Shoreline Transition

Over the winter months the most engaging wildlife observations on Halibut Point drew us to the shoreline. Now suddenly the ocean offers only the thinnest of bird-watching possibilities. But there have been noteworthy sights during the Spring transition.

Blue-winged Teal pair in Folly Cove (May 2)

Most waterfowl migrate to raise their young in the relative safety and brief abundance of the northern latitudes. During spring we sometimes see transients on the way through, such as this pair of Blue-winged Teal.

Common Loon (May 19)

Some birds like the Common Loon that have wintered here in drab plumage re-feather themselves into connubial attire before their seasonal departure.

Red-breasted Mergansers (April 21)
three males and a female

Male mergansers look and act more vivid in preparation for mating pursuits that begin locally and carry them to sub-Arctic tundra regions.

One of our winter ducks seems to break the pattern of increasing elegance at breeding time. In the sequence of photographs below Long-tailed drakes, to my human eyes, diminish their appeal during spring. Nevertheless the species prospers.

Long-tailed Ducks in winter plumage (March 12)
female (left) and two males

Intermediate plumage (April 28)
male (left) and female

Summer plumage (April 30)
female (center) and two males

Long-tailed Ducks display a complex pattern of plumage that blends its stages less distinctly than most birds. Individuals within a group may be quite variable at any given time.

A last hurrah of winter birds in early May:
an Iceland Gull watches a male Black Scoter,
two female Common Eider, and a
juvenile King Eider swim by

Winter's array of diving ducks will not be replaced by other shoreline species during the summer months. Their departure allows shellfish and other edibles to replenish their populations.

Spotted Sandpiper

The Spotted Sandpiper is one of the few shorebirds to maintain a year-round presence on our rocky coast, although much more commonly in warm weather.

Greater Yellowlegs

This Greater Yellowlegs sampled conditions at Folly Cove before moving on to the mudflat habitat it prefers. 


Great Blue Heron

A Great Blue Heron briefly inspected tide pools along Halibut Point before moving on to more productive fishing in a pond or estuary. It fluffed its resplendent mating regalia before taking flight.

The shoreline is quieter now than when it hosted the hardy waterfowl that gave steady amusement to coastal wanderers.

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Beauties at Halibut Point

Once again a revolution of the planet on its tilted axis has brought us to Spring. Warming weather has induced tender foliage in the trees, feeding the bugs and worms that support the arrival of birds spreading over the globe from winter retreats down south. Suddenly the woods and meadows of Halibut Point sparkle with the harlequin patterns of a tropical aviary. It is a brief festival for birdwatchers. The migrations conclude. The courtships quiet. Maturing leaves draw a curtain around procreative Summer.

Field Sparrow



Cedar Waxwing

Baltimore Oriole



Yellow-rumped Warbler



Northern Parula



Chestnut-sided Warbler

American Redstart



Wilson's Warbler

 

Eastern Bluebird

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Emerging news

One of the kits leaves no doubt of developing precocious hunting abilities.

Precocious hunter

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Leaves no doubt

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A pause for paws

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Encouraging a sibling

Within a family leaders encourage followers out for a sibling romp.

Playing kit-and-kaboodle

It's a playful way to prepare for life's hurdles.

Daybreak at the den

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Finnish Music on Cape Ann

This Sunday evening May 13 at 7:00 you will have a chance to enjoy Finnish music presented with a glimpse of its vitality in the early generations of the immigrant community.

The program will include live music and vintage recordings at the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Lanesville where services were conducted in Finnish during the same decades that music served as "probably the strongest glue in the culture," according to organizer Valerie Nelson whose grandparents arrived from Finland a century ago.

 

Valerie Nelson at the doors of St. Paul Lutheran Church

Planning began as a focus for the Third Annual Lanesville May Day History Festival with intriguing references in Barbara Erkkila's Village at Lane's Cove (1989). Valerie recalled that it "started with some 'wouldn't it be nice'  thoughts. Then we did all this research and talked to university professors. The first thing we learned was how central music was."
 

Brass bands established by military units, business companies, and unions among others had been a prominent part of life in mid-nineteenth century Finland. Along with choirs the bands performed competitively in summer festivals. Lullabies, folksongs and legends particularly from the national epic Kalevala added to the musical fabric that accompanied Finns to America. At the turn of the twentieth century they took pride in the international popularity of their countryman Jean Sibelius, composer of Finlandia and a trove of symphonic scores.
 

