Thursday, March 13, 2014

Right Whale sighting on Cape Cod

whales head and blow

whales tail

Yesterday was sunny so I took my eldest granddaughter, Katie (20) who is on spring break from college and my next to the youngest granddaughter, Bella (3) to the Cape to see the snowy owls. The girls and I had a fun day at the beach we got to see the owl, walked the beach and the girls picked up shells and then were ;lucky to see whales. On the way home it started to rain...perfect timing as it didn't intrupt our fun day.



Bella was looking thru my pair of small binoculars birdwatching in the back seat at the beach. 

The sad thing to see when going to the beach to look at the owls is most people ignore the do not walk on the dunes and marsh signs. People walk right by the signs and climb and walk all over the dunes crushing the dune grass and marshlands and get way to close to the owls to get photos of the owls. Others let their dogs run loose all over the dunes. 

across the marsh on the bayside you can see this wind mill from West Dennis Beach
Bella loved seeing all the ducks and gulls

After leaving the beach we then met up with my cousin, Cheryl and her friend Maggie and we all went out for lunch at Friendly's in Hyannis. 

Bella loved her Monster sundae

Katie enjoying her mint chocolate chip sundae

After lunch we drove back to Dennis to Corporation Beach to see if we could see the endangered Right whales that had been spotted there the day before. We didn't see them there, but drove a bit further down the road to Seasuit Beach and we were lucky enough to spot the whales quite some distance out from shore. I was surprised that I was able to get off a couple of quick shots and get photos. The whales are up and down so fast that it is hard to get photos, especially from so far away.  The whales were really out of range of the zoom of my camera. The wind was howling at the beach and my hands shook so my photos are very blurry.
The past couple of days a pod of rare endangered right whales have been spotted feeding in the waters off of Cape Cod. Read about ...Right whales
national geographic..right-whalesmore on cape whales

Last Friday I had to take my Dad to 2 doctor appointments in Plymouth. After his appointments I asked him if he wanted to take a ride to the Cape to see the snowy owls. My Dad had never seen a snowy owl and he is 95 years old. We arrived at the beach and quickly found the owl hunched down in the dunes. Dad was happy that he got to see the snowy owl. I called Cheryl and she met us at the beach and then we went to the Original Seafood Restaurant in Dennis for lunch. Dad loves scallops so he enjoyed a scallop plate. Cheryl took the photo of my Dad.




 I have spent a lot of time on the Cape lately. I headed back down again on Saturday morning and came back Monday afternoon. I always have fun spending time with my cousins and of course we went to see the snowy owls which are still at West Dennis Beach. Saturday night I saw the owl in a bare tree near dusk.




Female Belted Kingfisher sitting on wire at dusk at the W. Dennis Beach

also saw a Kestrel






Below...Coming home from the beach near my cousins house I spotted this red tail hawk sitting in a tree.



We always go for rides. Love visiting the beaches of Cape Cod.




 And this morning we woke to snow. I am so ready for spring and warm weather. 

          While walking in the backyard I noticed that the pussy willow catkins on the top of the shrub                                                                    are starting to open.


Elaine




1 comment:

Joanne Huffman said...

Great photos! Ypur grandchildren are lovely. How nice to take them out for a small adventure. I love the whale pictures - I've never been that close to a whale. The snowy owls are such good "models" for your pictures. We're still snow covered here in Michigan, but it will be in the 30s today, so there might be some melting.