Rudy Mancke: next on Nature Scene we visit glacially formed Cape Cod looking at plants and animals living on those glacial deposits today.

Cape Cod National Seashore allows us to go from the Atlantic Ocean, across the high ground to Cape Cod Bay on the mainland side.

A production of: Nature Scene is made possible in part by a grant from Santee Cooper where protection and improvement of our environment are equal in importance to providing electric energy .

Additional funding is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you members of the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

(opening music) (opening music) Hello, and welcome to Nature Scene at one of the wildest stretch of beaches on the North Atlantic Coast.

I'm Jim Welch with naturalist Rudy Mancke and we're near the Nauset Light at Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts.

And what a story this will be, Rudy.

Oh, I think this is going to be a lot of fun because the geological story here is so exciting and, really, that's not very far back in time.

Glaciers were here and left their signs and I think we'll see that clearly as we walk today.

And then, this is basically as far east as you can get in the united states so we'll be looking at the Atlantic Ocean as it first bumps into the United States.

And, of course, erosion is going on here today but it's an interesting mix-- the geologic story is interesting.

The hand of man we'll see over and over again and some very interesting little bits and pieces of forest.

A lot of variety here.

This is a furious stretch of ocean right out here.

Well, look at it roaring out there-- the Atlantic coming in with a little wind behind it like that.

You can see those waves crashing against the... Basically sand.

This is...

Glacial drift would be the proper term for all this material easily moved by wind and water.

And, of course, lots of shipwrecks out there as you would imagine.

About 3,000, in fact, in recorded history.

The first one went down out there in 1623.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Again, erosion continues to occur today.

Slowly but surely, this... Cape Cod is being eaten away on the front side by that atlantic ocean.

I think we'll be able to see that clearly a little bit later once we get down on the beach.

I saw something fly... Look right over here.

Song sparrow, right up on the top there-- perched-- a male-- and listen to that call.

That's the male calling, Rudy?

Absolutely.

And the day is warming up a little bit and you can see... See the dark blotch on the breast there when he calls?

And that interesting... That interesting sound.

Song sparrow is a good common name for that because of that beautiful song that he sings.

Let's head on down to the beach.

One of the exciting things about walking along this stretch of beach is that Henry David Thoreau walked along it in the mid-1800s writing his book about Cape Cod.

Didn't know-- what happened?

Mesmerized by the world-- didn't understand it maybe as well as we do today-- and yet, it's beautiful even if you don't have all the background.

But when you see a beach like this and you see material outcropping like that it is kind of nice to connect it with glaciers.

I mean, the glaciers moved down from the north four times during pleistocene times-- or ice age times-- and the last one-- the Wisconsin phase-- about 21,000 years ago-- it was farther south than right here.

Glaciers stopped moving and began to retreat and, as they moved back-- as the glaciers were melting-- it was depositing debris on what was called an outwash plain.

Now, take a look right here.

If we were at the end of the glacier it would just be all jumbled up.

I see layering in here.

You see that?

I see layering, too.

And that's layering that tells you that this is an outwash plain from a glacier piling up material that was ground up and brought here from somewhere else by the ice.

The ice retreated and this was washed out and left behind.

All the pebbles that you see up there came from... Somewhere else, right?

Upstate, sure-- Massachusetts, New England.

Glaciers slowly rearranged the world really, again, about 18,000 or so years ago.

That's when this material was getting deposited.

Thoreau didn't...

He didn't understand it.

Agassiz did the studies, but what he did like was the beach shells and everything else in nature that's here.

Yeah.

He would have appreciated things like this for sure, and understood them.

Let me just get two or three in hand.

This is really rather some interesting material.

Seaweed has a grape-like look, Rudy.

Do they have a purpose-- those little bladders?

Those are little bladders that allow that thing to float up-- allow the fronds to float up-- so it will get a little bit more sunlight exposure.

You see the bladders are all over it there.

One of the algae-- usually called rockweed-- that attaches to something solid.

Why don't you move that and let's take a look at the next thing.

