The herring are in, the herring are in! There’s activity at the Cape Cod canal herring run as well as in Brewster. Despite the snow and sleet they have determined it is time to venture into fresh water.
Maybe they were moved by the “Super moon” of March 19. That day (or night) the moon passed by our planet at a distance of 221,567 miles – the closest pass in 18 years . A normal “lunar perigee”, as this is called in the astronomers’ world, averages 226,425 miles. The tides were markedly higher, and lower during that time. I was out shellfishing over the weekend and walking to Sandy Neck from Scudder’s Lane almost seemed possible.
If more proof is needed, Quiscalus quiscula, or common grackle, has been showing up in some numbers on the Cape – I saw several flocks as well as solitary birds over the weekend. They’ll be breeding here on Cape Cod and points further north and west.
Others are just passing through – I saw a Passerella iliaca (red fox sparrow) in the yard today. This distinctively larger sparrow breeds in Northern Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes. So this bird (and I did only see one) has some distance to cover before it gets to its nesting grounds.
With all these new arrivals and transients-just-passing-through, the peepers can’t be far behind.
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