Rarities

Sabatia Campanula

Gull-billed Tern,  Gelochelidon nilotica

Lots of excitement is generated when a rarity is found.  Jacqui Papale,  Nantucket birder extraordinaire,  identified a gull-billed tern at Cain's Pond end of Sesachacha Pond on August 14.  This is sort of my neighborhood,  being about 2 miles from my house.  It is a lifer for many of the Nantucket birders,  and they all started visiting the spot and recording it on eBird.  I finally got there on August 17  and studied the other terns and laughing gulls it was hanging out  with.   It can be confusing because some of the younger birds might have blackish legs or black beaks. But the immature common terns had dark shoulders;  the immature laughing gulls were larger and darker.   The mature laughing gulls have all black heads.

But there was the gull-billed tern:  with lighter gray wings,  a thicker black bill and black legs.  Found it! Added benefit:  a Forster's tern and Roseate tern were in the group.

I had already been enjoying this spot because the Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs have been foraging there regularly,  along with 4 killdeer,  and the occasional  Short-billed Dowitcher,  and Spotted, Solitary, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers.

The swamp mallow is blooming and the Saltmarsh Fleabane as well! Today there was also Vervain. 

This weekend I got an excited email from Kelly Omand, the botanist with the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. The Sabatia campanulata I found at Almanac Pond hasn't been seen on Nantucket for 22 years! it occurs right at the edge of the pond, sometimes amidst the bog Yellow-eyed Grass (Xyris diformis) and Virginia Meadow-beauty(Rhex Virginica) and the sand plain grassland. She invited me on a field trip to document my find and report it to the Massachusetts Botanist, which we did today. We found 7 other plants in bloom even though it was 12 days later. More excitement! It must have been perfect conditions for the seeds. The pond has more water this year than last, but the water is far from the edge.

The philosophy regarding sharing location of a rarity  is different forthright botany crowd: Kelly asked me to obscure the location of my find in iNaturalist. I asked about this and heard that it is to protect the plant. Collectors could come and dig up the plant and take it away (and they have). The same is not possible with birds, which are generally moving around and can fly away. 

Adventure!  In all my years of visiting Almanac Pond, I had never seen this Slender Rose Gentian, Sabatia Campanulata before. And that goes back more than 25 years!

Slender Rose Gentian,
Sabatia Campanulata 

Virginia Meadow- beauty,
Rhex Virginica

Almanac Pond