This is very, very obvious.

Again, the animals in the ocean wouldn't be there without those plants.

What is it?

It's a large shell.

"surf clam" is the common name for this thing.

And you see it is fairly large.

Let me turn it over.

It is one of the bivalves.

This is just one of the two valves.

Isn't that neat on the inside?

Barnacles on it.

Barnacles coming in after the animal had died and finding something solid to attach to-- formed a home there.

And you can see that big, flattened area right up here.

See that?

That has a name?

Yeah.

Well, it's almost a tooth-like thing that allows the attachment of the other valve to this one.

That's typical of the surf clam.

Throw that one in.

Let's just try one more here.

This is a shell.

A slipper shell.

One of the slippers, or boat shell is one name.

Real pretty on the inside.

It's one of the univalves.

That surf clam was a bivalve.

And this thing is finding food, also, on this rocky bottom.

Even though the beach is sandy there are a lot of those pebbles still out there.

These things sometimes are found stacked on top of each other.

Kind of an interesting shell.

And then a strange one.

Of course, not a shelled animal at all.

One of the crustaceans, one of the crabs.

Common name for this one-- the spider crab.

And this is just a carapace.

The rest of the body has probably been recycled into gull or other animals.

Let me turn it over.

You can see the mouth parts.

See the mouth parts there?

Oh, yeah.

Still in place.

Interesting animal.

And then these are just a few of the animals, now that are living in that rough ocean right offshore.

Rudy, it's early may long before the big crowds get here.

But, you know, the excitement of these waves and the ocean has always attracted writers.

Henry Beston wrote outermost house on a point not very far from here.

Well, it's a special place, and nature, at this place has attracted people for a long time-- still does-- and I can understand it.

Because, when you come here on this level and you see pebbles now that started somewhere else-- that's rock that has been moved-- transported by ice-- that's amazing.

Look at it all on the beach in front of us.

This is another historic trail-- the old wireless road that leads up to the marconi site where the first transatlantic wireless message was sent in 1903 to the king of england.

It takes us right through the most common plant community on the Cape and that's the, uh, sand plains community usually it's called.

And the indicator species, jim, is all around us-- pitch pine, yeah.

It dominates, doesn't it?

Three needles per bundle.

Sort of a scrubby tree and yet perfectly adjusted to, uh, sandy soils like this; able to get enough water to survive.

And then all of the evergreens that come in low to the, uh, ground... Bearberry, I see throughout.

Yeah, it's all over.

Yeah, it's a widespread plant.

Makes these adjustments pretty well to bare, open areas.

And it's flowering now-- those pinkish, little bell-shaped flowers.

It's a member of the heath family.

There are quite a few heaths that do very nicely in situations like this.

What's the taller scrub plant?

It looks like broom crowberry down there coming up above the, uh, bearberry at that point.

And then, really, some scrubby oaks all around us.

This side has quite a few.

Bare oak is the common name for it although, sometimes it is called scrub oak because it's so low.

Some buds are about ready to open up on that.

But never gets much larger than that.

And look at the flowers over here.

Oh, man.

Trailing arbutus, also known as mayflower in this part of the united states.

Very fragrant blossoms in the spring.

The state flower of massachusetts, trailing arbutus.

This is the white cedar trail and the boardwalk makes it so easy for visitors to get up close to a swamp-like setting.

Yeah, really, a bog.

You've heard of this as a white cedar bog and, really, we're not a lot lower than we were on the sand plains but this little depression makes all the difference in the world.

It's cooler.

It's more moist here.

And these plants dominate and these are basically atlantic white cedars-- almost all of the trees that we see right here.

Early settlers about wiped them all out because they're great for building those houses here, at the Cape.

Strange plant because it ranges very far south but it's not a solid range.

There are little what are called "disjunct populations"-- a little group here, space a little group here, space, you know, all the way up.

And, uh, and this moisture makes all the difference in the world and usually you associate them with sphagnum moss.

Look at the bottom there.

Sphagnum moss all over the place.

