A Cool Late May

 

Coming to Nantucket can feel like going back in time...literally.  The spring is early here,  with the wood anemones, quaker ladies and starflowers dotting the forest floors.  It's been foggy and gray.  The scrub oak is flowering and the tupelos have not leafed out yet.  The sweet pepper is greening up and the blueberries are blooming.  The beach plums are ready to pop, and the shad is looking gone by.  The cherry trees are blooming,  but many have the pink puddle surrounding them from the wind and rain's pummeling.

The quiet and gray are calming and relaxing. (At least compared to the frenzied hunt for warblers at Mount Auburn Cemetery and the environs of Boston!)

Blueberries

Wild Grape

Wood Anemone

Beach Plum

Beach Plum

Quaker Ladies

Nantucket's April was cooler than the past two years.  I compared the average temperatures in 2024 to 2023 and 2022.  Mean temperature in April 2024 was 45.6,  compared to 47.2 in April 2023 and 47.3 in April 2022.  And heating degree days (days x average degrees below 65) were 582 compared to 536 and 531.  May has also been cooler,  with average temps of 49.4 (19/31 days) compared to 52.1 in May 2023 and 53.7 in May 22.  It would have to average 56.4 for the last 12 days of the month for 2024 to equal May 2023.

I explored my favorite spots:  Squam Farm/Swamp, Stump Pond, Sesachacha Pond,  Sconset Beach and Bluffwalk.  My highlights were the duetting great crested flycatchers in Squam Swamp... it is a season of love!  A male ruddy duck on Sesachacha was in breeding plumage, with a huge white cheek and blue bill (but don't they breed in the northwest?)  The eastern Kingbirds were carrying nesting material.    I heard a White-crowned sparrow singing in Sconset Village. and the sound of common yellowthroats everywhere!  An American Redstart in Wauwinet  eluded us,  and then the Sunday bird group found him.

Towhees are  hopping on the paths and singing from the treetops.    A solitary pine warbler sang in the pines on Sconset beach.  Yellow warblers trilled on most of my hikes.  And yet some of the winter lot remain:  a female bufflehead on a kettle pond in  Norwood Farm, a few northern gannets flying north.

The landscape is pied with light greens and reds and creamy whites.  We searched for,  but did not find mayflowers.  The early blooms of golden heather in the sunny spots point the way to summer. Next weekend is Memorial Day!

Revisiting a beloved landscape seems to open up possibilities.  

Norwood Oak, May 18, 2024

Vernal Equinox 2024

 I longed to get to Nantucket.  Our last visit was in December; this was the longest time I’d been away from the island in many years.  I drove the car to the ferry in Hyannis and enjoyed the rhythm of an almost empty slow boat.  Northern gannets, long-tailed ducks , black scoters, and many many surf scoters were enjoying Nantucket Sound. As we approached the harbor, seals sunbathed on the rocks of the jetty and  a purple sandpiper bopped about .  After a greeting party of eiders and gulls, I caught sight of the Brants at First Point. We have arrived!

I don’t mind the silver gray colors and drab brush.  The hints of spring are here, in the daffodils pushing themselves up through the soil, but not yet blooming. The temperature in the 40s and winds in the teens seems appropriate, as do the bare shrubs and brown lawns.  The winter ducks are still here…. Ruddy ducks and American wigeon and buffleheads at Sesachacha, and harlequin ducks off Sankaty Head.  The atmosphere is filled with potential…for the burst of life that will soon be upon us.

Equal hours of light and dark now.  And with the move to Daylight Savings Time, it’s easy to be up at or before sunrise at 6:50 am.  The sunrise and sunset at the equinox is directly in front of our house.  With the move toward the solstice, the sun will rise further to the  north.

The winter ocean is filled with bird life, compared to the summer.  Rafts of eiders and scoters sit off the bluff, and long-tailed ducks busily fly about.  The  occasional red-throated loon and razorbill spice things up.  Gannets soar over the rip.

But there were no snowy owls in Nantucket this winter…and none I think at Plum Island or Salisbury Beach, other likely haunts. I saw a picture on Facebook of one in Maine.  Perhaps the lemmings were abundant in the far north,  or perhaps the lack of snow in New England this winter discouraged them from showing themselves.

Norwood Farm is quiet …no planes overhead and no bird sound during my hike. But the ponds are full, with green winged teal, scaup and American black ducks.  Almanac Pond is still very low…but at least has some water.

Erosion was strong this winter. Winds were often from the south and southeast, rather than the northeast and northwest. 

