Spring to it!

Osprey

The Cherry blossoms are everywhere on Nantucket on May 8 and the shad is blooming on the moors and roadsides.  The scrub oaks have catkins and the trees leading out look like baby fuzz on the gray trunks.  There are late daffodils, but it is not as stark a contrast as a month ago.

The Quaker Ladies, Red Storkbills and wood anemones are out at Squam Farm.  I hear my FOY great crested flycatcher, see my FOY Eastern Kingbird and see a male Eastern bluebird. The Red-eyed Vireo isn't back to greet me yet.

Off the bluff, gannets are heading south in the fog to feed.  At dawn on May 9 I hear the plaintive song of a common loon.  The deer take over at night; I follow their tracks on the bluff walk while the ocean murmurs alongside.

I head to Eel Point to search  for the red knot,  but don't see him. I do see  7 piping plovers, 8 oystercatchers, many willets, sanderlings and black-bellied plovers in breeding plumage. A trio of terns: least, common and roseate.

Common tern

Least tern

Roseate tern

I dream about being a time traveler going back and forth from prime warbler time in Cambridge.  Here, the common yellowthroats and northern yellow warblers are singing everywhere on May 17.  We hear and spot several prairie warblers and a pine warbler in Madaket.  I spy my ACK FOY black-and-white foraging in Squam Swamp. I catch a glimpse of a female Northern Parula at Windswept Bog.  There ..it's a rush of American redstarts, black-throated blues and greens and Nashvilles, Magnolias, chestnut-sided, bay-breasted, and singing northern Parulas.

On May 15, I hike to the Pout Ponds.  The Birds Foot violets ( viola pedata) are in bloom, and swathes of blooming bells of low bush blueberries (vaccinia angustifolia).  I am delighted to see them; I missed the mayflowers ( Trailing arbutus) this year. The towhees chorus keeps me company, with a few commmon yellowthroats and pine warblers along my 3 mile loop.  The pond is drying up; Nantucket is back in a critical drought.  Juvenal's duskywings have hatched, along with dozens of spring azures.

Bird’s Foot Violet

Juvenal’s Duskywing

Spring Azure

The killdeer are evident at both Sesachacha Pond and Windswept Bog, and I encounter One in each place doing the broken wing display.  Young or nests must be close. A pair of Eurasian wigeonand a northern pintail are visiting Sesachacha.  It seems every Osprey is carrying a fish.  

By May 18, the Daffodils and Shad are mostly over; the cherries are finishing  with puddles of pink. The Beach Plums starting to bloom, as well as the yellow heather in one sheltered sunny spot on the road to Pout .  I hear a redeyed vireo deep in Squam Swamp and see a pair of Great crested Flycatchers carrying nest material.

Spring has released the world from the constraints of winter as the colors brighten, the grasses green up, warblers rush north to breed, the local  animals pair up and now procreation and fecundity are on display. 

Signs of Spring

Maple Flowers

Willow

 April 17, 2026

Nantucket is now lit up with daffodils. They are the human measure of hope for the spring.  It is the fiftieth anniversary of the Nantucket Daffodil Festival next week...so the brilliance was planted during my time here.   Sometimes I prefer the less bold signs of spring: the red maple blossoms and earliest wood anemone spring ephemerals in Squam Swamp; the bright pussy willow blooms near Sesachacha Pond.

The return of water is another sign of spring...and there is lots of water and killdeer at Windswept Bog.  The spring peepers are in chorus.   I was delighted by the sight of a Wilson's Snipe flying toward Stump Pond. No green-winged teal or sandpipers.  Alder Run, which was completely dry these past two summers, is now a small watercourse. On April 10, Nantucket was moved down to a Level 1 Drought from Level 2.   

Killdeer

There are still some gannets and long tailed ducks on the ocean out front. The scoters are thinning out. It's the season shuffling time of year when I start wondering...is this the last of season bufflehead I will see, or dark-eyed junco or white throated sparrow? Meanwhile, we have welcomed the ospreys and egrets are back and the Eastern Towhees are preeting. I saw my FOY catbird.

April 18 was a mizzle day in the 40s with fog and wind.  I biked the Polpis Loop anyway, while a northern harrier hunted overhead and my FOY pine warbler sang along the way.

Sesachacha was connected to the Atlantic Ocean and drained on April 4 . That restores Cain's Pond as a separate entity and opens up the shores to shorebirds. Greater Yellowlegs and Killdeer were making use of it. On April 19 I found the trail from Sesachacha to Quidnet that I used to run on when the kids were young and we took them to Quidnet to the beach.  Can't wait to visit it again on my bike when more birds are around.  

Sankaty Light 

FOY Greater Yellowlegs

Foggy Sesachacha

Spring is Coming

Early spring seeds a pull of possibility.  The Greenbrier and Moss are the only green amidst gray trees and straw grasses,  but buds are forming.  The energy is ready to burst.    

A daffodil or two have sprung  open, but only in the warmest most protected spots. More energy ready to burst.   Josh and I hiked Norwood Farm on Sunday. I spotted one patch of green-leaved trailing arbutus (Mayflower) leaves- the harbinger of blooms to come.   There is very little bird song- the soundscape was the soughing of the wind and cracks of branches creaking.

The Moor Ponds have refilled compared to the fall.  But the drought level for Nantucket was reduced to level 2 "significant drought" from  level 3 "critical drought" just earlier this month. There has been 1.2 inches of precipitation in both February and March.

