the low tides lined up during my vacation, but it worked out well enough. It made me feel much lazier than last year though with the low tides at 10 am, rather than 8. The lighting was also quite a bit harsher than I prefer.
This is my favorite place to visit on the Cape, so I went twice. Once was during low tide, and the other was just to walk the Silver Spring Trail. Low tide is excellent for photography due to the number of accommodating fiddler crabs with burrows lining the path out to the boardwalk.
A nice butterfly garden welcomes you into the sanctuary. This is probably an American Copper (Lycaena phlaeas).
There are some red wing blackbirds nesting in the plants next to the bridge over Goose Pond. They were dive bombing people walking by, which made for good pictures if you stayed just far enough away.
Last year there were hundreds of these guys crawling around, but I took much worse pictures. This year I only spotted one, but got a much better picture. For a size reference this guy is about 1/2 an inch long.
This grass pattern I've seen all over the tidal areas. It isn't blowing in the wind, just stuck down in these patterns.
I also like the first pond with its overlooks and the bridge you can find if you follow the Silver Spring Trail. Turtles were all over the place sunning themselves by floating on lily pads.
The first of my zoomed in dragonflies. I was a good distance away from this guy.