Yeah, some people would call that peat moss because that's the material you use to, uh, to grow other plants in.

It soaks up moisture.

And, Rudy, lots of shrubs around us.

What are some of the shrubs?

Well, right on the edge here... Yeah, you kind of get a view of the edge wherever the high ground comes down to the low area.

The one really close to the ground is another member of that heath family.

You remember we said that bearberry and trailing arbutus were heaths?

Right?

There's one that I would call wintergreen.

Sometimes it's called teaberry.

Or checkerberry.

I remember from... You see it does have red fruit on it which is edible.

If you crush it it smells a lot like wintergreen so I like wintergreen.

There are a lot of common names.

The scientific name is ga ultheria procumbens and when you say that you mean that particular plant and everybody understands what you're talking about.

Whatever name, it tastes good.

Yeah.

I see a holly over here, too-- oddball holly-- um, gall berry is one name for that thing.

Leaves are evergreen.

Inkberry's another name.

If it had fruit on it, it would be inky-black-- pretty good common name.

And then scattered through there, too I see, uh, one of the laurels-- genus name kalmia.

But sheep laurel or sheepkill sometimes it's called.

It is a poisonous plant.

Again, evergreen and typical of the edges sometimes it gets out in the bog but it's most common right on the edge.

Interesting place, but more to see.

Let's keep going.

It's a rolling field here.

Ford Hill, really, gives us a chance to look at what early settlers did and that's a lot of farming on this Cape.

Well, we said that man has had his hand in the things here and changed it a great deal in the past and now, basically, this is coming back slowly but surely but it gives us a great chance to get a view of another habitat type.

Look at the salt marsh down there.

Oh, one of the prettiest views of a salt marsh anywhere we're going to see.

Absolutely spectacular.

And, again, you've got a mix of freshwater and saltwater here.

Estuary, basically and a totally different plant community down there low.

Nutrient rich, also.

I mean, there are lots of animals that are living in the water and in that marsh down there.

And then way in the distance, the ocean.

Reminders now there was ice here, right?

Ocean levels dropped 400 feet the ice retreated dumping that material-- the outwash plain and now the oceans are on the rise.

On the rise-- almost 400 feet deeper and covered much of the land that was there.

Estuary here.

Ocean way out there in the distance.

There are 11 self-guided nature trails at the Cape Cod national seashore many of them very close to the quaint little villages throughout the Cape.

It's really nice... That accessibility is very nice and we mentioned that habitat variety here is great.

I think this is a good example.

Well, this is red maple swamp trail and easily named for all these red maples.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, everywhere you look the dominate tree is red maple and this time of the year you expect it to have flowers on and of course, the color has to be red.

Sometimes those are called swamp maple, too that makes really good sense here.

Uh, but you see the fresh flowers and, really, it'll have fruit on it before leaves come out on those trees some of them fairly large.

Shrubs underneath.

Sweet pepper bush is there with last year's fruit on it.

I see the brownish-gray fruit there, that's, uh... That's typical.

Look, Rudy, deep inside the pepper bush movement, there-- some bird.

Chickadee, black-capped chickadee.

Look at that dark cap that gives it the name.

Neat little bird, feeding on insects, I guess along the, uh...

The bark, there.

Springtime's a beautiful time of year to be here, Rudy, too with the fiddle-head ferns just popping out.

Yeah, the new fronds coming up looking like fiddle heads, pretty good name for them.

Also, look everywhere-- the green leaves on what's sometimes called canada mayflower.

"wild lily of the valley" is another name for it.

I see some early flowers coming on but they haven't opened yet.

They'd be white a little bit later on.

But, over there-- now, look on the hillside with a little bit of extra sunlight on it.

Delicate flowers.

Wood anemone-- and really, those white things on that flower are not petals, they're sepals.

And you see the compound leaves underneath but that's a widespread species.

When you add a little water like the swamp would have, it pops right up.

Something else, right by the boardwalk, jim.

Look at the skull right there.

About the size of my fist.

What is it?

