Baby Piping Plovers on Little Harbor Beach, Buzzard’s Bay

Little Harbor Beach is a dream for bird watching and beachcombing. The salt marsh is teeming with life, overlooking Buzzard’s Bay. We quickly forgot about the landscape and became enthralled by the hilarious creature life all around.

Endangered Piping Plovers, just hatched

As we walked, I heard the funniest peeping sound I couldn’t place. I was just about to say, “Do you hear that sound?” When a sweet woman nearby called over the wind, “Do you see the babies?!”

Sure enough, the tiniest baby piping plovers were scurrying around in the shells and seaweed, camouflaged. She showed us their nests and piles of rocks. This kind couple live just up the street and come here every day, they’ve been watching the plover nests—the beach is roped off to keep the birds safe. She told us this small family of plovers just hatched on Saturday morning, and the other nests have not yet hatched. They made the sweetest little chirping sounds and they were magical to watch. The babies would cozy up under the mother’s wings, and then come out and walk around. I took about a hundred photos with the zoom lens on.

Fiddler crabs

Mike loves these fiddler crabs and their one claw. Any marshy beach like this one, you’ll find hundreds of holes. Stay still for a moment or two, all the fiddler crabs will come out and hold up their claw. They’re very goofy.

Fiddler crabs on the salt marsh

Shellfish and Seagulls

Every bird had a Quahog in its beak. This is the kind of inlet where birds nest; great sandbars and access to all the fish and shellfish they can eat, but with some natural shelter from the elements. It was a beautiful foggy morning, the rain has been off-and-on all weekend. I’ve always loved this kind of weather on Cape Cod. It’s locals’ weather, walk the dog and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Cape Cod is spectacular on warm, sunshiney days where the masses of people can park their coolers in the sand and bask in a long beach day. But there’s a special serenity on days like this that are too cold for barefoot fun. May, June, September and October are some of the best months on-Cape.

Bird soars over a nest, Quahog in its beak

A house with a lighthouse-shaped tower, Buzzard’s Bay