On February 19, Nantucket Sound and nearshore waters were mostly ice-free. After the stunning cold on the evening of the 19th and morning of the 20th there was a dramatic change and water, water everywhere had turned to ice. Buzzard’s Bay, Nantucket Sound, Hyannis Harbor, lots of Cape Cod Bay near the shorelines and even nearshore waters along the south side of Nantucket had changed dramatically. Looking out from almost any shoreline made one think of Ivory Gulls and Polar Bears. It was a typical Arctic scene. The view would have been similar from the shores of Hudson Bay - it was a view of our region and its surrounding waters seen only once every couple of decades.
Frozen saltwater has very different properties than freshwater. It creates a wide range of ice types depending on temperatures, salt and mineral content of the water and movement of the water. It freezes at a lower temperature than freshwater generally changing from water to ice at or near 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Saltwater ice is different in virtually every way from frozen freshwater and is much more pliable. On February 20th there was a satellite shot of the region on several TV stations showing the ice cover on Nantucket Sound and adjacent waters. It was remarkable to see.
With the brutally cold temperatures, seemingly always howling wind and lots of snow cover, conditions have been less than ideal for going out and looking for birds. Yet several hardy birders were out this past week and certainly the highlight of the week was a large raptor from the Arctic called a Rough-legged Hawk that was seen hovering, hunting and flying over the Moors in the middle of Nantucket on February 20th. This same afternoon there was a spectacular display of gulls at Codfish Park also on Nantucket with thousands of Herring Gulls, over a hundred Iceland Gulls, a couple of hundred Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 50 Bonaparte’s Gulls and 2 Eurasian Black-headed Gulls. It is one of the best places to see gulls on the entire planet! Mixed in feeding with the gulls, right in the surf, were Horned Grebe, Bufflehead, Common Eider, Long-tailed Ducks and all 3 species of scoters.
With all the aforementioned talking about ice and cold temperatures it leads-in, sadly, to a veritable nightmare for plants and animals in the natural world and birds seem particularly hard hit by the prolonged cold and snow and ice cover. The cold and snow have done their damage and bird mortality across the entire spectrum has been very high. Out driving the edges of the road one sees sparrows, thrushes and other birds eating grit, sand spread by the state and town, as it is the only place they can find it. They need the grit to digest and grind up their food. Many of these birds are just inches from traffic and the road kill has been significant.
American Robins, one of the hardiest landbirds on the North American continent, have been having a hard time finding berries and several have been found lying dead on the snow starved to death. Winter is no joke for denizens of the natural world and this winter has been brutal. I can’t think of a species that is doing well in this weather including our incredibly tough sea ducks.
The cold temperatures and strong winds this past week have made it one of the chilliest weeks ever recorded on The Cape and Islands. A thaw and spring can’t come soon enough.