The sunrises and sunsets are now close to  their equinox, when the sun rises directly in front of our house. The lesser black-backed gulls tiptoe around at the bottom of the bluff at sunrise.

We hiked Squam Swamp on Monday and it looked beat up. Beat up meaning arms of trees and whole trees down and twigs scattered and not a hint of green on the forest floor. Many more vernal pools than last year, but not a hint of spring ephemeral flowers yet.  More energy to come. No birdsong ...again the wind is the soundscape.

Windswept Bog is flooded, the first time since its restoration. The soundscape  is wind,  Killdeers kill-dee-ing  and spring peepers peeping.

Killdeer

Gannets are migrating north and pass by at 20 every half minute at mid day, which was high tide.  They have been streaming all Monday afternoon,  pushed by the strong (25 mph with gusts to 40) southwest winds. They were streaming again at Clark's Cove on Tuesday morning, again with a southwest wind.    

The first returning Osprey were sighted a week ago. On Monday and Tuesday I saw Osprey on 7 poles around the island ( 1 Sesachacha, 5 Long Pond, 1 Jackson Point.). Their return is a sure sign of spring.

We were welcomed to Hyannis on Sunday by a fish crow's crank.  On the slow boat over to Nantucket, there seemed to be fewer ducks on Nantucket Sound than midwinter.  I think of hundreds of and hundreds of scoters as commonplace, but not on our ferry.  When we head back to the mainland we will take the FastFerry, which starts up again on April 1, another spring awakening.

The winter felt bitter this year, with much snow and many days of freezing temperatures. It was, compared to the prior three years, but not the winter of 2021-22. Looking at the past 5 years of winter temperature, the average daily high was 41 degrees (compared to 40, 42, 43 and 39 in the previous years) and the average daily low was 30 degrees (compared to 29,31,32 and 28). Total freezing days were 64, more than the prior three years ( 58,52,41) but less than 68 days in 2021-2022.

Long-tailed Ducks

Norwood Pond

Corner Pond

Almanac  Pond

Snow

 

Norwood Farm Summersweet

We awoke Sunday December 14 to a blanket of snow.  Everything so bright.   Josh even woke up in the middle of the night thinking he'd left a light on!  For twenty four hours,  before the wind came back up,  the wet flakes clung to the trees and bushes , softening the severe winter landscape.

Our Sunday morning birder group of four:  Ginger Andrews,  Tom Griswold,  Lynn Zimmerman and me were rewarded by Redheads on Miacomet Pond,  tree sparrows and dark eyed juncos.  And of course many buffleheads, wigeons, gadwall, ring-necked ducks, ruddy ducks, coot and mallards.

Middle Moors Kettle Hole Pond

Norwood Oak

On Saturday, December 13, Great Point is sere,  with clouds tumbling over the sea.  We go to enjoy the awe-full scenery...only two other cars viewed during our trip.    

One of those two other cars at Great Point was Harvey, Tom, Trish  and Lynn Zimmerman...who saw a Snowy Owl  at the Galls on the harbor side.  A beautiful male pintail reigns at the Great Point Lagoon.  

Harlequin Ducks

Slanted

 

The sea has come alive. Gannets and harlequin ducks, red-throated loons and common loons, long-tailed ducks, Bonaparte's gulls.  Because sunrise is at 6:30, it's even easier to get up, see the sunrise and the ocean birds coming to life.

The  angle of the sun does not get above 30 degrees at noon, making for very slanted light. Even the clouds look different with the sun so low. Biking along the Mikestone Road, the sun never gets above the trees.

The moors are grey, with only the winterberries offering red.  Look at my favorite Norwood oak this month, compared to last. The lively white of the groundsel is gone, but even the sticks of the huckleberries  show a bit of red.

Recent rains have not done much to refresh the ponds. Nantucket is back to Drought Level 2, Significant Drought, municipal water restrictions are in effect.

Bonaparte’s Gull

Long-tailed Duck

 

 Northern Gannet

Common Loon

Red-throated Loon

Harlequin Ducks

Laughing Gull

Calico Quilty Fall

 

Flax-leaved Aster,
Lonactis linarifolia

Bracken and Black Huckleberry

Finally, rain. After the Commonwealth declared Nantucket in a Level 3 drought in early October, a major nor'easter hit on October 12-13. We clocked 13 hours with average wind speeds over 40 mph and gusts in the 50s. 2 inches of rain fell, bringing the month's total to 2.37 inches.

I ventured out to Beechwood and Norwood Farms to hike and found some pools of water in the former ponds, which had been dry a month ago. So even as deciduous plants are dying, the ponds are reviving. Orange gilled waxcap mushrooms were emerging from the mud, and I flushed a Wilson's snipe.

The hike served up a calico quilty fall. Red huckleberry, stripped gray Tupelo, yellow summer sweet, muddy scrub oak, golden cinnamon fern, brown grasses, yellow maples, green oaks, yellowing switchgrass, green mittens of sassafras, scarlet sumac and sweet everlasting, blowsy  groundsel all stitched together in a crazy quilt.

The moraine with its ups and downs is like a quilt itself: vistas and kettle holes.  Like life. It was a reviving walk after spending the past weeks worrying about and helping Joe and Amy as they cope with her mother's illness, two stressful jobs and children 3 and 6 years old.

Cinnamon Fern

Orange gilled waxcap

Norwood Pond

Almanac Pond

Norwood Oak