{"id":1425,"date":"2008-11-02T17:56:38","date_gmt":"2008-11-02T21:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1425"},"modified":"2008-11-02T17:56:38","modified_gmt":"2008-11-02T21:56:38","slug":"celebrating-november-basking-with-seals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1425","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating November – Basking with Seals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Marsh Channels of Black Duck Creek<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Neither fall nor winter, November is March in reverse, arriving in the guise of a gentle lamb and exiting with the\u00c2\u00a0fierce roar of a lion.\u00c2\u00a0 The\u00c2\u00a01st of November held true to the model, dawning a clear, calm 50 degrees on the Outer Cape and nudging into the mid-60s\u00c2\u00a0until weather vanes spun in late afternoon and a North Atlantic wind howled\u00c2\u00a0into Wellfleet Harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 On the Cape, November is the month with the least sunshine and the most overcast days.\u00c2\u00a0 So, wildlife and humans, feral and domestic, savored\u00c2\u00a0the day’s warmth and\u00c2\u00a0beauty.\u00c2\u00a0 And Turtle Journal offers\u00c2\u00a0reflective\u00c2\u00a0memory\u00c2\u00a0of\u00c2\u00a0this perfectly nuanced November day.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Harbor Seal Basking on Mayo Beach, Wellfleet Harbor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We began our November 1st on the Wellfleet Pier as we searched again in vain for the disappearing ocean sunfish [see Exotic Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)<\/a>].\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0When we abandoned\u00c2\u00a0those fruitless efforts around noon, we spotted a\u00c2\u00a0distant chubby blob rocking in seesaw fashion on Mayo Beach in front of the former Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the harbor seals that had been stuffing\u00c2\u00a0itself with sand eels this last week (see Wellfleet Harbor Seals: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thanks for All the Fish!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a>) was taking advantage of a mostly deserted beach between the\u00c2\u00a0empty pier and the emptier summer cottages lining the waterfront out toward Great Island\u00c2\u00a0to soak up November sunshine.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Savoring the 1st of November<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As an isolated resident or\u00c2\u00a0stray tourist\u00c2\u00a0wandered within eyeshot or earshot, the seal would slither into the water, stretch its muscles on a leisurely swim and then return to the beach once “all clear” registered in its brain.\u00c2\u00a0 With a\u00c2\u00a0long\u00c2\u00a0unobstructed view\u00c2\u00a0of the beach the seal was never hurried or surprised since it could see humans (and their canine companions) a half mile away.\u00c2\u00a0 The only startled moment came as a seagull swooped overhead, prompting the seal to slap the water with its flipper to frighten the bird away (see movie clip above).<\/p>\n

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Tide Rises to Wash Over Basking Harbor Seal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With huge tides in Wellfleet Bay, it was amusing to watch the seal start off high and dry, and then quickly get overtaken by rising waters.\u00c2\u00a0 And speaking of tides, we had begun\u00c2\u00a0our day observing low-tide drained beaches, creeks and marsh channels surrounding Lieutenant Island.\u00c2\u00a0 Marsh grasses have browned since\u00c2\u00a0September and summer critters have burrowed down for the long, harsh winter ahead in the Great White North of Cape Cod.<\/p>\n

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Shorebirds Foraging in Black Duck Creek, Lieutenant Island<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For this morning, peace and blissful quiet reigned with only the cawing of distant crows and the rustling of a few shorebirds pecking through the deeply carved peat channels of one of the richest salt marsh systems in the Northeast.\u00c2\u00a0 Minnows galore\u00c2\u00a0circled shallow tidal pools\u00c2\u00a0in large schools, impatiently awaiting the return of flood tide to\u00c2\u00a0abet their escape from these predatory birds.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Lieutenant Island Tidal Flats at Low Tide<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As tide approaches dead low, the last trickles of water zigzag to the bay, etching\u00c2\u00a0pathways through mud and sand, and\u00c2\u00a0cascading into rivulets that gurgle to the receding sea.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The video clip\u00c2\u00a0offers a minute of grateful reflection\u00c2\u00a0on a perfect November day.<\/p>\n

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Satisfied Seagull<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We close this blog\u00c2\u00a0entry with a comment from one of our well-nourished feathered philosophers, “Happy November!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marsh Channels of Black Duck Creek Neither fall nor winter, November is March in reverse, arriving in the guise of a gentle lamb and exiting with the\u00c2\u00a0fierce roar of a lion.\u00c2\u00a0 The\u00c2\u00a01st of November held true to the model, dawning a clear, calm 50 degrees on the Outer Cape and nudging into the mid-60s\u00c2\u00a0until weather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[823],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1425"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1447,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1425\/revisions\/1447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}