Now, there is the Windswept bog restoration to check out.  Dinner to be had with year-round friends.  Sankaty Light has a new, brighter light that flicks into my window in the dark.  Tennis to be watched and books to be read.  Spring is coming.

O

Brant

Sankaty Light

Norwood Oak

Moor Pond

American Wigeon

Red-breasted Merganser Male

December

 We intentionally came to Nantucket after Stroll weekend because it would be quieter.  Upon arriving, I set off to hike  north up the beach to Sankaty Head and Hoick’s Hollow.  I followed a pair of human footprints to the beach erosion project, but it was me alone and the birds after that. The human activity may be quieter, but ducks and seabirds are more active in winter.  I was lucky to be walking at low tide, and the rocks were well exposed.  My harlequin duck quarry played nearby.  A horned grebe and a razorbill followed me north, while Long-tailed ducks fed offshore and the gulls soared.  Red-throated loon stretched out to fly .  The scoters and buffleheads bobbed. A seal peered at me.  Breath quiets, the world of wars and lack of moral clarity (reaction to Hamas) recedes.

The walk back along the road, away from the sea, to Sankaty Head Lighthouse was quiet.  Low tide at 2:03 and it will be dark by 4:30.

On Saturday I headed out to Madaket to check out the Brant and saw my first common goldeneyes of the year. Dunlin mixed with sanderlings in fizzy flocks. Red-breasted mergansers regally swam by. I flushed a late egret at Jackson Point. A great blue heron languidly flew into the marsh. 

What passion sends me with binoculars and scope out into #wildnantucket?  The landscape is singular, the wild things precious. There is a feeling of being one with the world even as I am alone. The winter brings the deer to the front door, their droppings all over the lawn as they take possession of what is theirs as the humans depart.  The grasses and seed pods are like ghosts of summer. The ducks return and reclaim the sea from humans.  The sun rises far to the south, and will begin its journey north with the solstice.  Will we see a Snowy Owl on Nantucket this winter?

While winter brings more human quiet in Nantucket,  the world of seabirds heats up. We sailed past thousands of scoters, loons and long-tailed ducks on the ferry back to the mainland.  And the black scoters were singing.

Nantucket November

 

Two weeks since my last post, more beautiful browns:  blooming grasses, gone-to-seed goldenrods, scrub oaks. A few leathery mahogany viburnum leaves and maroon hypericum stragulatum, St. Andrew’s Cross. A shock of color from huckleberry and bayberry, and a sliver of sheep laurel. Some green will be with us all winter,  like the hollies and the cedars.

Oaks are usually the last deciduous trees in Nantucket to lose their leaves.  Even half of the scrub oak leaves are down.  There is the fingerprint of the wind on the oaks;  those exposed to the wind in high places or facing the northwest have lost their leaves.  Those close to the ground or in protected spots still cling to theirs.

Norwood Oak

Our winter birds are back:  we saw all three scoters with the birding group today,  and buffleheads, wigeons, ruddy ducks.  Ginger and Louis saw Harlequin ducks off the erosion control viewpoint yesterday! Brant are at Madaket. 

Jupiter rules in the clear night skies.The sun now rises far to the south, and will continue heading that way til the Solstice.  We are entering meteorological winter, the three months of shortest daylight.

October was very dry, with a mean temperature of 58 degrees, and average wind speeds of 9.9 mph and 2.03 inches of rain.  During my last visit,  Almanac Pond was completely dried up.  Last year October's mean temperature was 58.2, wind at 10.9 mph and 7.66 inches of rain.  In 2021 the mean temperature was 59.9, average wind speed  11.3 mph  and  there was 5.1 inches of rain.

First Light November 12 5:55 am

Sunrise 6:25 am

November 11

Stump Pond

Hunter's Moon

Moonrise, October 28

Late October in Nantucket:  Marshes brown, Tupelos leafless, brown scrub oak covering the moors.  The Goldenrod is gone,   leaving ghostly seed stands.  The groundsel/saltbush blossoms are almost gone;  there are few hypericum, aster and sweet everlasting . The firey huckleberry, yellow summer sweet and maples light up the landscape. Green cedar, sheep laurel, bayberry, heather, scotch broom provide the green counterpoint.  Jays cry, crows call, woodpeckers chip. Have the towhees fled?  There is only the sound of 2 airplanes during my 3 mile hike at Norwood Farm.  A doe and fawn dart across the path. There is no hunting on Sunday.