August

Time rushes forward in August.  For the first two weeks, the aroma of sweet pepper fills the air. I see tansy at the corner of Burnell and New Street and on the bike path near Sesachacha.  The rose mallow is in bloom, along with the butterfly milkweed at the Land Bank meadow near the Creeks.

Butterfly Milkweed,
Asclepius Tuberosa

Swamp Rose Mallow, 
Hibiscus Palustris

Grandchildren fill the house, our begotten biomass blooming, so different from one summer to the next. Frankie and Noa are learning to boogie board and body surf, and Simon is dolphining at the edge. Arthur is focused on Minecraft.

By mid August, the Bush clover is wagging; Sweet pepper is waning and the insects are buzzing. I anticipate the next major aroma of the waning summer: fox grapes- still green now.  Little Ladies Tresses are blooming at Squam Farm.

I took a rainy walk at Windswept Bog on August 13 and time marched on to the first slender golden top goldenrod and false foxgloves (Gerardia) . Although there are still the ghosty pillars of mullein and Yarrow and Queen Anne's Lace along the paths, the landscape is weighted by maroon grasses and brownish sedges.

Little Ladies Tresses

Spirantheses tuberosa

Norwood Oak

By  August 17 at Norwood Farm, the Sweet Pepper is on its last legs...and I see my first aster of the year. There are Meadows of spirantheses tuberosa mixed with slender golden top (euthamia Caroliniana) and pink bush clover and golden grasses. Little Ladies tresses in numbers I have never seen before!  Is this another result of the rainy July?  Rain was 1.17 inches in June and July of 2025, compared to3.02 inches in 2026. They are in meadows before the Norwood oak rather than just at the verges, and all along the paths, even on the Pout Ponds Road. 

The cotton grass is blooming at the corner pond, along with pickerel weed and many Virginia meadow beauties. Yellow-eyed bog grass Xyris Difformis is blooming there too.  Not much visible water in it or in the Norwood Pond or Almanac Pond. Nantucket is still considered to be in a Level 2 drought, although the Wannacomet Water Company argues it should be a Level 1.

Cotton grass at Corner Pond

We see the impact of more rain this summer in fewer deer coming to eat my garden.  The anemone are flourishing, when last year every bud was eaten by deer .

Solitary and Least Sandpipers
at Reyes Pond

American Oystercatcher 

Purple False Foxglove,
Agalinis purpurea

Squam Fungi

 Perhaps it is not surprising that with all the rain in July that I have found many fungi in Squam Farm and Squam Swamp in early August.  It is hard to identify them, but they are beautiful!

Laccaria Lacata, Deceiver

 Amanita, Desroying Angel

Spotted Bolete

Orange Spindle

White Coral Fungus, Clavulina Coralloides

Fieldcap

Red-headed Yellow Dust Amanita,
Amanita erythrocephala

Entoloma Murrayi 

Monarch Butterfly-land

 

One of my Nantucket delights is seeing Monarch butterflies almost every day. These monarchs have escaped the paper wasps and yellowjackets which favor monarch caterpillars, or the ants and tachinid flies.  Birds in the northeast steer clear because of toxic compounds in milkweed which they have absorbed. From July 12 to 21, they were all about.

• July 17: At Esther's island
• July 18: Eel Point
• July 19: home
• July 20: the Creeks and the Life Saving Museum
• July 21: home

Eastern Wild Indigo,
Baptisia Tinctoria

July continued with Yarrow and St. Johnswort along the verges. Sickle-leaved silk grass appeared in the moor roads along with the yellow bushes of Eastern Wild Indigo, baptisia tinctoria. By late in the month the hints of August were showing themselves. On July 24, there were early Sea lavender blooming and samphire at Masquetuck. There was the immanence of Sweet Pepper, clethra alnifolnia. But I haven't yet seen a Wood Lily this year.

Hudsonian Whimbrel

Pectoral Sandpiper

Sanderling and Ruddy Turnstone

Semipalmated Plover

Hudsonian whimbrels were active in the tall grasses across Polpis Harbor from Masquetuck. I saw a solitary and pectoral sandpiper at Sesachacha, as well as 5 immature black-crowned night herons at Cain's Pond. There seem to be many more laughing gulls this year cruising the Bluff. I have been constrained from kayaking to Quaise Pointand Pocomo Meadow because of my back injury. I did walk from Wauwinet to Coskata Pond along the Harbor, with a dozen or more semipalmated plovers, 9 piping plover, 3 spotted sandpiper and a passel of least terns. Kingbirds, barn swallows and song sparrows also love that area. The road to Coskata Woods is cut off to jeeps now.

On July 29, at Norwood Farm, I had another near-disaster while searching for Cranes-fly orchids near the Norwood Oak. I had entered a low area near the pearly everlasting and got turned around. Luckily I was able to get myself out and find the path again. My last white-fringed orchid hunt wound up with my calling for help when I got lost in high bush and had trouble getting out!

So many mushrooms with the July Rain, now up to 2.7 inches. When I post to iNaturalist, there are fewer reviewers than for butterflies or flowers.

The Grandchildren arrive on Sunday.

