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Spy on egrets and herons feeding on the vast salt marsh or observe migrating waterfowl. A viewing platform offers repose and great photo opportunities.
Five hundred years ago, viewers from this vantage point would have seen Pawtucket women and girls gathering salt marsh grasses for baskets and mats and Pawtucket men and boys hunting large shorebirds and white-tailed deer that came to graze on the salt marsh hay.
The hollow legs of large shore birds were made into tubes for carrying ground substances, such as tobacco, medicine, and pigments—hematite for red, graphite for black, kaolinite for white. Shamans would be collecting cedar bark and boughs for their practice, as cedar is one of the four sacred plants in Algonquian culture.
Five thousand years ago, Maritime Archaic people would have been discovering the riches of the saltmarsh as it was forming, and ten thousand years ago, before there was a saltmarsh, viewers at the viewing platform might have seen Paleoindians hunting mastodons or migrating herds of caribou as the last Ice Age was ending.
Now, a short walk leads to expansive views of the salt marsh. Bring binoculars or telescope to see the Osprey nest (active April - August) from the viewing platform.
The path is thickly lined with small junipers, bayberry bushes, cedar and honeysuckle, enough to offer shade going to and from the viewing platform.
You may see Osprey adults and chicks on their nest in spring and summer, as well as egrets, herons, and other shorebirds feeding during spring through fall.
Littleneck Road, Ipswich. (Opens in Google Maps)
Latitude 42.701700, Longitude -70.804188
From Route 133 and Route 1A intersection, Rowley:
Go south on Route 1A. In 2.5 miles, bear left onto High Street. In 0.6 miles, bear left onto East Street. In 0.4 miles, bear left onto Jeffrey’s Neck Road. In 1.7 miles, bear right onto Little Neck Road. Viewing platform and parking are immediately ahead on the right. Roadside pull-off parking by the property sign for 2 vehicles.
