Great Point

Josh and I drove out to Great Point this morning at 7. A feeding frenzy of gulls, razorbills and murres, long tail ducks and a shearwater was absorbing. I know there are dovekies out there too, but too far out for me to see those little ones.

Great Point Lagoon

Razorbills and gulls

More razorbills

Hundreds of gadwall flocking from the lagoon

Sunrise at 77

Feeding Frenzy

Dead baby seal

Bluebird
Great Meadows NWR- Concord

   It is November 30 and the season of hope, watchfulness and expectation has begun.  We celebrated this pandemic Thanksgiving as usual in Cambridge,  but with just son Charlie and daughter-in-law Kelsey rather that the extended clan.  The highlight was seeing close to a dozen bluebirds at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge  in Concord, MA yesterday.  Bluebirds are definitely visitors to ACK,  especially in late October and November,  but I am hoping to see more here!  

Bluebird 11.29.20, Concord MA

I am watchful and expecting that this surge of the virus will stay away from our family and friends. Nantucket was moved from a "red" zone according to the MA Department of Public Health,  to a "yellow" zone this week.

Today,  Josh  and I are back in Sconset. It's a mild but blustery day,  at 55 degrees with winds from the southeast at 25 mph.  During my 1 mile walk from home to Sconset,  I saw 3 dead birds  (2 eiders and a herring gull) on the beach;  only one had been touched by raptors.  It is a rugged environment in the late fall and winter.  

I explored a number of birding spots in the Boston area over the past couple of weeks.  At Belle Isle Marsh,  I got a great picture of a Tufted Titmouse,  a species that is relatively common on the mainland,  but does not live on Nantucket.  

Tufted Titmouse, Belle Isle Marsh, 11.11.20

Late Fall

 The groundsel has blown away,  the huckleberries are reddish sticks.  The trees are bare,  except for the oaks.  But the winterberries radiate,  and the harlequin ducks have arrived.    

The gannets, all three scoters,  the loons and the long-tailed ducks are regular visitors off the bluff.  The lesser black-backed gulls are regularly on the beach with the greater black-backed  and herring gulls. 

The raptors are again more visible.  When we returned home on Friday morning,  the crows had left us a rabbit,  with fur and entrails spread about.   The Sunday birding group watched a peregrine falcon each an eider from the Erosion Project viewing point,  and then saw greater black-backed gulls eating one at the UMass Field Station beach.

The drought seems to be ending;  we have had 3.22 inches of rain in October,  and already 2.38 inches in November.  The ponds are still very low.  

Huckleberry sticks on the Middle Moors

Last pond lily near Norwood Farm

Low Almanac Pond...
looking back  

AlmanacPond - height of the rock

Snow buntings at Gibbs Pond

Harlequin duck off Erosion Control Project

Winterberries

Coatue

Josh got a hot tip that there were scallops between First and Second Point on Coatue,  and my haul on Friday inspired us to go out and check it out.  Another great spot!  And a spot to see a huge flock of red-breasted mergansers arrive in Nantucket Harbor....and to see the relative sizes of a herring gull and a ring-billed gull...and a late oystercatcher...and the colors of fall on Coatue.

Great Point Light from Coatue

Unbanded Oystercatcher at Second Point

Ring-billed Gull

Compare the ring-billed gull, on the left,
  to the herring and great black-backed gulls

Cedar Highway also known as Coatue Avenue

Rosa Rugosa in fall colors

Late sickle-leaved aster

Second "Tour de Ponds"

 I rode off on my mountain bike on the 23rd to make another "Tour de Ponds,"  visiting seven ponds on the Middle Moors,  including Gibbs Pond.  I flushed 40 or more Black Ducks and saw a solitary sandpiper bobbing in one of the Wigwam Ponds.   At the end of August a black-crowned night heron was hiding there.   No pictures here of Gibbs or Almanac Ponds.

First Wigwam...dried up from the drought

Second Wigwam

Third Wigwam

From above

Corner of Pout Pond Road and Norwood Farm

Norwood Farm lily pond from Pout Pond Road

Madequecham Valley

 The weather was glorious this week,  and Josh and I took a late afternoon trip on Oct. 22  to the Madequecham Valley.  Well, actually,  we drove past Tom Nevers, Forked Pond Valley (better known as Bunny's),  Wigwam Valley to Madequecham.  It was not particularly birdy.  But the rollers were beautiful,  as were the colors of the valley.  

And then the fog rolled in...like an approaching army.