Cape Cod Day 4: Wellfleet Bay MAS (7/31)

On Tuesday of our Cape Cod vacation we spent the morning at Wellfleet Bay MAS again. It was muggy and overcast all morning. But there were still a lot of animals out foraging. Especially at the feeders where we came across this Red Squirrel happily eating at the sanctuary's "trough" (was this the same guy from last year or one of his cousins?). A Chipmunk scooped up any seeds that happened to drop to the ground.

We headed down to the pond where the Pickerelweed was in bloom and the Painted Turtles were swimming around looking for a sunny place to bask. We moved on to the Goose Pond which was actually pretty quiet other than the noisy Belted Kingfisher that scolded us from his favorite perch.

As we came to the salt marsh we found some fresh tracks which were so large that they must have been from a Great Blue Heron. But the lack of actual birds forced me to divert my attention to other things. I found the strangest iridescent beetle on one of the small bushes that framed the trail. As I was photographing that bug I noticed several bees nectaring on the Regosa Rose. I got one nice shot of a bee coming in for a landing. Unfortunately, when I was taking those pictures, my parents had a great look at a female Northern Harrier working the marsh for lunch.

When I rejoined them we continued out to the edge of the marsh. There we found the usual cast of characters: Black-bellied Plovers, Willets, Semi-palmated Plovers, etc. We did see at least one Piping Plover amongst the flock. By this time we were pretty hungry so we hiked back to our car.

After having a quick lunch we decided that it wasn't much of a beach day so we'd spend the afternoon walking around in Chatham. As we made our way up-Cape the weather cleared noticeably. By the time that we got the to the lighthouse in Chatham, the sun was out. I was so envious of the people down on the beach enjoying a nice afternoon swim.

But, we stuck to the plan. We got to the center of town and walked around looking at the shops. Our favorite is Yankee Ingenuity and we make at least one stop there every year. This vacation I didn't pick up anything. But my sister got some jewelry and some really cool glass spiders.

Hungry from all the walking, we found some park benches and ate our sandwiches. We had a good plan for the evening: my Mom and sister would go to the Hyannis Sound concert and my Dad and I would go to the Chatham A's game.

That was before the weather changed. Just as we split up you could see the fog rolling in from the ocean. It actually came up the street like something you'd see in a B-grade horror film. By the time we got to the park, it was totally fogged over. The officials delayed the game for a half hour hoping that the conditions would change but they ultimately had to cancel the game.

Still wanting to see a game, my Dad and I drove back to Orleans. The fog was a bit less dense there so they were playing when we arrived at the park. But, as the fog came and went they were forced to stop the game numerous time. I think that we actually got to see an inning and a half in total before we had to head back to Chatham to pick up the girls.