Before the Fourth

The traffic on the roads and the bike paths has announced the formal arrival of summer.  The hydrangea haven’t  opened yet, but the New Dawn roses are in their glory days.  The garden daisies are ready to burst open.  The smell of uncut privet fills the air.  

The humidity is now regularly in the high eighties and nineties,  another mark of summer,  brought by the southwest winds. Changes are everywhere:  whether it is the lack of masks on people in the Stop N Shop (and the lines), or the filling up of the social calendar to greet new arrivals. Josh and I took a first swim at Bunny Mellon Beach  (AKA  Beach 29A.) 

I sought the two spotted sandpipers that were seen in the Milestone Bogs on June 27,  and came up empty.  But I was treated to fields of Aletris (colicroot) and Pasture Thistle (Cirsium Pumilum).  The yarrow (achillea) is opening,  as is the St. Johnswort. A few laggard blue flag irises were tucked in the bogs. There are still Quaker Ladies blooming amidst the grasses!  They are the longest  blooming  wildflower in Nantucket, I think.  I first saw them very early in the spring at Squam Farm, and on every walk over the past two months.

Pasture Thistle (Cirsium Pumilum)

American Lady, Vanessa Virginiensis

Pasture Thistle

Wild rose,  Rosa virginiana

Aletris,  Colicroot

Quaker Lady,  Houstonia Caerulea

Missed the spotted sandpipers,  but did see this Killdeer

St. Johnswort

 

Summer Wind

 

It is the time of the southwest wind, with warm gusts causing everything on this island to move and dance: the grasses, now feet-high, the arrowwood viburnum frothy blooms and leaves, the undersides of the fox grape vines.

The birds array themselves into the wind, the great black backed gulls serene and the others catching a thermal to soar along the bluff.  The bank swallows tumble and dart through the gusts to snatch their insect prey. 

These winds bring humidity and fog banks which hug the shore and obscure the rising of June’s Strawberry Moon. The stands of milkweed pinkish globes sway, glinting at hopes of monarch butterflies to come.

Big open vistas frame the clouds rushing by, with cumulus mountains and stratus strands. How can the summer already be ripening, with rose hips on the Rosa rugosa? 

Arrowwood,  Viburnum Dentatum

Osprey over Road to Coskata

Least Tern over Coskata

Oystercatcher at Coskata

Looking to the ocean from Head of the Harbor

Eel Point June 21

 

Oystercatcher at Eel Point

One of at least 8 piping plover

A view of the marsh

Sedum growing in the sand at Eel Point

Josh and I hiked Eel Point on Monday, June 21,  without benefit of my Canon.  Would that I could have captured the more than 300 least terns that are nesting there in photos!   We tried not to disturb them.

It is a bird haven,  with oystercatchers and piping plovers nesting there as well.  The ospreys were at the nest and harriers were hunting.  Willets called.

A Daily Dose of Awe

Josh and I took a walk around Windswept Bog on Thursday June 17. It used to be a working cranberry bog, but is now in the process of returning to a wetland. The flowers are taking advantage of that! There are view of whole fields of the the wild iris, blue flag.

Rose Pogonia,
Pogonia Ophioglossoides

 My daily awe was provided by a patch of wild orchids, the dominutive rose pogonia, (Pogonia ophioglossoides) near Stump Pond. I first saw an early colicroot and a plump thistle, and turning around saw another patch of white...and was surprised by the rose pogonia! These finds make the continuing sandplain blue-eyed grass seem almost humdrum! 

 It's the time of year when snakes and turtles are regularly crossing my hiking paths, for more surprises. On the roads, its Viburnum, Milkweed and Multiflora roses time. The multifloras have been rambling for a week, but the viburnum and milkweed have just popped.

On Sunday, the ovenbirds are still singing in Squam Swamp, accompanied by many red-eyed vireos and great crested flycatchers and an eastern wood peewee. They really belt it out...almost as much song per ounce as a carolina wren!

Sandplain Blue-eyed Grass, sisyrinchium fuscatum, is globally rare...except for ACK and MVY

Painted Turtle

Rosa Virginiana

A juicy pasture thistle, Cirsium pumilum

Colicroot, Aletris, contains a compound that mimics estrogen

 

Spring Songs: Common Yellowthroats and Towhees

 

The Song of Solomon has a wonderful description of the coming of spring and summer: "The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove  is heard in our land.”

Here in Nantucket,  the singing birds in May and early June are common yellowthroats and towhees. The flowers show themselves, but the singing-est birds hide. Most  of my walks (and my Polpis bike loops)  are filled with the "preet"  and "drink-your-tea"  of towhees and the "whichety-whichety-which" of the common yellowthroats.  The birds themselves are often hidden in the now leafed-out trees and bushes.   After many attempts,  I caught these birds mid-song.  Do you want to sing, now, too?

 

American Towhee

Kayak launch

At 8 am, It was already a sunny and warm 71 degrees with a wind from the west at 10 miles per hour.  Polpis Harbor was quiet, except for the oystermen heading out to their farm.  The parking lot was empty, but the stands were now full of kayaks, many forced to share berths.

At first I thought my kayak had been taken by The Land Bank, as their stern sign warns that boats left before April 15 will be removed. But I knew that we’d brought the kayaks in late April ( a Facebook post to prove it!) and I looked more carefully and found my trusty Walden down at the end of the rank.

What a day!  An osprey flew above, clutching a fish. Paddling out to Quaise Point, I spied an oystercatcher on nest next to the marsh.  Two males came to warn me off.  I headed into what I call Medouie Creeks  ( but is called Island Creeks on Google Maps), passing a group of ruddy turnstones.  Ducks flushed, willets called, and how could I be hearing common yellowthroats while kayaking in a marsh?  I guess they can sing as loudly as Carolina wrens!

As I headed back to Polpis Harbor, two fishermen in a small boat were casting lines in the channel. “ No bites yet!” They smiled.  A family of 7 yellow- footed snowy egrets pecked in the sand at the point. It was almost high tide.

The paddles, the boat, the water and sky, the familiar shoreline .  Birds giving birth.  A new morning! 

Ruddy Turnstones

Oystercatchers guarding females

The Spring Procession

The Daffodils.  The shad and mayflowers,  the flowering cherries.  The beach plums and crabapples.  The golden heather. Through it all,  the Quaker Ladies.  The Rosa Rugosa and ox-eye daisies.

Spring progresses, with each of its waves of leafing and blooming.  The nature world changes rapidly,  with winter's gray moors punctuated by green pines and cedars becoming spring's  yellowy greens and fuzzy whites; and the red of emerging leaves and scrub oak catkins.  Soon the trees and shrubs will settle to their summer's green, but the flowers will continue their procession.

Nature is constantly changing, but the rhythms of that change, endure.

Bearberry near Altar Rock

Lichen and Golden Heather

Rosa Rugosa on the Bluff

Stump Pond

Blue-eyed Grass at Stump Pond

Blue Flag at Windswept Bog

The moors from the 4th Milestone to Altar Rock Trail