Meditations at the Power Plant (1)

 

Japanese Andromeda

En route to the shoreline, after passing the main quarry there's an intersection of five roads at Halibut Point reminiscent of Five Corners in Rockport, where the State Highway meets Broadway and Main Street. Here a quiet trail leads down to the site of the old power plant.

The Andromeda blooming

At the entrance to this trail an ornamental shrub is currently blooming, earlier than almost anything else in the landscape. It's a domesticating touch most likely introduced by the Webster family when they founded the Pitcairn Park recreational venture during the 1950s.

Cellophane Bees mating

The Andromeda grows in a relatively warm, sheltered location. It helps sustain one of the earliest of insects to break hibernation, the Cellophane Bee.

Red Maple flowering

Nearby, a large Red Maple tree puts forth its exquisite early spring flowers.

The quarry in operation, 1913
Painting by Leon Kroll

In its operational era the quarry had a central power plant feeding all the drills, pumps, and machinery by compressed air hoses ducted through a culvert beneath perimeter road. It is located at the far right of Leon Kroll's painting.

The power plant foundation today

Presumably the power plant was coal fed. Getting the fuel to the site must have been a labor-intensive operation in itself. Louis Rogers, one of the Directors of the Rockport Granite Company, told an interviewer late in life that keeping the quarry free of infiltrating ground water was the biggest expense the business faced.

The site, elevated railroad bed to the rear, ocean beyond

The train pictured in Kroll's painting moved salable granite blocks down to the shipping pier at Folly Cove and disposed of useless stone on the Overlook grout pile.

Stone terracing

Some of the granite was finely honed into structural features around the power plant. Beside it lies a small quarry now filled with water. Sometimes it is referred to as a "motion", but that term should be reserved for small pits excavated manually by independent operators, often during periods of unemployment from the commercial quarries. These can be found in the woods throughout Cape Ann and supplied local building projects, or paving stones taken to market by ox cart.

Green Frog and blooming Watershield,
Brasenia schreberi

The astonishing reclamation by nature of these sterile industrial zones will be the subject of the next Meditation.

Farewell to Winter

 

In the harshest part of winter, winds off the Bay formed icicles sideways along the shore.

Snow Bunting

Snow Buntings still managed to forage now and then in the coastal moors.

Lichens, ice, and minerals decorated quarry walls under the opposing influences of sun and shade.

Song Sparrow

As the snow piled up meadow residents gleaned the slim remnants of last year's bounty.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Arboreal birds searched tree crevices for morsels of food.

Mild temperatures this week have started patterning the quarry surface after the monotonous whiteness of sheet ice.

Alternate thawing and freezing has created glassy crystals and reflecting shards.

The melting enriches the beauty of elements beyond what was and what will be.

Hooded Mergansers amid ice floes

Transitory Hooded Mergansers find the first open water at Halibut Point as a very brief stopover on their way to northern breeding grounds.

The Merganser pair yesterday

Early risers can enjoy this fleeting moment between winter and spring.

Winter Thrushes

 

Hermit Thrush

A couple of shy Hermit Thrushes braved the cold months at Halibut Point. They would appear now and then at the edge of the wood line scuffling through the leaves in search of food.

It's a challenging time of year for birds that are primarily insectivores.

Hermit Thrush in cedar tree

The solution to survival lies in diet adaptation, adjusting to concentrate on fruit in trees and shrubs.

Standing on ice

During frigid weather even water can be scarce. Some birds drank at the edge of the quarry where sun-warmed stone melted a thin band of ice.

Robins eating privet berries

Robins, another member of the Thrush family, have successfully contended with similar problems. They have sometimes been present in large flocks this the winter.

Robins in the snow

Their adaptation is a surprising departure from traditional lore viewing Robins as the first sign of spring.

Eastern Bluebird this week

A few resident Bluebirds have been the cheeriest members of the Thrush family recently at Halibut Point. This one's day started at 17˚.

Bluebird in Sumac tree

Like the other species it adapted to available food. 

All the thrushes bring melodious voices and flashes of color to their environment.

Ducks on the Wing

The great compensation for winter's blustery weather is that Halibut Point's shoreline comes alive with birds. Seeing them on the ocean surface between dives for food presents an admirable view of their lifestyle and coloration.  When they fly, we get a fuller appreciation of their abilities and beauty in this challenging, stunning environment. The camera lets us take home a stop-action souvenir of these wonders.

Red-breasted Mergansers

White-winged Scoters

Harlequin Ducks

Common Eider

Buffleheads

Surf Scoters and Black Scoter, with Greater Scaup in lead

Brant

Long-tailed Ducks

Quarry Ducks, As the Ice Closed In

 

With the approach of winter, the Halibut Point quarry pond became a place of refuge for various ducks while the water remained open.

Chief among these hardy waterfowl have been Mallards and their closely related Black Ducks.

These dabblers are drawn to the quarry to rest from their rough and tumble foraging for vegetation along the ocean shoreline. There is nothing up here for them to eat at this time of year.

Mallards with a Ring-necked Duck

Once in awhile an exotic duck appears with the Mallards. Unlike the surface dabblers, these are usually divers.

Ring-necked Duck diving

I supposed they were diving to the bottom in search of mollusks or other edibles. Out in the middle of the quarry it's a long way down.

Greater Scaup swimming, and Mallards, standing

These visitors appeared just as ice was beginning to form on the quarry. They looked like bantams next to the plump Mallards, which were content to stand on the frozen surface on their broad, paddle-like feet.

Female Goldeneye

The divers busied themselves below the surface and never left the water.

Goldeneye diving

They had swimmers' feet, large and cupped for propulsion, not at all suited for standing or walking.

Goldeneye with fish

This photograph finally revealed the target of all that diving effort and the purpose of a lifestyle so distinct from the dabblers.

Ring-necked Duck

Evidently, for most of the year, the diving ducks find habitats more to their liking than chasing minnows in the quarry.

Mallards on the rim of the ice

Frigid temperatures have entirely closed the quarry to the colorful animations of ducks. For the adventurous, there's always the shoreline to admire the saltwater species overwintering in the harshest of environments.

A Watchtower Parable

 

Parables turn conventional thinking inside-out to reach a deeper understanding of things.

Parables put elusive ironies into plain speech and images, there to be sifted for clarification.

While I was compiling the previous two Notes from Halibut Point, Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" played incessantly in my mind. Also Jimi Hendrix's electrifying version of the song delivered on the Isle of Wight in 1968, that caused Dylan to radically amplify his own performances thereafter.

The lyrics feature a conversation between a joker and a thief as they ride toward a watchtower. On one level they seem to refer to getting beyond a sense of victimhood and exploitation at the hands of the music industry.

There must be some kind of way outta here
Said the joker to the thief
There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief.

Business men, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth

None will level on the line
Nobody offered his word.

No reason to get excited
The thief, he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us stop talkin' falsely now
The hour's getting late.

Halibut Point Watchtower, moonlight 2025

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants, too
Well, uh, outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl, hey

All along the watchtower

All along the watchtower.

Great Blue Heron

Bob Dylan is the master of teasing, provocative metaphors that reveal both the glories and inequities of life. Eventually he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In writing "All Along the Watchtower" he likely drew on these lines in the Book of Isaiah.

Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise ye princes, and prepare the shield./For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth./And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed./...And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

 

The previous postings on the Halibut Point watchtower noted its roles in national defense and a promontory for birds. Dylan's artistry challenges to vigilance in keeping faithful to our values in character and culture.