Buck Moon

Cain’s Pond Sunset

Early July

 

Swamp Azalea

We arrived on island by July 1. I was laid up with a herniated disc that I got moving heavy luggage during our bike trip in Switzerland. We are absorbing Josh's prostate cancer indication. Nina Fredland is here in Sconset burying her husband Curt's ashes. Curt and Carolyne are tending to their daughter's liver transplant this summer. The Weymar's lost a tremendous amount of bluff this winter and are putting their house on the market. I am reading the collected poems of Louise Gluck. This list doesn't include wars in Iran and Ukraine and the war on immigrants.

Yet the world is in summer, rich and green. How can I not delight in Lightning bugs and fireworks on the beach on July 4? Or the ever different sunrise, and the Northern harrier hunting on the bluff. And a Whale spouting offshore!

There have been extremes of heat and rainy wind. But that sets the wild grapes fluttering the wind. The arrowood viburnum seems done, but the scent of swamp azalea lifts all spirits. The population of osprey at Sesachacha seems at an all time high. I now regularly see 6 fishing at once. Sesachacha is my first outing when I can walk again. I am rewarded with a chuck-will's widow.

Colicroot

Closer to home, there is light blue sky at the horizon, sky blue above, teal green sea below. By July 8 I am able to walk to the erosion project and back. On July 10 I venture out to the Windswept Cranberry Bog...oh the swamp azalea scent! There is a veritable grove of mullein out by Stump Pond, and some blue vervain in the bog. The colicroot field is in bloom. The red-eyed vireo is a dependable greeter, as is the pine warbler at the mouth of Stump Pond.

On July 11, I hike the Milestone Bog. Unfortunately Nantucket Conservation Foundation has mowed the colicroot field there. No thistles, either. Three red-tailed hawks love the snags. A painted turtle is in the path. Yarrow and Milkweed are blooming and the Steeplebush (Spirea tomentosa) is starting to bloom. Common St. Johnswort is blooming.

Sabatia

Virginia Meadow Beauties

On July 12, I head out to Norwood Farm, where the yarrow is blooming and the St. Andrew's cross is getting ready. There is now some water in the ponds, and Virginia meadow beauty blooming at the edges. It is very quiet...not the usual chorus of bluejays and towhees. The turtles are sunning themselves at Norwood Pond, sundews are growing in the cracked mud, small copper butterflies are flitting. The Sabatia is blooming at Almanac Puddle, along with a field of virginia meadow beauties and golden hedge-hyssop. Maybe it will continue to grow back to Almanac Pond?

Sundew

Norwood Pond

An early walk on July 13 at Squam Farm is gladdened by the scent of swamp azalea and the sight of the Dew on the grasses. A Common Wood Nymph butterfly jogs ahead and an Eastern milk snake slithers away. There are common St. Johnswort, oxeye daisy, and the first chicory

Nantucket is still in a Stage 2, Significan drought. Lawn watering limits are in effect.

• March rain  1.81
• April rain .30
• May rain .44
• June  rain .23
• July    1.54 (as of 7/14)

How can a familiar place seem so new? At Squam Swamp on July 15, I took the deer path/hunters' trail to the left of marker 2 and walked a new part of the swamp. The Squam Swamp Brook is filled with water (maybe the result of the recent rains? Last August it was dry.). Running freshwater streams are rare on Nantucket. Red-eyed vireos, great crested flycather and chickadees congregate near the water. There are meadows of ferns: the New York Fern and some Dioptera wood fern and netted chain ferns near the wetter vernal pools. There are mushrooms after the rain, including: burnt-orange bolete, Orange Spindle, Russula paludosa (Hintapink). Only a few stray red tupelo leaves. The path rejoins the main path at marker 3. Magical to walk a new path in a well known landscape.

Squam Swamp Brook

Ox-eye daisies and a few remaining Quaker ladies along the main path, but no Indian Pipes (my target species). The meadows of cinnamon ferns are nearby. Beechnuts already set. A frog plopped into the water at marker 13, and a garter snake slithered away. At least 6 red-eyed vireos sang their persistent songs as I walked. I don't think they followed me. They were almost as numerous as the towhees.

William Blake "Auguries of Innocence "

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

Norwood Oak

Small Copper

Milk Snake

Memorial Day: Fuzzy Green

Red-eyed Vireo

Norwood Oak

 

How can one week make a landscape feel so different? 

The trees are leafing out, especially the Tupelos; the scrub oak is redder with catkins. Grape vines are blossoming like roses. The Russian olives are in flower. Possibility abounds.

Phyllis texted, remembering that my wedding was 50 years ago Memorial Day.  Somehow it doesn't feel as different as the landscape change in one week of spring.  How is that?

50 years. 5 decades.    Chunks of big time marked by two careers ( tech, education and tech) and three children , and now six grandchildren ( one of whom is ten) but all the time the same partner, Josh.

Many of the people at our wedding are still our friends and family, although our parents are gone. 

There are still new things to discover and learn about. I was surprised by a chuck-wills-widow, two ovenbirds and a brown thrasher this weekend.  And happy to see golden heather in bloom. 

Fox Grape

Golden Heather

Although AlmanacPond is dry and so is the second Pout Pond, the Norwood Ponds and Wigwam Ponds are alive.

Norwood Pond

Dry Second Pout Pond

C

Wigwam Pond

.? Pond

Corner Pond