
William von Herff
Staff Reporter at The Provincetown Independent
Journalist at Freelance
Birder-turned-science journalist in MIT's Graduate Program in Science Writing | #birdnamesforbirds
Articles
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1 month ago |
provincetownindependent.org | William von Herff
This is the story of seeing the rarest bird I’ve ever seen on Cape Cod. It was a few days before Christmas when I got an email from Provincetown resident Zygmunt Plater. He included a photograph of a female hummingbird at his feeder. This is an uncommon sight on Cape Cod in the winter. Ruby-throated hummingbirds, our only regular species, are long gone by December, and any hummingbird that appears after mid-fall is bound to be a rarer species from out West.
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1 month ago |
provincetownindependent.org | William von Herff
PROVINCETOWN — Late April marks the peak of the North Atlantic right whale season in Cape Cod Bay. Since January, more than 180 of these endangered animals have made an appearance here, according to Daniel Palacios, director of the Right Whale Ecology Program at the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) — nearly half of the 2023 total estimated population of 372. A handful have even been regularly visible from the beaches at Race Point and Herring Cove, grazing on plankton at the water’s surface.
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1 month ago |
provincetownindependent.org | William von Herff
WELLFLEET — Monday was a perfect spring evening: warm sunshine lingered, and there was a nice breeze blowing off the bay. While the rest of the Cape was enjoying it, 328 Wellfleet voters filed into the elementary school gym for town meeting. Moderator Dan Silverman began by announcing new hires, plugging the elementary school’s spaghetti supper fundraiser, and calling for respectful debate.
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1 month ago |
provincetownindependent.org | William von Herff
WELLFLEET — If there’s one thing Cape Codders can be proud of, it’s being good recyclers. That’s according to Kari Parcell, whose job is to be picky. Parcell is the waste reduction coordinator for Barnstable County Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. The contamination rate in recycling streams across the country is around 25 percent, according to the National Waste & Recycling Association.
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1 month ago |
provincetownindependent.org | William von Herff
BREWSTER — Researching the history of the Nauset people for his 2024 history-memoir, After Aspinet, made Noogaahz Wixon feel like he was walking through a ghost town. Learning about colonial history is easy, he says — there are entire books written about the colonization of the Outer Cape. Learning about the Nauset, which he began doing in earnest for the purposes of his book in 2017, is not.
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RT @brenenwynd: This is not a dire wolf. They cannot do de-extinction. They can just tweak living animals to have primitive features. This…

RT @IwriteOK: good for leonard, nice to hear one positive thing today

RT @FrogsAndFilms: breaks me every time https://t.co/fk1hAHS75y