Final Days of the Residency on South Monomoy

By Elisabeth Nickles

South Monomoy

The lighthouse during a storm

My last week of the residency I spent a total of six days on Monomoy at the south end of the island staying in the house adjacent to the historical lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1849 and it was an important warning of the shoals and currents that surround southern Monomoy. It was last used in 1923. Besides the lighthouse and remaining house and shed, Monomoy is left to the elements, to the winds and winters that are constantly changing its shape and habitat. It has suffered little from the effects of man, except in a few creatures and plants that proliferated with the population of humans. 

The island was not always disconnected from the mainland, people fished and a small community existed in the mid 1800’s. The Monomoiyicks hunted and fished regularly during the summer months. The abundance of food is evident in the many fishing boats that harvest off of the coast of Monomoy.  Perhaps Monomoy's extreme conditions protect it and make it difficult to be used for permanent settlement. In the past, there was a lighthouse keeper and his family making sure the lighthouse remained lit.   

An edge of the lighthouse with surroundings

The privilege of being on Monomoy on July 4^th is that I felt a pride in my country in a way that was so connected to the land, and a deep appreciation for the people that set aside this area. I could spend the day thinking about evolution over time that created an ecosystem full of flying creatures, lichens, tidal pools and ponds. The day was mine to explore a new place, with no distraction. To have my job be “to look” and “to experience” was a gift on a day that represents our independence and national pride, making it the best Fourth of July I have ever experienced. 

Inside the lighthouse facing east

Inside the lighthouse facing west

 

Lighthouse facing East 

 

Exploring the Southern end of the island, one gets the sense that existence is existing  in that the animals and birds are left to simply be. The interference of human development is prohibited, frozen in time… and you are experiencing something beyond the abstract boundaries and divisions that contain the spaces of our modern world. 

The southern end of the island is quite different from the north in that there are freshwater ponds. The vegetation is diverse, there are pine trees, water lilies, cranberry bogs and cattails. Until hurricane sandy and the contamination of salt water to the ponds,  freshwater fish inhabited the fresh waters of the island. River otters have been seen in the ponds until recent years. I noticed a large variety of song birds around the ponds, bringing the constant bird songs and the arcing trails of fast moving swallows.

The boundaries that exist on the southern end of the island, are formed by water, grasses, marshes, mud, lichen and the shifting water lines absorbed in the sand. All is a sensual wonderland of color, light, and atmosphere. Each moment changed by the bright sun or dim mist. A change in the weather brings dramatic changes to the sky and horizon. The light and mist make each previously observed area appear muted, subdued in clarity, light and shade. One’s confrontation with the mist, rain and wind is a part of its cycle as is night and day. Water is refreshing after the heat of the sun, the birds keep flying seeming to delight in the light rain. The falling rain and mist dampen the plants and lichens, changing the sound underfoot from crunchy to soft.

 

A clear, sunny day, very crunchy

a cloudy, damp day, very spongy

edges begin to merge

One can see in the morphology of the landscape and the vegetation that grows in the different areas, where water gathers and collects creating a different ecosystem within the large areas of dunes. One could miss the diversity beneath eye level unless spending time looking down, and getting on your hands and knees to take a closer look. From a few inches above the ground one can see an entirely new world, adding to the feeling of boundless wonder.  

The Bog

 

The lichens cover a large area. I noticed three different kinds interspersed with areas of cranberry bogs, filled with mosses, carnivorous plants and cranberries.

 

Within the cranberry bog

sun dew carnivorous plant

Powder Hole

The area around Powder Hole on the Western side of the south end was one of the most magical places I explored.  Each step, I was observing a different painting. Every texture told of the tide and the rolling up and away of a force, both feeding and taking away. The water used to be contained by sand, but the ocean has broken through and creates a stream of water directly in and out of the mud flats. The area is an important spot for migrating birds to stop and eat, there are always many different species of birds feeding on the mud flats.   

Oystercatcher at Powder hole

Each time I hiked to Powder hole, it appeared different. Depending on the light, time of day, amount of rainfall and cloud cover. The cycle of the tide changes constantly as does the movement of the clouds, the same environment can appear new and create a completely different experience. 

Powder hole from the Eastern edge

The blotches at powder hole with violets, deep blues and light greens

              

             

            

The tides filled areas with water over a stained sandy ground, the textures created by growth and decay was an enchanted wonderland of blotches. Each pattern and design marked the passing of time in the abundance of life of the large and small. Death is common in its intertwining rhythm of coming and going, each part fulfilling a role for some organism along its existence.

                                             

                  

The ocean makes paper- seen above to the bottom right is a paper like phase of seaweed that is caught in the grasses at the edges of powder hole. 

                  

The unbelievable colors of Powder hole.

