MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

With all the stormy weather we’ve had lately, the opening at Norton Point beach is changing dramatically. Bobby Gilkes noticed clumps of beach grass floating by as he ran the ferry last Wednesday and figured something was happening out there.

When I looked at it on Friday, the last third of the point on the Chappaquiddick side was washed away except for a tiny island left from where the point curled in to make a hook. There was another stretch about halfway back where the waves were washing through. Skip Bettencourt said when he’d gone out at high tide, the Chappy side of the beach was broken into three islands by the water breaking through — before the last third washed away.

The ocean washing through into Katama seems to be bringing in some unusual sea life. Brad Fligor reported seeing a red jellyfish about six inches across in the ferry slip on the Edgartown side, the kind that’s usually not here until July or August. He thought it would be dead with the water temperature being so low, but he saw it swimming around for a couple of ferry trips before it moved out of the slip.

People have been seeing some mammals swimming around the harbor and channel that are most likely either porpoises, dolphins, or pilot whales. Brad saw a pair of the black mammals swimming together, as close as 50 feet from the ferry, off and on all Saturday morning while he ran the boat. People seem to have different ideas about what the species is, but David Belcher said they sounded like pilot whales. Walter Streeter thought they were porpoises because of the blunt nose.

Skip has seen a group of what he thought were five dolphins swimming around Katama, as well as 19 seals resting on the sand at the end of Norton Point, including one harp seal that was very tame.

You can read more about pilot whales and Atlantic white-sided dolphins in Suzan Bellincampi’s column this week, which she wrote in response to calls about the uncommon visitors.

If you saw Peter Wells driving around in his big, shiny, new-to-him Chappy ferry truck with a copilot that didn’t look like Sally, it was probably his grandson Isaiah who was visiting from Comptche, Calif. He was here with his mother Nearess Wells and his baby brother, Bailey (who could definitely qualify for the baby hall of fame).

I’ve been feeling like summer is right around the corner and I think it’s because this winter’s temperatures have been more like early spring’s. Also, spring-like things are happening: the mourning dove flock that visits my bird feeder has more than doubled recently, and while I hadn’t heard their mournful call all winter, I did hear it again about a week ago. As I walked the shore of Cape Pogue, I saw a pair of white swans in a marsh pond and then probably the same pair a day later on Brine’s Pond.

Work has begun on Bill Brine’s cemetery wall, across from the community center and pond. Bill has a landscape design for the cemetery which includes a sitting area and spots marked for ashes to be buried around the base of the trees. He hopes to clear the underbrush on the other side of the road to get a view through to the pond, presumably for those visiting. The tennis courts planned for the area next to the cemetery are awaiting legalities to do with land title and are unlikely to be ready in time for summer — though the field covering the rest of the property looks as if it’ll be ready for sheep this summer.