Summer Shoreline, Part 2 - American Oystercatchers

An adult American oystercatcher

Early in August this year I made a startling sighting on the coastline of Halibut Point. It came at a time when I was at least somewhat prepared for vivid coloration patterns by the through-migrating Ruddy turnstones. The new bird's long stout bill was proportioned like the broadsword of a medieval gladiator audaciously painted red-orange to advertise its lethal potency. A red ring that surrounded the yellow iris and dotted pupil emphasized the eye disc that stared eerily out of the black head above the bill. A human being decked out like that would provoke ambivalence. Does it stand there in jest, deviltry, or mysterious logic? Just the kind of presence a monarch might value to keep court life from getting stale.

A juvenile beside Herring gulls

Unlike various other shorebirds of my acquaintance the oystercatcher scarcely resembled a sandpiper. It made me think of an African stork. It was chunky and about the size of a crow.

This bird species is interesting enough to have attracted admirers, researchers, and advocates into a flock called the American Oystercatcher Working Group (AOWG). Their website is the only reference I've found to apply the wonderful descriptor 'pied'. It calls to mind patchy-patterned mustangs running wild on Chincoteague Island in Virginia which is in the central part of the oystercatcher's range.

Oystercatchers typically gravitate to sandy or gravelly beaches where they can probe for submerged food at the tide line. When it locates a shellfish with open valves, an oystercatcher quickly inserts its bill to sever the adductor chain that holds the halves together. It then extracts and consumes the soft parts.

Less commonly oystercatchers visit rocky shores such as Halibut Point. They pick individual mussels from a clump, hammer them to break through the shell, once again severing the adductor muscle to open the halves and consume the soft parts of the shellfish.

Their large size and white wing band make oystercatchers conspicuous in flight. They are also very vocal when alerted to danger, so you may hear them before you see them. Most likely they will see you first.

The species was hunted to near extinction in the 19th century for plumage and eggs. It has recovered significantly since the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918 and has begun returning to its former range from refuges in the mid-Atlantic states. Oystercatchers reached coastal Massachusetts in 1969 and are occasionally seen as far north as Nova Scotia.

Adult (L) and juvenile (R)

Local birders have observed oystercatchers in the last few years trying to nest on the offshore islands around Cape Ann, where there are few if any mammalian predators. Gulls, however, take their toll on newborns.

The photograph confirms that oystercatchers are successfully breeding in Massachusetts. As the juveniles reach full size they closely resemble adults, with slightly duller plumage and grayer bills. Their eyes have not yet developed the bright orbital rings.

The AOWG offers some interesting observations about the birds' survival adaptations:

-Their counter-shaded plumage blends in surprisingly well in feeding habitat, particularly mussel and oyster beds, as well as on breeding habitat.

-The young can be heard calling from within the egg two days before they hatch.

-When eggs are present, at the approach of predators or humans, the tending adult slips off nest, usually unseen, while the intruder is still some distance away. It walks rapidly away some distance before taking flight. The bird then exhibits distraction behavior, circling back over the intruder in “butterfly” flight giving distress calls. It often adopts a mock sleeping attitude or mock brooding in an exposed location. In this posture it may allow predatory birds such as gulls to approach and rarely even touch it. Once displaced, the oystercatcher will run some distance, then resume mock brooding posture again.

- Precocial chicks are able to stand upright and run short distances within hours of hatching. They respond to parent alarm calls by running for cover, then lying immobile. Often they will not move until picked up. As fledglings they can escape gulls and peregrine falcons by diving under water, propelling themselves with their wings.

By late summer the oystercatchers begin their return to wintering grounds on the southern shoreline of the United States. They are a bellwether species of healthy coastal environments. We can hope that they will find our region increasingly appealing.

Summer Shoreline, Part 1 - Turnstone Territory

The Ruddy turnstone is the most common, and the most colorful, sandpiper at Halibut Point during August.

Ruddy turnstone adult

Adults have been here since the beginning of the month, working their way south from their tundra breeding grounds. They depart from those upper latitudes before their chicks have matured, presumably to leave as much food as possible for the young ones who will have to start their first migration unescorted.