 

The orangish, yellowish, brownish water contrasted with the blues and light greens had me floating inside of a
color field painting

Bright green in the sun , deliciousness of texture and color

I watched this accumulation of broken down seaweed ( I believe it is a type of spongomorpha) and took video of its movementgracefully forming organic lacework patterns that shifted constantly. Its colors ochre,
sap green. The fish 

The Inlet

The ocean has broken through to create a stream of water that rises and falls, filled with seaweeds that float with the movement. My own sense of scale changed with the experience of walking under an open sky surrounded by water and grasses. The proportion of my body was dominated by the land and atmosphere. To stay still and to watch is my favorite part of being in wild places.  In simple listening, in being quiet and motionless, I can see so much more. I am not the subject, but the observer. In the age of speed and fast images, I protest with long looking. I rebel in taking time to respond to texture and sound. Southern Monomoy gave me an easy invitation to look long and release the ego and ambition to the wind and rain; to worship sun and color.

The simplicity of two color families and their variation. I felt i was
in a living, breathing, perfect painting. 

The area where the sea breaks through, bringing life and evidence of past life. There are bones at the edges that
have been washed in with the force of the tides. 

Nightfall

When the evening comes, the day is done. The rhythm of eating, bathing and entertainment, is simplified. The morning light woke me to see the sun rise. The night begged for me to look at the dome of the stars, to hear the crickets and toads.  

The beach on the east side of the island 

 

Nightfall from the lighthouse, the silhouette of the land and structures create the uniform shape
to frame a changing sky

It was difficult to leave Monomoy’s southern area.  Life has a different rhythm when it depends on the rising and falling of the sun, the day dictated by weather and your activity of the day entirely dependent on the light offered naturally.

 For most of human existence, we were hunter gatherers. We related to the world quite differently than the modern human. I believe our minds still long for this connection, our modern psychological ailments a symptom of the growing divide between man and nature. Even in language we have separated who we are and the rest of ‘nature’. It’s as if we have created an alien species, living in the industrial world, without considering what it means to our totality as an animal, to lose habitat and experience within that habitat.   The imposition of convenience on the earth has left fragmentation for which I seek wholeness. I find it best in the wild, creative places of my mind and in the wilderness areas still intact.

 

Harrier hawk seen above dunes late in the day

Carl Jung’s writings about our interconnectedness with the natural world tell of a world without boundaries:

 

“At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go……..”

When looking at the history of life on planet earth and the evolution of life on earth we are a part of a lineage that is constantly morphing. We are just a bud on a flower forming and never finished. All things pass and all things change, there is no crowning moment and no final curtain. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are all related and the divisions are verbal and philosophical constructions. 

 

Upon returning to a modern town, it was so striking to see the lines and divisions everywhere.  How important it is to have a place without exact lines, except that of the meandering or crashing of water. A place where a human is a small and humble creature in the large landscape. The importance of wild places is a part of retaining balance, not only in that environment but also within our own psyches.We need air and water, the composition of our blood so close to the waters of the sea. The mind can be a part of the vastness contained underwater where all of our lives and life on earth originated.

http://paleobiology.si.edu/geotime/main/htmlversion/archean3.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness_Act

http://lighthouse.cc/monomoy/history.html

Seal Encounters

Seal Encounters

Monomoy Wilderness Refuge

by Elisabeth Nickles

When looking at the earliest recognizable artwork I made as a child, there are seals. I have always loved seals, their tapered bodies and puppy like heads. I have a small sculpture of one I made at 8. In the late 1970's and earl 1980's, there was a growing campaign to educate the public on where the seal fur came from for their fur coats. The pictures of the bloody, baby seals being clubbed were too much and stuck in my mind. How could anyone club something so innocent?  My friend and I protested in front of Bloomingdales  with her mother and others, who worked for fund for animals in NYC. 

So after years of distantly loving seals, seeing them from afar, and thinking of them as exotic, it was thrilling to see them so close and have the privilege of spending a long time watching them. When I first saw them closer than ever it was not close enough. One is not allowed to approach closely, any sea mammal and besides, they will just be afraid and that was not my goal.  I knew I needed a zoom lens.... I would need time to be quiet, be still and take the time first to watch them while laying down in a non-threatening way. 

It is one thing to see or photograph an animal in fear and to startle a creature, or to say, view a stuffed head of an animal, as opposed to one that is actually living and breathing. Beyond that,  it is completely different to watch them as they really are and to see them play, interact and do what seals do. The young seals are not as frightened as the adults, although I understand the fear of humans. Until 1964 there was a bounty on seals in America. Still some people illegally shoot them as they perceive them to be competing for the same fish. 

