Billy Goats At My Door

Billy Goats At My Door

Saturday, October 7, 2017

October 7, 2017. Whack-A-Seal on Chatham Lighthouse Beach.




 


 





 October 7, 2017.  Whack-A-Seal on Chatham Lighthouse Beach.  Have you seen those Whack-A-Mole games at arcades?  You have, I know you have.  That's what it was like this morning on Chatham Lighthouse Beach.  Chatham is a community on the southeast corner of Cape Cod.  It hovers above a national wildlife refuge which is now home to ten-thousand seals.  The seal population there is so large that Great White Sharks have moved into the area to help Mother Nature control the seal numbers.  The nice man at the visitor's center told us that over 50 Great Whites have been tagged by naturalists to follow their migration.

There are a number of charter services in Provincetown that will take tourists out to whale watch.  I asked Annie if she wanted to do that.  She demurred.  She said she would be content to see seals off the coast from Chatham.  So, we started the day early and drove to Chatham.  As we approached the coast, a dense fog settled over the road and beaches.

We stopped at Chatham Lighthouse Beach in a fog so thick that any object more than 50 yards distant was invisible.  We walked to the water's edge and scanned the surface.  There were few waves and the water was amazingly still.  As we looked out to the sea, a seal would pop its head above water, gulp, then slip below the surface.  Observers had to be quick else they would see only the seal's nose as its head disappeared.  Their cute heads reminded me of the moles in a Whack-A-Mole game.

We saw dozens of seals and heard many more.  Most were beyond sight.  I tried scores of times to photograph the seals before they went under water.  I succeeded less than half-a-dozen times.  And, those were largely obscured by the clouds.  But, Annie was satisfied, so we went to an early lunch in Chatham.

We have no plans for tomorrow.  That is good.  No plan, no rush to complete it.  No rush equals relaxation and that's why we are here.  Hey, I thought that through pretty well, didn't I?  All this thinking makes me tired.

Goodnight.


1 comment:

BJ said...

What a charming day! The imagination gets to run wild when the sea is covered in clouds!