Ruddy turnstone, juvenile

Juveniles begin to show up at Halibut Point in late August or early September. Their bright orange legs identify them distinctively on the shoreline.

Turnstones are named for one of their feeding methods when searching for small mollusks and crustaceans at the tide line.


They become adroit foragers at the edge of the sea where morsels are churned up in the turbulence. They always keep at least one eye on those beneficent waves.

 



At the beginning of August turnstones share the shoreline with only a few other bird species.

Herring gull

Perhaps it's their quickness that allows them to get along amicably with omnivorous gulls.

Common eider

With ducks they're no more than a passing curiosity.

Juvenile (l) and adult (r) turnstones with a Black-bellied plover

Eventually other shorebirds stop at Halibut Point in the fall migration to the southern hemisphere.

Ruddy turnstone landing beside
a juvenile Spotted sandpiper (l)
and a Semipalmated sandpiper (r)

American oystercatcher in background

Turnstones bring an end to the ornithologically drab summer months on the shoreline. Feathered as they are, it's an extravagant turning point.

The Quarry Dance Vision

Conversations with the producer and the choreographer

 
Lisa Hahn, producer 

I was two or three when I started swimming in the quarry at Halibut Point. The Websters owned it then. We were all great friends. We lived down the street next to them, so we packed up every day and went with them to their quarry. When I was ten we bought the farm that became the Windhover Center for the Performing Arts. My sister and I said, "Oh, now we can ride our horses over to where we swim!" It was a layering of childhood experiences.

Wading in the Halibut Point Quarry, 1950s
Courtesy of the Webster family

Halibut Point was the place where Quarry Dance was born. It was an extension of our home. For my mother it was falling in love with being on Cape Ann, and her mission was to bring dance into nature, as a performance place.

Ina Hahn at Halibut Point, 2011
Lisa Hahn photo

Part of my mission through the arts, with live music and dance, is to bring the community into touch with these amazing treasures. If they fall in love with the landscape, as my Mom and I have, they can't help but want to spend part of their life doing something to preserve or protect it.

Ina introducing Quarry Dance I, 2011
Lisa Hahn photo

For the Quarry Dance stage, the proscenium has been the contour of the cliffs. That's a novel idea, a very inspired idea. Windhover's mission is to bring dance into the community of Cape Ann.

The opening of Quarry Dance VIII, 2019

The magnitude of what happens in a Quarry Dance can transform people. It's larger than themselves. It's out of an ego world. The dance that happened yesterday with the birds showing off their own choreographic aspects, that layering of the art of Dušan's work and the birds, elevated your whole consciousness, your whole being.

Quarry Dance III

Dušan Týnek, choreographer

Ina was one of the first people who really recognized what I did, that it was worth supporting. She trusted me right from the beginning, by inviting the whole company here, in its second year. I mean we were babies. We didn't know what we were doing. She already saw something she thought was worth bringing up here and sharing it with her audience. Becoming part of her legacy. It's a very deep covenant.

Quarry Dance IV

This is a unique experience for us. We don't do many site-specific works throughout the year. This is the only place. A flooded quarry? Who does that? I've never heard of anybody. It's a privilege, and it's a challenge. It's always exciting to do.

Quarry Dance V

There has to be something that satisfies the soul. Otherwise the audience wouldn't come.

Quarry Dance V

I tell my dancers, were going to do a Quarry Dance. Get ready, you're going to get beat up. Start doing some push-ups. We rehearse all the time. But it's very different when you come to a quarry.

Quarry Danced VII

Dance is ephemeral, it doesn't exist beyond that moment when you are experiencing it. Other art forms--painting, pottery, sculpture, and such--the final product becomes a material, solid thing you can put your hands on. It can be there for eternity. But performance--it's a reduction of the actual experience.

Quarry Dance VIII

When you see it, something that was in your head, maybe you dreamt or you read about it. Then you had to pull all these people together, and they all listen to you and they make it happen, and then you see it on stage. Nothing compares to that.