Wäinö Band of Lanesville, 1903

The Wäinö Band formed in the 1890s almost entirely of Finnish players. Notable in the photo above is the number of boys in the ensemble. Valerie Nelson points to this inter-generational encouragement as the seedbed for widespread musical appreciation and for the development in the 1920s and 1930s of several nationally prominent artists from the little community on Cape Ann.

 

Julius Kaihlanen leading the Wäinö Band c. 1930
Note the attentive children.

Barbara Erkkila relates stories of the Wäinö Band playing at dances, at Gloucester City Hall and on trolley whistle-stop tours around the Cape. As their audience and composition diversified their selections came to include other ethnic and particularly American music, in keeping with the common trend of assimilation into the melting pot.
 

Visiting musician Viola Turpeinen, right

For many years musical cultural exchanges among immigrant communities kept Finnish descendents engaged with each other across the country. On a less ethnic note, but arising from this rich village life, Cape Ann sent its prodigies out to play in prestigious ensembles of many genres.

 

Sylvester Ahola's Orchestra

The upcoming celebration flows in part from the energies of the newly founded Cape Ann Finns. Its membership has reached 166 descendents of the immigrant group. Sunday evening they will have on display a collection of gathered family memorabilia and are constructing a website relating to their Finnish roots. Rockport resident Rob Ranta capeannfinns@gmail.com leads the association.

 

Besides the natural interest in our predecessors, learning more about the Cape Ann Finns promises an inspiring story of resilience, cooperation, and self-reliance. The immigrants arrived in a strange land to work under brutal quarrying conditions. Before long they managed to build homes, churches, and social halls as well as be at the forefront of labor reform. By the time the granite industry collapsed in the 1920s they had created a resolute community on a scarred landscape that charmed world-renowned artistic immigrants to foster their own enclave here. That achievement of wholeness blended fellowship with individualism just like synthesis in the musical sphere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rare Moments

While I don't maintain a Life List I probably enjoy as much as the next fellow chancing on a bird I haven't seen before. My bailiwick for such excitement, you understand, is the immediate environs of Halibut Point. The other day I had a nice encounter with a Blue Grosbeak there. It turns out this is a rare and privileged experience anywhere in New England and a first occurrence among those I've been able to contact who keep records of sightings at the State Park.

Startled Song Sparrow

It seemed in this picture as if the resident Song Sparrows were as surprised by the apparition as I was. But I've been warned before about ascribing human thoughts or feelings to birds, the flabby sin of anthropomorphism. I'll stick to my own reaction.
 

Blue Grosbeak

The Blue Grosbeak would add an uncommon spark to almost any natural setting in our latitude. Other than the flashy feathers of Blue Jays we have few blues to delight us below the dome of the sky, which never attains the hue nor the chromatic intensity of the bird unexpectedly before me.

 

I want to say beautiful, a complicated word that depreciates the stunning but commonplace features of the nearby Song Sparrows. I might think 'artistic' because of the pleasing contrast between the wing tones and the rest of the body that looks like a work of painterly genius to make the blue seem bluer, but this is certainly not a result of the bird's choice or desire. Birds don't make art. 

The Blue Grosbeak looks like a Cardinal re-dipped in an alternative primary color for equally vivid effect. The novelty no doubt amplifies my sense of its beauty.

Readers will recall my disquisition with Chris Leahy on  A Good Bird. Naturally I contacted Chris about the Blue Grosbeak. He confirmed that "despite the fact that the species is showing up [in the north] with increasing frequency, it is still very much a 'good bird.' Halibut Point is the kind of coastal migrant trap where such rarities are most likely to occur."
 

The rarity of the occurrence of course gratified me but I was less warm to his terming Halibut Point a 'coastal migrant trap.' Chris reframed that soulless ecological jargon into a helpful explanation.

The word “trap” is somewhat misleading. Especially during spring with the prevailing SW winds that migrant songbirds are in part guided by, birds arrive and depart in “waves” responding to weather variations. In addition, they tend to follow “leading lines” such as river valleys and coastlines to orient. As dawn arrives and these nocturnal migrants are looking for landing habitat, they tend to “pile up” in coastal areas that provide food and cover. These may also be “islands” of open space surrounded by more developed land. Such places can “trap” both large numbers and high diversity of species (which implies good chances of rarities) and therefore also capture birdwatchers.
  

Consider me captured.