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

Early August

Sweet pepper, 
Clethra alnifolia

 I headed out in the middle of showers to walk and have a little time alone. I start at what the Land Bank calls Beechwood Farm on Almanac Pond Road and head to Norwood Farm. Little ladies tresses ( spiranthese tuberosa)are growing all along the path to the Norwood Oak. Hints of the coming fall are visible:  the first mahogany of Tupelo leaves, the first downy goldenrod, the earliest sweet everlasting.

The Sweet pepper(clethra alnifolia) is in full bloom, and at Norwood Farm, I walk surrounded by its sweet fragrance.  It encloses me in a blanket of pleasure, and I  breathe in deeply. It closes in on the path, wrapping me up in its aroma.

Little Ladies’ Tresses

Spirantheses tuberosa

The stormy winds are tossing the grasses and trees. The Hypericum stragulum is matted on the path.  There are new growths of hypericum gentianoides, called pineweed.

Towhees are most frequent along the path; the yellowthroats are now mostly silent- there was only one chirping as I walked.  A common raven and a Northern Flicker were the treats.  The Eastern kingbirds were also out tittering at the ponds.

Some white water lilies are still on the ponds, and azure pickerel weed (Pondeteria cordata).  Arrowroot and Virginia Meadow Beauties bloom at the edge.   Sickle-leaved silk grass (pityopsis falcata)Is growing all along the Pout Ponds road heading back to Almanac Pond Road. As I avoid puddles, I notice that my footsteps are the first on the rain flattened sand...usually deer hooves or people’s shoeprints or bike trails are on the road. 

At Almanac Pond,   gratiola aurea and Mayflower Marsh pennywort (Hydrocotyle umbellata) are growing all around the pond. I spot the pink of slender rose gentians (Sabatia campanulata) and go to investigate.  They are around half of the pond, dotted between theVirginia Meadow-beauties. 

Almanac Pond

Mayflower Marsh pennywort

Slender Rose Gentian

Hypericum gentianoides

Sweet Everlasting

Midsummer

 

The fog sneaks in and slithers out at the Forked Pond beach  (better known as Hairpin or Bunny Mellon beach, or simply 29A), with the wind from the south.  We are alone except for the driftwood sculpture and some visiting herring gulls.  It seems sunny overhead, even as we look right and look left into fog. Now we see the breakers, now they emerge from a fog cabinet.

July 14: I biked to Cain's Pond last night to hear the chuck will's widow.  A black-crowned night heron fished at the opening to Sesachacha Pond.  4 deer and 12 rabbits were also using the bike path, including one bunny who ran head for 75 yards.  Lightning bugs on the Moors. ( I had seen them a few nights ago on the front lawn)

Northern Harrier

Savannah Sparrow

Steeplebush

July 17, 6:30 am: I ignored the "closed for application of agricultural chemicals" sign at the Milestone Bog.  The Steeplebush is blooming and lighting up the Bog.  The colicroot is faded, the yarrow continues. There is a midsummer mix of green and brown sedges in the bogs, and the expected flocks of red-winged blackbirds.   Red-tailed hawks and northern harriers are out hunting early, mobbed by kingbirds and crows.  Good views of Savannah sparrows.

July 18:  Foraging in Nantucket is a favorite pastime.  Blueberries are out and we have picked them twice, on July 18 and 22.  Yummy blueberry muffins for Mari's 45th birthday!

July 20.  Queen Anne's lace on the roadsides.  Summersweet, Sweet Pepper getting ready to burst.  Daily a northern harrier is hunting on the bluff.  I wish he would find the baby bunnies eating my flowers!

Mean temperature in July was 70.8 degrees, with a high of 83 degrees and a low of 57.  There 3.19 inches of rain. June 's mean was 64.8, with a high of80.7 and a low of 52.7. There was 2.95 inches of rain.

  

July 27, 0537am

July 21, 9:31 pm

Virginia Meadow Beauty, 
Rhex Virginia

July17, 0509

July

“Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity”. Psalm 133:1

Those are the words we look at in Sconset Union Chapel, where all manner of Christians worship and celebrate.  It makes me think of  dwelling in harmony with nature as well, here where it is so close to me.

What is dwelling in harmony with nature? Is it only using organic fertilizers?  Is it getting rid of lawns and hydrangeas and planting endemic varieties?  Is it recycling and cutting my carbon footprint? Living simpler?  We still drive what is likely to be our last internal combustion engine car, our 2016 Toyota Forerunner. Many unanswered questions, even as I roam the island on foot and by bike.

I just finished reading The Blue Machine by physicist Helen Czerski, which lays out the systems of the ocean and asks that we respect an dwell in harmony with it.

In June temperatures  were a mean of 64.8,  with 2.95 inches of rain.

Now the island environment is changing again. The Arrowwood viburnums are finished flowering, and the grape vines are blowing brown and green along the roads and meadow as the wind tosses their leaves. Chicory has started to open and  St. Johnswort is in full swing on the verges. The pond across from the Sconset Golf Course has pickerelweed (pontederia cordata) in bloom. The ox-eye daisies are waning.

Wigwam Pond

Wigwam Pond

On July 6, I sought, but did not find, the yellow-crowned night heron at the UMass Field Station.  A kingfisher rattled over the pond, and a black-crowned night heron foraged in the Folgers Marsh near the Life Saving Museum. A great crested flycatcher sung at Reyes Pond, and the Toothed white-topped asters (seriocarpus asteroids) are beginning to open.  Sandplain Blue-eyed grass was still blooming at Wigwam Pond, along with pickerel weed and burr-reed.

