Golden Heather

 Golden Heather blankets the hills on the middle moors,  and brightens the roads when clumps grow alongside.  Hudsonia ericoides is as much an emblem of spring on the island as the flowering low-bush blueberries and huckleberries.  It' s more beautiful than the catkins from the scrub oak.  And it seems to withstand years of less rain like this one.  The ponds are the lowest we've seen in years.  At Pout Pond,  the viola lanceolata are where they pond might usually be.

The bird's foot violets are out at the intersection of Altar Rock Road and Pout Pond Road.  And we are seeing lots of Beach Plum blooms along the Pout Pond Road.  Hope we will get some for jam!

The first blue-eyed grass is opening on the moors,  and also at Norwood Farm.

Toby Sackton helped me find the black-necked stilt at the Nantucket Harbor Flats,  but I still haven't seen the glossy ibises that have been hanging out there.  They may have flown. 

My biggest find has been the ovenbird in Squam Swamp.  I didn't see it,  but got great recordings of it singing (along with great crested flycatchers and black&white warblers).

Discovering something new in the wild every day just makes me happy.  Is it that I like to search for the new?  Like being in nature?  Like the total absorption in the environment that I need to do to listen for birds,  look for their movement and see the flowers? It is a loss of self and immersion in the world around me,  which never ceases to offer something new and delightful.

Viola Pedata, Bird's Foot Violet

Viola Lanceolata,  Bog Violet

Pout Pond

Black Huckleberry

Low Bush Blueberry

Golden Heather, Hudsonia Erocoides

Bird's Foot Violet

Pout Pond

Black Necked Stilt at The Creeks

Black-necked stilt

Return

 

We took the boat back to Nantucket  on the first day of the new summer-y schedule.  The air is lively with that earlier spring of light greens reaching into a blue sky, red catkins and new growth, crabapple petals carpeting the ground, lilacs blooming.

We’ve missed the amelanchier shad and the cherries flowering, but  now the winds seem less harsh than earlier in the spring.  We even have some late narcissus blooming in the garden, although the island-wide show is done.

The beach plums are in full bloom all over the island;  this year I vow to make a map so that when they ripen, we have lots of places to look.  My Polpis bike loop is with towhees, Carolina wrens, chipping sparrows, pine warblers,  yellow warblers, common yellowthroats- I had forgotten how many of them are singing at this time of year.

Birds are the sounds of the spring, as they declare their territories, find mates,  and declare the dawn.