A Cape Cod Notebook

In May of 1984, two-thirds of the entire North American population of Roseate terns were believed to nest upon Bird Island, a small pile of glacial debris located in Buzzards Bay about a half-mile off the coast of Marion. The colony at Bird Island was long considered secure from predation. On A Cape Cod Notebook, Robert Finch recalls the morning when he and others made a painful discovery which shattered that presumption of safety.

Audio essay posted above. This is part 1 of a 2-part essay. The conclusion will be posted next week.

Nature flourishes even in unlovely locations. On A Cape Cod Notebook, Robert Finch peeks behind Wellfleet Center where, amid dumpsters and bags of recycling, grows an immense black willow. It rises over 60 feet into the air. A true wild native, it is there not because of human tending and protection, but in spite of the lack of it – a king in an environmental slum.

Every six hours a 6-foot-diameter weather balloon is launched from Truro to gather data on the atmosphere. On spring evenings, a balloon's release may be accompanied by the flights of woodcocks engaged in their distinctive rocket-like mating display. On A Cape Cod Notebook, writer Robert Finch ponders the curious juxtaposition: helium-filled science balloons and avian courtship behavior.

Audio essay posted above.

Here's a video of a weather balloon launch at the Cape Cod National Seashore:

The high percentage of seniors on Cape Cod can make personal indications of aging easier to ignore. On A Cape Cod Notebook, Robert Finch tallies some of the signposts of aging, including failings of the body, and encounters with professional figures younger than appears seemly. Recently, he was struck by a fresh age-related realization: the newly elected Pope might just be his last.

Audio essay posted above.

Between two spasms of violence that gripped the nation's attention - the Marathon Bombing and the subsequent manhunt that shut down Boston - Robert Finch found himself seated on a bench in Harvard Yard reading poetry. It was only later, looking back, that he perceived how unknowingly that pretty spring day embodied the eye of a storm. 

Audio essay posted above.

Scattered groups of migratory herring – pink, dark-finned shapes, curved and elusive in the water - appear no more than wisps of current that circle and disappear with each shimmer of light. On A Cape Cod Notebook, Robert Finch notes that these fish, also known as alewives, represent visual camouflage of the highest order. They become an integrated part of the stream as they proceed to spawning ponds each spring.

Many rewards in nature come from procrastination. On a Cape Cod Notebook, Robert Finch recounts a recent experience of walking out to get the mail and finding his wind-littered driveway alive with bright foraging birds.

Audio posted above. 

An indoor swimming pool may be artificial, chlorinated, fluorescent-lit, and tepid. But on A Cape Cod Notebook, naturalist Robert Finch notes that the indoor pool does have its charms and pleasures, its distinctive character allowing for an observation of the nature of water in a way that would be impossible out of doors.

At the height of the tide, with a 3-foot-plus storm surge urging it on, a mighty cataract of furious white-water poured through the break, shattering the flanking dunes and spreading out in a 500-foot fan of salt flood waters into the marshes of the Pamet. On A Cape Cod Notebook, Robert Finch witnesses this dramatic event at the height of last week's storm, and he recalls other incursions made upon Ballston Beach by the sea.