Shorebird Migration

For many shorebirds,  Nantucket is their waystation on the long journey south.  I've seen many of the visitors during my kayaking in Polpis Harbor to Pocomo,  and on my hike with Libby Buck of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation at Eel Point yesterday.

While the oystercatchers and least terns do breed here,  the semipalmated plovers,  black terns and Laughing Gulls do not.  There is a big nesting colony of laughing gulls on Monomoy and they are pushing into Nantucket.  The semipalmated plovers breed in the artic.  

Willet

Young piping plover

Semipalmated plover

Piping Plover

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Black bellied plover

Semipalmated Plover

Oystercatcher

Black Terns with Common Terns

Black bellied plover

Short billed dowitcher

"Tour De Ponds"

 I set out today to find some beach plums on the Middle Moors...but the bushes I checked out were bare!  Did the plums not grow,  or did the birds or people get there first?  The blossoms were glorious during the spring....

My bike ride turned into a Tour de France-  but a tour of the Middle Moors Ponds.  It's the time before what looks like fall... with the golden sickle-leaved asters on the roads,  the sweet everlasting and downy goldenrod opening,  and the first asters popping.  The Sweet Pepper  (Clethra Alnifolia) is gone.

Stump Pond with Osprey

Almanac Pond

Norwood Farm Pond

Pond at corner of Pout Ponds Road  and Wigwam Ponds Road

Fourth Wigwam Pond

Gibbs Pond

First Wigwam Pond

Second Wigwam Pond

With Lily Pad and Pickerel weed

With Blue Darner

Third Wigwam Pond

Fourth Wigwam Pond

Late August

The month has been flying by...the sweet pepper is now almost done and the goldenrod is out. Joe, Amy and Frankie have been with us for almost two weeks and will be staying until August 31.  What fun to get to know the little one!  Going to the playground with her is a trip,  watching all the children interact.  And Frankie is not yet 20 months old!  "Play"  and "Please"  figure in the kid exchanges.

I took a Bike ride on August 16  to check out Jewel Pond, Stump Pond and Windswept Bog.

Morning Beauty meadow in Windswept Bog,  near Almanac Pond Road

Morning Beauty at Windswept Bog, Rhex Virginica, Aug 16

Pickerel Weed at Jewel Pond...RedTail Hawk at Windswept Bog

Bush Clover

Sweet Pepper

y While the yellow warbler's "sweet, sweet, sweet,  I'm so sweet"  is a sign of June and July,  the smell of the sweet pepper,  Clethra Alnifolia is the sign of August for me.  The sweet pepper is now out in force,  and the scent is my favorite Nantucket scent,  bar none.  Charlie and I took a walk at Norwood Farm today, August 8,  and reveled in the aroma.   Another treat was seeing a stand of the  white fringed Spiranthes orchid,  Ladies Tresses.  The bird highlight was a merlin being chased by a kingbird.

Been waking up early to see the sunrise and kayak at Polpis Harbor.  So many shorebirds!  Always common terns and oystercatchers, yellow legs and willets,  but short-billed dowitchers and whimbrels, too.  And the fun of discovering a wild Turk's Cap Lily on the Land Bank walk to Swainsen's Neck.

Ladies Tresses Orchid,  Spiranthes tuberosa

Pout Ponds... August water level

Checkerspot on Sickle-Leaved golden aster, Chrysopsis Falcata

Signs that fall will come

Sweet Pepper,  Clethra Alnifolia

Swamp Willow Herb at Squam Farm, August 4. Decodon Verticillatus

Wild Turk's Cap lily, Lilium Superbum at Polpis

Sea Lavender is out!  Polpis Harbor August 4.  Limonium Carolinanum

Water Pennywort, Hydrocotyle umbellata, at Pout Pond August 7

Monarch on Verbena Bonariensis in our garden, July 27

St. Andrew's Cross, Ascyrum Hypericoides,  mats all over Norwood Farm