Raccoon, no doubt about that and that's an animal, now that you would expect in a swamp like this.

It would also go over the hill in that salt marsh we were looking at earlier.

But you can identify it pretty easily by the shape.

There are some teeth missing but those teeth in the back let's you know it grinds plant and animal material.

See those big holes in front of those teeth-- those are where the canine teeth used to be.

Oh, that's a neat skull, and it'll be slowly recycled into skeletons of other animals.

I said this was red maple swamp trail and the red maples are blossoming all about us.

Early spring is when you have to be here to see those flowers.

Beach trail goes along great pond and look at here in front of us.

Right in front of us, maybe been in the water recently-- eastern snapping turtle.

Stopping for us.

I can get him pretty easily, I think, with the tail.

They will snap though.

Well, they will.

I'm going to support his shell, too 'cause he's kind of heavy.

Interesting animal, though, isn't it?

That's a ferocious looking head and claws on that fellow.

Oh, yeah, and can really bite.

You have to be real careful with an animal like this.

You see he doesn't really have teeth but that sharp end on the skull and on the mandible eyes bugging out there, but a big skull, long neck and typically sitting on the bottom and just waiting for something to float by, and he grabs it.

He takes other turtles.

He takes, uh, birds, mammals whatever he can get ahold of, fish and other things.

See the claws, too, on the four legs and of course, scaly-- one of the reptiles.

Projections coming out all over this turtle.

Well, eastern snapping turtles are pretty widespread.

Look at the shell on the back... Wow.

And you can see that ridge running down the center.

The older he gets, the less obvious that ridge is.

I even see a little bit of what looks like algae you know, sticking to the back of the shell.

He's been out, I guess, sunning a little, warming up.

They will hibernate during the winter, of course.

Yeah.

Yeah, usually on the bottom.

Look at the tail, too.

Look at those spines on the back of that tail, almost dinosaur-like.

It is.

Ridges on the back and that's typical of the eastern snapping turtle.

They will get much bigger, of course.

Oh, yeah, they get so big that they wouldn't fit in a washtub.

Neat animal, though, and again I think he's ready to crawl some more.

And he's heavy, I know, Rudy, the way you're trying to hold him up there.

Life comes in a great variety of packages, doesn't it?

With a built-in handle on this one.

It's a great turtle, but I'll bet he'll be happier down on the beach and the sand.

Oh, yeah.

He's kind of heavy, as you said.

Let's put him down on the ground and just see what he'll do, really.

Looks like he's getting out in the sun.

Look at that thing.

Wow.

Lifting up on his legs when he crawls away.

Very happy here, and this is a great place.

This is a, uh... Glacier caused, Rudy?

Yeah, this is a kettle pond.

That's probably the best way to describe it.

Remember this was an outwash plain?

We talked about that earlier and little hunks of ice were left in that outwash plain and, of course, filled the space and then when it melted, you had water standing in that space and so that's really what started these kettle ponds.

They're very common in the Cape Cod area and you see kind of a circular feeling.

They don't necessarily have to be circular but you see the curve around as you look at it.

And again, lots of those pitch pines it looks like dominating here with a little bit of hardwoods.

No green coming in quite yet this time of year.

Glacial story is interesting, isn't it?

And, again, standing water creates homes for lots of animals that really wouldn't do well in moving water.

That one wouldn't do as well in the salt marsh.

Has to be standing fresh water and the glaciers provided a good habitat for that.

Saw something else here, too, really, as we came in.

Look at the bush right over here.

Flowers on it.

What bush is that?

Leatherleaf is the common name for it and the leaf is evergreen and is kind of a leathery, stiff leaf and then all of those little bell-shaped flowers.

That's another member of the heath family.

We saw lots of those earlier.

and that one is typical of marshes, swamps and that sort of area.

So, it used to be a little more marshy here.

Now the beach sand is being blown in.

The old eastern snapping turtle going off into the distance.

Slow and steady wins the race.

