Berry Time

 

Quiet walk this morning, August 26, at Windswept Bog. Fall encroaches. The weather has been crystal. A Merlin flashes from a pine tree top across the bog. An Osprey soars; a red-tailed hawk keers.

Bush clover is leaning and Purple Gerardia (Agalinis purpurea)is blooming in so many places along the edges, including in the "Alder Run."  The Downy goldenrod is starting.

The full grown Grasses are over my height and bending.  I walk through their aisle;  will I walk into another kingdom on the other side, like Narnis? A Sun shower sends raindrops flying.

Grapes are ripe; if they were lower down I would pick them! Instead,I head home to make our beach plums (18 cups from the Pout Ponds bushes) into jelly and watch a passing thunderstorm on the ocean.

Monarch butterflies in the garden daily.   Josh and I foraged for grapes on August 27. More than 6 pounds!  We will get a few more riper grapes when we return on September 8.

I have been delighting in reading Emily Dickinson, thanks to the Wauwinet Book Group.

A something in a summer's Day

A something in a summer's Day

As slow her flambeaux burn away

Which solemnizes me.

A something in a summer's noon—

A depth—an Azure—a perfume—

Transcending ecstasy.

And still within a summer's night

A something so transporting bright

I clap my hands to see—

Then veil my too inspecting face

Lest such a subtle—shimmering grace

Flutter too far for me—

The wizard fingers never rest—

The purple brook within the breast

Still chafes its narrow bed—

Still rears the East her amber Flag—

Guides still the sun along the Crag

His Caravan of Red—

So looking on—the night—the morn

Conclude the wonder gay—

And I meet, coming thro' the dews

Another summer's Day!

Emily Dickinson F104, 1859

August Nantucket Nature Diary

 Milestone Bog, August 8

Little ladies tresses in the grasses, Bush clover waving in the wind, Sickle leaved silkgrass and Early sweet everlasting on the paths, with Downy goldenrod peeking out. Faded yarrow still on  the verges.  There is WaterWillow/ Swamp loostrife in the ditches, faded steeplebush and American Burnweed. 

63 degrees at 3 pm, winds

August 10

See First solidago on road to Bunny Mellon beach ( 29A). Beach Plum picking at Pout Ponds (and August 16 and 22)

August 13-  I woke at 5:30 before the sunrise.  Watched terns rising and sanderlings darting at water's edge "down front".  Three ravens caucussed. Black-bellied plovers skirted the waves. Biked to Low Beach, hiked on the beach to Tom Nevers and back. An arctic tern amidst the flock. The aroma of the Sweet Pepper (Clethra alnifolia is diminishing)

August 15:  Kayak to Quaise Point, Medouie Marsh . Piping plovers and a roseate tern were the specials.

August 20: Eel Point Hike. Hiked out on the beach and back next to the marsh. Always amazed at how the marsh changes from year to year. What used to be a sandy road is becoming part of the marsh. Juvenile yellow-crowned night heron and a little blue heron were the birds highlights. Osprey still here.  The Sturgeon Moon rises after sunset, and the sunrises are now (conveniently) around 6 am.

August 23: Black Swallowtail on the verbena bonariensis in the garden.

Kayak to Medouie Marsh, Island Creek: 60 black-bellied plovers, 4 dowitchers, 2 Whimbrels and a green heron. Egrets roosting. Osprey still here.  The sweet pepper is complete

August 24: a bat on the window and the Milky Way at night. End of 5 weeks with kids and grandkids.

Weather

Mean temperature in August  69.3 (as of August 24) 1.34 inches of rain  (high of  83, low of 56.8)

Last year 68 degrees,  4.62 inches of rain  (high of 79.9 and low of 58.5)

July 2023  70.7, .80 rain, high of 85.9 and low of 61.5

July 2024  70.8, 3.19 inches  rain, high of 83 and low of 57

Whimbrel

Short-billed Dowitcher 

Black Swallowrail

Ruddy Turnstone

American Oystercatcher 

Piping Plover

Ruddy Turnstone

Little Blue Heron

Little Blue Heron

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