 I knew in order to observe and photograph them, I would have to be strategic.  I kept a distance over the upper beach, body poised like a sharpshooter. I started to stretch like this little one, thinking if I did not act or appear human maybe we could hang out and get to know each other. So I watched and I think she knew I was watching and she grew comfortable with me, stretching and smiling with her. Definitely one of the best moments of my life, I kept smiling for a long time and into the night.

                   
                           

the moment I fell in love

                         
I wish I could have captured with a bigger lens, the way the seals looked and behaved when I was even further away. The group of seals sunbathing and stretching was such a bizarre site, their bodies sculptural, yet awkward on land. I watched the young ones twirling and playing in the surf, it was not that different than seeing a bunch of people on the beach, the little kids playing while the adults relax and retreat. There is definitely an odor to a pod of seals and you know when you are downwind that  you will be seeing them soon.

                               

Monomoy Atlantic Coast facing North

           

Male grey seal

           

Here is a male grey seal, he seemed to dominate the scene. The males were grouped together on the beach. They are much larger than the females and they have a very distinct nose and eye socket. Their heads are much larger and angular. While kayaking, I noticed that the males would come closer to check out the boat than the females. 

The pose I find so amusing and wonderful- the 'S' curve, the stretching of the back fins, their anatomy an earlier variation of ours. I saw many seals take this stretch, it must feel really good.

The seal that swam the coast while megan and I walked North

There were a few females who swam alongside of us while walking, very curious
they would come closer in the surf but as soon as you would look they would dive under the water and head out a bit further. It was really amusing and rather sweet, kind of like playing hide and seek. 

seals watching humans 

a favorite food of seals: Skate

There is no life without death

The first time I saw a seal close it was dead, hard to see but I am fascinated with anatomy, more so, the bones as I am not desensitized to carcasses. We have always learned about life, by studying death. Artists and scientists both learn from dissections, artistic anatomy dealing with morphology and what influences the surface structure more than the interior workings of organs.  So this brings up how we view death and bones. Bones are our structure as vertebrates, our mechanism, the architecture and I love to look at them and understand the engineering related to how an animal lives and survives in an environment.

I think bones symbolize life more than death, but they will remind one of their own mortality. Humans are conscious of their ultimate death and it is another thing to grapple with while living. Life and death are forever linked - not good or bad, just existing. We long as a species to believe there is a place we all go and everything is good, or all has a purpose in the coming and going of lives, love and attachments. I am perplexed when I try to believe because then I must consider the worms, do they have a heaven also? If reincarnation is true- then what about bugs?  I see reincarnation occurring each day- in the energy that is exchanged between life and death. It is all "good" because life and death create constantly. 

One thing gives, so another thing lives. It sounds harsh unless we think of life as one giant organism. And Monomoy challenged me to do this, as there is death everywhere- in the tern colony, in the bones washed up or rotting bodies of seals. Each time we eat, something along the way has lost its life. It is the way of being on planet earth for an organism. It is all give and take and life always goes on. It is neverending. There is life after death, change inevitable. Of course there is a balance that can be easily thrown off, as with any exchange. The seals live again and feed the Great white sharks that have returned to the area. Without this predator, the population my grow as to not be able to sustain itself. If one side is always taking, or doing all of the killing,  this exchange of life to death for sustenance goes beyond necessity and I think this is where humans have gotten into trouble. 

the first day on monomoy, you can see the thick layer of fat
that keeps the seal insulated in the cold water. 

This seal was badly injured, a chunk of her was missing from her side.
perhaps from a boat or from a shark. I found it hard to see something
suffering and my instinct is always to help. I had to let it go and hope that she
died quickly.  

seal spine at powder hole
not so different from you and I

Seal Skull 

(2221). The aquatic tribes of the Carnivora (Amphibia, Cuv.) are obviously constructed for swimming. Their bodies, covered over with short, close, and polished hair, taper off towards each extremity, resembling in form those of the Cetaceans. The cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions of the spine are light and flexible; and the pelvis is contracted, and placed as far back as possible. Both the anterior and posterior extremities, although completely formed, are short, and in the living animal are only free externally as far as the carpal and tarsal joints. The feet, moreover, are broadly webbed, and thus become converted into most efficient paddles, by the aid of which these creatures swim with astonishing ease and elegance, the hinder pair performing at once the functions of oars and rudder. Upon land, however, their movements are, as might be supposed, extremely clumsy: it is true that they not unfrequently scramble on to the beach, there to bask in the sun, or to suckle their little ones; but if danger threatens, they immediately take to the water, and fall easy victims if their retreat towards the sea be intercepted.

This section is from the book "General Outline Of The Organization Of The Animal Kingdom, And Manual Of Comparative Anatomy", by Thomas Rymer Jones.

Read more:http://chestofbooks.com/animals/zoology/Anatomy/Mammalia-Part-8.html#.UgURPeBK4fN#ixzz2bUKOJ6AA