We have moved up the hook or up the Cape a good bit to where the pilgrims first arrived in 1620-- about a hundred early settlers called the pilgrims-- very close to this area and they saw, at that time huge forests of trees.

We've got a few trees here but they've been cut over, of course.

Right, they're coming back.

They've been cut a number of times and it's interesting to see how nature comes back and this is an area, really that's coming back in a variety of ways.

Not only is the forest coming back but these really are sand dunes which are changing now at this upper end of the Cape.

And look what trees are dominating on these old sand dunes.

Very smooth gray bark.

American beech, and it's amazing.

You don't find these widely scattered here but here's a nice beech forest.

And you can see new green leaves coming out.

Those buds are opening up.

You also, when you look at the base you get a feeling for sand, see that was blown over them slowly but surely.

Now this part of the dunes have been stabilized but, again, they're on the move.

I mean, windnd water moves the sand as we have, uh, seen time and time again.

This is really not signs of glacial activity.

This has happened since the glaciers have moved away.

there's that wintergreen again now, low to the ground and that helps stabilize the dunes, too.

Coming right down the side of the hill there.

Lots of things to see.

Look at the flowers there on shadbush.

Isn't that neat?

Another springtime sign.

Oh, yeah.

White petals, very obvious on that.

And serviceberry's another name for it or sometimes it's shortened to "service" but the fruit is edible.

People have taken advantage of that fruit for a long time.

And then one of the birches.

Slender bark on that birch.

Not a white birch, though.

No, it's a grayish look and those upside-down dark vs on the side, there I think say gray birch very, very clearly, and that's typical of this part of the united states.

This water out here, Rudy was formed differently from the kettle ponds.

Yeah, that's not a kettle pond at all.

It's a low area between dunes usually referred to as a swale and then rainwater gets in.

A little bit of groundwater seeps in and you've got standing water.

Totally different habitat.

Again, this pond now may get wiped out by the, uh...

The moving dunes.

The kettle pond gets water from groundwater and rainwater, too, of course, to add to the size.

Different habitats here, great variety and fairly close.

Next we want to take a look... We looked at the atlantic side of Cape Cod.

We want to look at the bay side next.

Jim: over 44,000 acres protected here at Cape Cod National Seashore and we've had a chance to see several different habitats.

It's nice to have this much variety so close at hand.

We started on the atlantic side and now have worked our way to a position that we can see Cape Cod Bay and that is spectacular, isn't it?

It sure is, and these dunes, of course still remnants of that old glacier.

Yes, some of them are, really.

The ones down there are probably you know, glacial deposits and, you know, older, thousands of years old.

But then again, the wind comes and works it.

Takes the sand and makes new dunes.

So this is something that's ongoing and can see the waters now of the bay coming in and eating away.

Slowly but surely ocean levels seem to be on the rise.

And there are the pitch pines and the rest, stabilizing these, uh...

These dunes here.

Running along the dunes, holding it in place against the onslaught of storms and erosion.

There's another little swale-- that little low area, see?

That would probably be more moist and then the more recent dunes right on the edge of the... Of the bay.

And, of course, the pilgrims sailed from here where they landed first over to the mainland of massachusetts to plymouth, over in that area.

And this used to be, as the glaciers retreated a glacial lake, and then as ocean levels rose the ocean came around the backside and filled it making the, uh saltwater bay that we see here today.

This Cape has been changed so much, so many times, by man and nature but even with five million visitors annually there are lots of great places to get away and be alone.

Yeah, this is a very special place and really, if you come this time of year you know, early may, there are not quite as many people and you can slip away, and I guess the phrase would be, "commune with nature."

I think people enjoy that.

Every now and then, getting away from what man is doing see what nature is all about and people have been coming to this place to have that experience for hundreds and hundreds of years.

This is a beautiful, very special and protected place.

Come and see it for yourself.

And thanks for watching and join us again on the next Nature Scene.

(closing music) Nature Scene is made possible in part by a grant from Santee Cooper where protection and improvement of our environment are equal in importance to providing electric energy.

Additional funding is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you members of the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.