All week long the weather folks had predicted a perfect spring day on the horizon, so I cleared my calendar, packed a snack and some water along with my binoculars and sketchbook and prepared to drive off shortly after dawn the next day. I slept and dreamt of wandering, then woke and hit the road. As most of you probably know, getting from here to there is fraught with utility trucks, construction cones and tr...

It was dark when I got up on this dreary, rainy morning. I could hear the splatter of raindrops against the glass of the windowpane but mostly I was listening to the cardinals. Song sparrows and cardinals are always some of the first birds we hear singing in the spring in our own backyards, and their songs are a welcome sound come April. “My” pair of song sparrows is already nesting beneath the forsythia, but ...

When you hear the words "robot" and "autonomy" applied to boat operations, what do you think? If the image of Captain-less boats moving on Nantucket Sound springs alarmingly to mind, you are on the wrong track, according to Captain Lauren Lamm. Lamm, the speaker at last week's Chatham Marconi Maritime Center online program titled "Seagoing Robots," is a graduate of the Mass Maritime Academy, an experienced Cap...

HARWICH – If there's one thing most people agree on, it's that after a year of social isolation, the time is right to get out and have some fun. Doing that, albeit within health and safety protocols, is one of the aims of the Family Fun Fair, a free drive-by event being held at Monomoy Regional High School on Saturday, April 10, from 10 a.m. to noon. “It's been a really tough year for parents with young chi...

Back when Paul McCartney was writing the lyrics, “You say goodbye, but I say hello,” he probably wasn’t thinking about scoters and ospreys, but that was the song that popped into my head as I stood on an empty beach this past week. Calling a beach empty is probably an oxymoron, for even if we can’t see them, thousands, even millions of tiny organisms are doing their jobs. Plants such as beach peas are spreadin...

After all this time cooped up inside the house and socially distancing, are you yearning to get outside and explore the springtime landscape? Are you a little bit anxious about the idea of getting lost, or accidentally taking a route that ends up covering a few more miles than you are ready for? Fear no more. On Tuesday, April 6 from 7 to 8 p.m. Harwich Conservation Trust will host a free webinar in which Harw...

Eventide Theatre Company's Virtual Playhouse is back with an original work written and directed by Matthew Senie. “Quakeress” is the story of Helen Magill White, the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. The play explores duty, ambition, and 19th-century conceptions of womanhood and domesticity. Helen is torn between her Quaker upbringing – her ideals of virtue and equality – and the expectations put upon femin...

There’s a certain predictable element to the seasons here on Cape Cod. We know almost to the day when the ospreys arrive, mayflowers bloom, and the herring run. We can guess within a day or two in most instances. In mid to late March, the chipmunks and groundhogs wake up, the snakes and turtles stretch out in the sun and the red-winged blackbirds, grackles and robins return. On rainy nights, even those tinged ...

Cape Noir Radio Theater is back with a brand new interpretation of the classic Yukon adventure tale which has caused many readers to shiver in their boots, Jack London's masterful “To Build a Fire.” In London's 1908 story, an unnamed newcomer to the unforgiving cold and treacherous terrain of the Yukon Territory ignores the advice and warnings of those experienced with the extreme cold and embarks on a solo hi...

CHATHAM – Protect Our Past, a Chatham-based group focused on saving historic properties on Cape Cod, delved into some of the background and origins of historic preservation recently, welcoming internationally recognized architect Gunny Harboe as guest speaker at the group's fourth program in its online lecture series. What we have called historic preservation is perhaps best thought of as cultural heritage, fo...

A red-tailed hawk lives in my neighborhood. Many of you probably also have one for a neighbor, whether you know it or not. Red-tails are large hawks and prey primarily on small mammals such as mice, chipmunks, rabbits and squirrels. I’ve seen a few grab a bird in the lean winter months, but usually they stick to furrier meals. On a recent sunny but cold morning my hawk, as I fondly refer to it, was sitting ato...

Are you ready for an escape down the rabbit hole? Grab your top hat and a cup of tea, as Monomoy Regional High School presents an innovative virtual theatrical performance of “Alice in Wonderland” via Zoom. The production will be livestreamed March 18, 19, and 20 at 7 p.m., and the public is encouraged to attend virtually. The experience of auditioning, planning and performing a high school play is somethin...