Halibut Point State Park is a 56-acre park on the coast of Rockport on Cape Ann, Massachusetts. It’s a place which is heaven on earth to me in spring and summer (also in winter—it’s lovely in the snow, and there are Harlequins and other sea ducks—and autumn!). The only time I don’t recommend visiting it is late winter/early spring before anything is in bloom (unless you’re there to see ducks :).
Halibut Point was mostly woodland before 1700, then a farm, then a granite quarry, then briefly the site of a World War II artillery tower, then in 1981, a protected state park. It was originally called ‘Haul-about Point,’ “as this is the location on the North Shore where the prevailing winds shift and sailors would need to change the direction of the sails in relation to the wind.” A letter to the editor in the Gloucester Times says this was known in the area for generations… “and so, the mapmakers, wisely knowing the strange speech of locals of ‘Glosta,’ thought that what they really were saying was halibut, the fish.”
Cape Ann is a great place for seeing birds (this is a nice page—I have no affiliation with the inn whose page it is—about some of the birds there in winter). Some of the birds I see often at Halibut in warmer seasons are Blue Jays, Northern Mockingbirds, Gray Catbirds, White-throated Sparrows, Cedar Waxwings, Song Sparrows, Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Wrens (they like to sing right next to the ocean), Double-crested Cormorants, and Eastern Towhees. Also Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls which like to bathe in the middle of the quarry lake, a large lake in the middle of the park.
The flora is one of my favorite things about Halibut…including the forest (I have a deep love for the trees of Rockport and Gloucester, partly because of their unique weather-beaten shapes...although I still haven’t learned what many of them are), Greenbrier, wild blueberries and strawberries, and wild geraniums. There’s an area I call “Invasives Lane” because it’s full of honeysuckle, spindlebush, Japanese barberry, bittersweet, and multiflora roses (it looks like the honeysuckle is losing to the shade of the others). Every spring Wood Sorrel and Trout Lilies bloom along one of the ocean paths, for just a few days. On the largest scenic overlook, there are butter-and-eggs, daisies, coreopsis and other flowers blowing in the wind (it’s usually windy there) over a rocky ocean vista on one side, and a view which makes me think of the Scottish highlands on the other.
Some changes I’ve noticed since other years: I used to see a Green Heron by the quarry lake in the spring, and Belted Kingfishers...I haven’t seen either one yet there this year; happily, there have been no Gypsy Moths for three straight years (the year before that I remember it raining Gypsy Moths on the paths there...horrible); the oak trees seem to keep growing lusher; and there were nowhere near as many apple blossoms in bloom this spring as there were some other years (on Plum Island either...I don’t know why).
More photos that I took in the Park the past two months…
~May 2022~
~June 2022~
The park looks greener now. The apple blossoms have finished, and birds have eaten the ripe wild strawberries. There was a Mallard with ducklings on the quarry lake. Some of the ducklings were bouncing adorably up against the stone quarry wall (to get algae maybe?). Song Sparrows and Gray Catbirds have been singing all over the place. The vegetation along small paths to the rocks is more overgrown now...I’m avoiding those places because of poison ivy and the risk of ticks. Most sea ducks left in May or earlier.
Recent video I took there which shows the view of the water from the top of the overlook...I added a song by a-ha, feel free to mute it if you don’t like the music (there was wind in the background, originally)…the video repeats after 1:31...
It reached 90° F on Sunday here on the North Shore of Massachusetts, the highest temp we’ve had so far this season, after a lot of unusually cool weather...yesterday it rained and got cooler again. It’s sunny and in the low 70’s this morning. A Carolina Wren, Gray Catbird and Yellow Warblers have been singing outside my window. There’s been a Great Blue Heron and/or Great Egret on the pond in my backyard every day lately.
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