It was one of those gifts of a day in late February! Today, sun was shining, wind was no more than 10 kts, tide was low at mid-day in Chatham, and the grandkids were on Cape for a visit at the end of school vacation week.
We took the long walk to Morris Island, the trail that starts at the National Wildlife Refuge at Quitnesset. Our first look over the body of water behind south beach revealed 5 Long-tailed Ducks among some eiders. The eiders have completely demolished most of the mussel beds that had been thriving along the shore in late January. Now hardly any mussels and few eiders.
We took the woodland trail to the start of the dune path, and began the walk along Hardings Beach Point. I had seen a Snowy Owl there two weeks ago, and wanted to see if it was still around, so the grandkids could see it. Our group split up, with dune walkers and beach walkers. As we got closer to the midpoint of the point, we spotted the owl. We spent the next half hour, trying to see how close we could get to the owl without spooking him/her. Pretty close it turns out. Not close enough for a good picture, but close enough for the children to appreciate the beauty and size of this owl.
I'll post some pics, though the owl is very small, barely a dot.