On July 10, I did a birding Tour de Madaket and spotted a family of black- crowned night herons through the fog from the Long Pond dock by Massasoit bridge.  Driving back along Barrett Farm Road, the Madaket Moors stretched out, pine warblers sang and kingbirds flitted.

As the winds have shifted to the south, it is warmer, muggier and foggier.

I am looking forward to the return of the least sandpipers, semipalmated sandpipers, whimbrels, yellowlegs.  And the wood lilies.

Black-crowned night heron

Black-crowned night herons

 

A Tale of Two Kayaks

When my Walden kayak was stolen from Polpis Harbor Land Bank kayak rack in October 2022, I thought I might be at fault because I left it in the rack too late in the season.  I loved that 30 year old kayak, purchased in Nantucket in the store that now sells Vineyard Vines clothes.  I found that Walden kayaks had gone out of business, a victim of the pandemic.  I bit the bullet and bought a new Eddyline Skylark kayak from REI for the 2023 season, complete with chain and lock. Excellent 2023 season kayaking out to Quaise and Pocomo Meadow to see baby oystercatchers, whimbrels, plovers, turnstones and other shorebirds.

Imagine my disappointment today when I went to take an Independence Day kayak at low tide at 6:30 am and my new kayak had been stolen!  In frustration, I decided to hike from Wauwinet out to Coskata Pond in hopes of adventure.  The hike was 4 miles, and I observed much erosion along the Head of the Harbor,  ( I ignored all the 4 wheel drive vehicles heading out to Great Point.). At one point, Rosa rugosa bushes have died and a new inlet was formed.

Tricolor heron,
Egretta tricolor

Tricolor heron

The willets were warning me away, but I observed a heron that from afar could have been a great blue heron,  but didn't have the right shape or coloration.  It was a  tricolored heron foraging in the inlet.  Apparently they are the newest heron to breed in Massachusetts.  I counted 45 horseshoe crab shells, and saw thousands of hermit crabs scuttling.  A family of 5 oystercatchers walked away from me toward Coskata.  Bank swallows swerved dipped and careened  around the fallen tupelos at the Coskata cliffs, where new holes revealed their nests.  An osprey pair surveyed the pond while more oystercatchers and snowy and great egrets fed. Kingbirds hawked insects.

My consolation hike eased my frustration, and I headed back to a Fourth of July party at the Moldenauer’s.  

Northern Harrier

Willet

Willets

Bank Swallow

New inlet

New cliff at Coskata

Target Species

 

Swamp Candles, Lysimachia Terrestris

Swamp Azalea,
Rhododendron Viscosum

As a birder, I’m used to thinking about what species I might see when I head out for a walk. During July, as the bird species are more stable and there is a smaller chance of seeing a new species, I often hunt for wildflowers. 

I have described the procession of flowering plants which I love following in Nantucket. Early July means colicroot ( aletra farinosa) and ghost pipes( monotropa uniflora) for me. Oh…and swamp candles ( Lysimachia Terrestris) and Swamp Azalea ( Rhododendron viscosum).

Colicroot,
Aletra Farinosa

Ghost Pipes,
Monotropa uniflora

So today I headed off to Stump Pond with those target species in mind. The last of the Quaker Ladies were there in the shade, and the tail end of the ox-eyed daisies. The arrow wood viburnum’s bloom are also losing steam. The yarrow is starting.

Common yellowthroats were the most numerous birds; I guess that’s why they are called “common.” Yet they hide so well, I haven’t got a picture of one yet this year. Towhees, robins, red-winged blackbirds, song sparrows and blue jays joined me on the walk, with a red-tailed hawk, barn and tree swallows and a couple of yellow warblers. The great crested flycatcher and red -eyed vireo were highlights. A brown thrasher and black-and-white warbler were heard but not seen.

The Carolina roses were blooming in profusion in Windswept bog, where last month the wild iris blue flag flourished. Our threatened sand plain blue-eyed grass is along the edges. We are eager to see how the renovation of the old cranberry bog changes the landscape. Now there is more standing water and new greenery, but no new flowers that I could see.

I found my target species, as well as an American wintergreen, pyrola. A successful hunt!

American Copper on Yarrow

Rosa Carolina

Sandplain blue-eyed grass,
Sisyrynchium fuscatum 

Windswept Bog roses

Sunrise, July 2, 2024. 05:11

Summer Solstice

May 18, 2024

June 23, 2024

The Summer Solstice was on June 20, and the Strawberry Moon was on June 21. I didn't get a chance to see it because of the clouds. I had been reading Dorte Nors' A Line in the World, set on the west coast of Denmark, and thinking about Midsummer rituals like bonfires in Scandinavia. So the days slipped by me, without any witches burned. Here, our fireworks are for Independence Day on July 4. But the sun rises at its most northern point in the east in the morning, and now begins its march south, hitting its southernmost rising point at the Winter Solstice. The days are beautifully long, and the sun sets at its most northwestern point, shedding golden light on our grasses and the sea.

The mean temperature in June has been 64.6 F, well up from May's 52.8. No heat wave here.

I am experiencing the comfort of place in Nantucket, with its well-worn procession of light and flora and fauna. The sea is changing colors every hour: from shimmer silver gray with an almost white horizon  to deep blue turquoise green against a blue dome of sky.  Now white caps. The rate of growth is so fast in the spring that it has to slow down. The Norwood Oak is now fully leafed out, while a month ago it had just buds. The first pasture thistles are plump, frostweed is on the moors and a Red-spotted purple flits down the moor road. Odonata are flitting about. The voice of the common yellowthroat is heard o'er the land. The colicroot will be blooming soon. 

The view from the Bluff

Snowy Egret

Horned poppy

Frostweed

Red-spotted Purple