Wild Nantucket

Monday, November 30, 2020

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

Monday, November 16, 2020

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

Sunday, October 25, 2020

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.

Sumac and Groundsel, Cranberry Time

The moors are looking browner these days, with the brightness and contrast coming from the flaming red sumac and the white groundsel. But the groundsel is starting to blow away, like dandelions in the early summer. In the wet spots, the Winterberry is bright. The goldenrod is mostly gone, with the exception of some seaside goldenrod in protected spots. A few late asters dot the paths. The cranberries sure are red!

Cisco, Oct 18

Milestone Bogs, October 21

Tree Swallow over the Milestone Bogs

Squam Farm Sumac, Oct. 22

Quaise Point

I have stowed the kayak in Polpis Harbor this summer, and regularly kayak out to Pocomo Meadow and past Quaise Point. I have been counting the hundreds of cormorants and gulls who are regulars, but also the 25 great and snowy egrets which massed there the first days of October. Black bellied plovers and ruddy turnstones are also regulars. On October 19, I also saw about 200 sanderlings there, and three golden plovers mixed in among the black-bellies.

I've had a couple of mishaps with the kayak, too. Earlier in the month on a day with winds in the low 20s I beached the kayak on Quaise Point to get a better look at the shorebirds, and turned around to see the kayak blown across the channel. But I swam and rescued it; happy that my dry bag kept its optical contents safe and dry!

After our collective failure (Josh, Charlie, Kelsey and me) to get many scallops at Pocomo on October 3, I scouted out a spot in my kayak and came across some eelgrass near Quaise Point that looked promising. On Friday, October 25, I kayaked out there; beached the kayak (this time more securely) and headed out to my scalloping adventure. It was a very productive trip...but I hadn't counted on how heavy the scallops in the mesh bag would be as I made my tired swim across the boat channel back to Quaise Point. I made shore, exhausted, but with the scallops!