Dušan Týnek and Lisa Hahn

Quarry Dance VIII

The Dušan Týnek Dance Company returned to the palisades of Halibut Point State Park after gracing six other Cape Ann quarry sites in as many summers, under the sponsorship of the  Windhover Center for the Performing Arts. The dancers gave four riveting presentations based on a vision by Rockport's Ina Hahn, founder of Windhover. Ina's daughter Lisa Hahn has preserved and extended that vision of artistry in movement by the New York dance troupe.

Quarry Dance I
The Dušan Týnek Dance Company
Halibut Point State Park, 2012
Sallee Slagle photo

Quarry Dance VIII, 2019

Choreographer Dušan Týnek  reflected on the origins of the collaboration. "For Ina it was all about celebrating Cape Ann, the natural beauty and especially the quarries and the people that were behind it and made it, that created it, built it with their sweat and tears and blood. She was very much respectful of this place and I think it was her ode to Cape Ann. She talked to me about it for years."

Alexandra Berger, lower left

Alexandra Berger, who performed in both Quarry Dance I and VIII, remarked on the difference between working here and in a theatrical hall.

"On a stage performance there's that striving for perfection, because it's so stark and pristine and structured. Here it's not that way at all. There's a survival aspect to it. There are so many factors we can't count on, like where the sun's going to be in our eyes on any given day, or how breezy it's going to be, or how loud the seagulls, so we can hear each other....



 
....But there's a cohesiveness. It's good for us as a company. It brings us together in a way that a regular performance couldn't." 


Nicole Restani, left

Adds Nicole Restani, "Some of the skill that comes with being a modern dancer is knowing how to toss each other around and support them, but also how to read when something goes unplanned."

 
Dancer Ned Sturgis recognizes that "Dušan's work in general requires quite a bit of trust. It's very athletic and borderline acrobatic. When we get here, it heightens that even more so. We're dangling off cliffs, or dangling each other off cliffs.... 


....Dušan has us do a lot of partnering, so we are used to doing unusual things with each other. It's not totally a shock when we come here and he says, 'Can you go upside down in a tree, and flip over?' We're not surprised when he asks those things of us. We have to figure out how to do them."

 
Says Park Superintendent Mark Peterson, "They did an excellent job. The part of the dance around the tree expressed the lily blooming at this time of year, I thought. Seeing the yellow running down the trails, glimpses of it between the green reflecting the half way point in the summer where things are starting to dry out--I thought the program was very cool."

 

"I hope that the audience is not aware of the difficulty of putting on a performance like this. You want them to appreciate the work that goes into it, but you don't want them feeling sorry for everyone. They just want the joy. They want the end result. The dancers can complain and all that, but during the performance you shouldn't have a sense of that."--Dušan Týnek

The Naming of Dragonflies

Sightings on Halibut Point

Calico pennant

The naming of many dragonflies has swept in as much of their charm as of our science.

Slaty skimmer

Their naming leads to words of elementary wonder and description.

Cherry-faced meadowhawk

On the wing, dragonflies seem like sparks of the spectrum. A close look while they're perched reveals iridescent details.



Black-tipped dasher

In some cases the name encompasses anatomy in action...

Blue dasher

...or makes reference to color in action.

Spot-winged glider

Gliders have particularly broad wings for riding the currents of air with less effort.

Wandering glider

The Wandering glider is a champion migrator. Its ability to stay airborne for long distances and periods of time brings it to nearly every continent. At Halibut Point it is more likely to be seen in flight than perched.

Green darner mating pair

Green darners get their name from resemblance to a darning needle. The female oviposits her eggs in aquatic vegetation by cutting a slit in a stem or leaf, and placing the eggs inside it.

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Odontologists, the students of various ages who have named the Twelve-spotted skimmer, count only the black wing spots that appear on both sexes, to the exclusion of this male's additional whitish ones.



Painted skimmer

These insects capture artistic imagination in all cultures. Their life of metamorphoses, of predatory skill at every stage, of enviable flight, and of perennial return, spark attributes of magic, beauty, and invincibility. From children to warriors, they are the admirable dragons of water and air.