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 in a few weeks.   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.

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

I'm feeling behind on my Nantucket County list.   Although I have seen over 500 species this year ( because of our trip to Peru and my visit to Phyllis in Tucson), this is my first trip to  Nantucket in 2026. 

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

Equinox

 

Pearl Crescent

Leonard’s Skipper

As the equinox approached,  I headed out for a hike through Windswept Bog and around Stump Pond on September 9.   The drought predominates:  there is dry mud  in Windswept Bog where  there was ample water earlier in the year.  The source of Stump Pond's place name now is now evident with the water level so low, as the stumps are sticking up through the water all around the route. I follow a kingfisher and his rattle as I walk.  The burgundy tupelos  accent  the green Clethra Alnifolia, ferns, moss and St Andrews Cross. Pops of red huckleberries and yellowing grapes adorn the path. 

Stump Pond

Agalinis purpurea

I remember getting lost here while trying to walk around Stump Pond..now it is  less wild with more well-marked paths.  But there is always something different- a surprise.  Today it is a grove of false foxgloves in the new streambed at Windswept.  And the boneset fuzz flying over Windswept.  I am reading The Land Breakers by John Ehle,  and he describes the Appalachian settlers as using boneset for a tea to cure colds.

Pout Pond

Milestone Bog

On September 12 downy goldenrod and bushy aster are blooming all over the Milestone Bog.

A kestrel poses at the old sand transfer pool;  I flush Bobolinks.  It is a time of migration: those who leave, like the red winged blackbirds and eastern kingbirds ,  once so numerous here,  and those who stay,  like the bluejays and crows.     Two weeks later,  the landscape is brown..the boneset now dark and the sedges deep brown. Some reblooming sickle-leaved asters line the paths.  There are separate fields of sweet everlasting and goldenrod and groundsel.  Shorebirds are taking advantage of the fresh water at Gibbs Pond:  a solitary sandpiper,  greater yellowlegs and 2 late ospreys bathing.

Grass-leaved Goldenrod

Symphyotrichum Undulatum

Liatris, Blazing Star

Knowing that the first pond is dry, I  take the Pout Ponds Hike from Altar Rock on September 15.  It's now Aster time :  some Bushy asters on the way out;  a wavy-leaved aster and a first liatris on the way back.  Euthamia, the flat-topped downy goldenrod predominates.  Meadowhawks buzz near the dry pond.  Tapawshaw bog is completely dry.. I need to follow the streamed in the spring. We didn't pick blueberries, beach plums or grapes this year.  Thankfully still have a trove of jelly from last year's harvest.

At Masquetuck on September 26, I spy Salt Marsh perennial asters and flaming red salicornia.  Oystercatchers, egrets and yellowlegs are perched across the harbor.

Salecornia

Masquetuck

We finally got a slight rain.  At Squam Farm and Swamp on September 28,  Am I hearing Peepers? There has only been .54 inches of rain this month.   Downed tupelo leaves cover the paths while green Clethra still stands along the sides.  The yellowed grape leaves climb over them, along with Virginia creeper and red sumac.  Wavy leafed asters (symphotrichum undulata) are everywhere;  the mockernut hickories are full of nuts.  The Solidagos  are done, euthamia is blooming.   It's more like a winter walk for birds with woodpeckers:  downy, red-bellied and flickers.

  I love the order of the seasons.  Within the chaos and tumultuous world, there is an inner rhythm of the seasons.  The sunrise and sunset are now directly east and west of our house.  Sunrise will now move south from autumnal equinox til the winter solstice and north to vernal equinox and summer solstice. The flowers and birds march with the sun.

Pectoral Sandpiper

Bobolink