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Daily Bucket: Cape Ann, Massachusetts [1]

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Date: 2022-06-28 00:00:00

June 2022. Field and shed, looking to the right from the westernmost path on the way into the park...the original farmhouse is still standing on a street near the park. There is forest on the left side of the path, with a small glade where I often see lots of little birds.

June 2022

Cape Ann is a great place for seeing birds (this is a nice page—I have no affiliation with the inn whose page it is—about some of the birds there in winter). Some of the birds I see often at Halibut in warmer seasons are Blue Jays, Northern Mockingbirds, Gray Catbirds, White-throated Sparrows, Cedar Waxwings, Song Sparrows, Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Wrens (they like to sing right next to the ocean), Double-crested Cormorants, and Eastern Towhees. Also Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls which like to bathe in the middle of the quarry lake, a large lake in the middle of the park.

The flora is one of my favorite things about Halibut…including the forest (I have a deep love for the trees of Rockport and Gloucester, partly because of their unique weather-beaten shapes...although I still haven’t learned what many of them are), Greenbrier, wild blueberries and strawberries, and wild geraniums. There’s an area I call “Invasives Lane” because it’s full of honeysuckle, spindlebush, Japanese barberry, bittersweet, and multiflora roses (it looks like the honeysuckle is losing to the shade of the others). Every spring Wood Sorrel and Trout Lilies bloom along one of the ocean paths, for just a few days. On the largest scenic overlook, there are butter-and-eggs, daisies, coreopsis and other flowers blowing in the wind (it’s usually windy there) over a rocky ocean vista on one side, and a view which makes me think of the Scottish highlands on the other.

Halibut Point State Park is the area in aqua. Zoom.

One of the paths in the park leads to Halibut Point Reservation (owned by the North Shore’s wonderful Trustees of Reservations), a wide-open rocky area on the shore, with large tide pools...so far I’ve visited only a little of the reservation. The park and the reservation together are 67 acres. Zoom.

Some changes I’ve noticed since other years: I used to see a Green Heron by the quarry lake in the spring, and Belted Kingfishers...I haven’t seen either one yet there this year; happily, there have been no Gypsy Moths for three straight years (the year before that I remember it raining Gypsy Moths on the paths there...horrible); the oak trees seem to keep growing lusher; and there were nowhere near as many apple blossoms in bloom this spring as there were some other years (on Plum Island either...I don’t know why).

More photos that I took in the Park the past two months…

~May 2022~

Apple blossoms

I’ve never seen so many Bluets as I did this spring, all over the North Shore

I don’t know what this is

Path on the east side of the quarry lake

Wild strawberries

Eastern Towhee by the path near the ocean

One of the lake overlooks

Overlook #4

Path on the north side of the lake

Bayview Trail, on the northwestern side...this is where Trout Lilies briefly bloom

Black Scoters on the ocean in early May...I think they left soon after this (zoom)

Some Common Eiders were still here in May, and haven’t left! (some stay all summer)

Lilacs at the easternmost entrance to the park...the path from this entrance leads through forest with tall trees into the interior of the park and then to the lake and ocean

~June 2022~

The park looks greener now. The apple blossoms have finished, and birds have eaten the ripe wild strawberries. There was a Mallard with ducklings on the quarry lake. Some of the ducklings were bouncing adorably up against the stone quarry wall (to get algae maybe?). Song Sparrows and Gray Catbirds have been singing all over the place. The vegetation along small paths to the rocks is more overgrown now...I’m avoiding those places because of poison ivy and the risk of ticks. Most sea ducks left in May or earlier.

The Visitor’s Center (once a WWII artillery tower) is to the left of this pic

Trees along the path

The quarry lake

Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls are a common sight on the lake and the ocean too

View from the path on the east side of the lake

This path goes down to a little glade and pond...there’s rarely anyone there

Ferns by the path that goes down to the rocky ocean shore...some of them are bright yellow

Blue Jays are frequent companions along the paths

View from the path to Scenic Overlook #7

Scenic Overlook #7

Scenic Overlook #7

Sign says “Danger, rock slides, keep off”

Sometimes we see seals on the rocks below, or whales out at sea, as well as ducks, gulls and ships

Chairs were set up at the end of the overlook for someone’s wedding...nice day for it (aside from the strong wind)!

Recent video I took there which shows the view of the water from the top of the overlook...I added a song by a-ha, feel free to mute it if you don’t like the music (there was wind in the background, originally)…the video repeats after 1:31...

x YouTube Video

Bayview Trail, which goes along the ocean and then loops through the woods

Great Black-backed Gull above the scenic overlook, June 2022

June 2022

The sides of the hill of discarded granite where Scenic Overlook #7 is are steeper and more dramatic than I’ve captured in my pics and videos lately

Quarry lake, June 2022

Wild lupines (I think) by the ocean, June 2022

It reached 90° F on Sunday here on the North Shore of Massachusetts, the highest temp we’ve had so far this season, after a lot of unusually cool weather...yesterday it rained and got cooler again. It’s sunny and in the low 70’s this morning. A Carolina Wren, Gray Catbird and Yellow Warblers have been singing outside my window. There’s been a Great Blue Heron and/or Great Egret on the pond in my backyard every day lately.

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