When the Ice Goes Out

There is a stretch in early March when something shifts on Cape Ann, and you can feel it before you can name it.

The ice in the salt marshes, which has been solid since the third week of December, starts to show cracks and meltwater pools. The first terns come back. The first osprey flies over the Annisquam looking for last year's nest platform. The sun reaches an angle that warms the south-facing granite for the first time since October.

The calendar does not change. The coast does.

What To Look For This Week

Osprey return. Cape Ann's osprey population comes back from South America between the last week of February and the first week of March. The nest platforms along the Annisquam River and off Route 128 start filling up. By mid-March you will hear the high whistle if you are anywhere near the water.

Piping plovers. The first birds return to Good Harbor in late March. The beach fencing that protects their nesting areas goes up the first week of March. If you are walking the beach, you will see the markers start to appear.

Gray seals. The gray seals at Salisbury and along the outer bars off Rockport are pupping right now. You can see them hauled out on calm days from shore. A scope helps. Do not approach them, and keep dogs leashed.

Smelt. Smelt are running in the Essex River and up the Ipswich. Smelt fishing is an old Cape Ann winter activity, done with a ladder and a small hand net, and you can still see a few people doing it off the bridges.

First color. Crocuses and snowdrops start showing on Ravenswood Park's south-facing slopes the second week of March. The woods are still bare, but the ground cover is waking up.

A Drive Worth Making

If you have a car and two hours, do this loop.

Start at the foot of the Annisquam Bridge. Take Washington Street north along the river. Stop at the Mount Ann overlook. Continue through Lanesville to Rockport. Take Route 127 back into Gloucester via Pigeon Cove. Finish at the Fort Point breakwater.

You are looking for working boats coming back from the first real fishing trips of the year. Lobster traps stacked on the pier, not on the boats yet. The first of the day-boat fleet coming in with haddock or cod. The Annisquam still showing ice along its edges at low tide.

The Quiet Signal

Cape Ann never announces spring. There is no official start. No parade. No ribbon cutting. Just a week when the light stays longer and the ice in the marshes finally breaks up and the birds are back, and you realize the weather you have been waiting for has already started.

This is that week. Or close to it. Worth paying attention.