Frozen Nantucket

 I convinced Josh to come to Nantucket for a quick three day visit in the hopes of seeing a snowy owl (seen by Spruce during the Christmas Bird count) and the Bald Eagle family in residence at Sesachacha Pond (documented by Janette Vohs).  And it will be the time of the full moon:  The Wolf Moon, also called the Ice Moon.  And the mean temperature from Jan 4-10 has been under freezing, so many bodies of water are frozen.

As we drove from the ferry to Sconset on the Polpis Road,  there was the adult eagle sitting on the ice in the middle of Sesachacha Pond! Objective met...a successful first visit of the New Year.

Sesachacha Pond  is almost completely frozen,  with some areas of open water.   It looks kind of slushy;  I didn't go to try to walk on it.   Later,  I drove to Quidnet and hiked out to the cut.  Some surf scoters were sleeping on the pond edge but  they were outnumbered by dead birds: a  sprawling herring gull  and several  male eiders.   Rafts of thousands of eiders drifted offshore, along with white wing scoters.  I was rewarded by the black-headed gull,  which flew overhead.  It is a relative of the more common Bonaparte's gull.  Birds of the World indicates this European species may now be breeding in NewFoundland.

We drove out to Coskata and to Coatue in search of the snowy owl,  without luck.  But we saw many yellow-rumped warblers,  a flock of about 20 hopping from cedar to cedar.  Views of Great Point Light,  long-tailed ducks and all three scoters...and the sere landscape. A northern harrier hunted. Coskata is also frozen,  with some areas of open water near the harbor.  We are still struggling with the January colds and coughs, so staying in the car was okay.

In the afternoon I hiked Milestone Bog and flushed a couple of meadowlarks by the barns.  I also flushed a great blue heron at Gibbs Pond.  The pond is frozen with a small area of open water.  The Wolf Moon rises, with the golden hours colors lighting up the sea.

Wolf Moon Rises

Tuesday morning I checked out Sesachacha..and the adult bald eagle was sitting at the top of the highest evergreen across the pond surveying the area.  There was also a great blue heron roost in an evergreen;  six huddled up. 

December 2024's mean temperature was 38.6,  with a range of 33.8 to 43.8 degrees.  There was  1.61 inches of  rain.   Temperature was lower than in 2023 and 2022.  In December 2023:  the mean temperature was 42.7  with a range of 38.8 to 46.4. There was .81 inches of rain. In 2022,  the mean temperature was 41.1,  with a range of 17.6 to 45.6.  There was 1.98 inches of rain.

Black-headed Gull

Bald Eagle 

Sunrise January 14

Winter approaching

December 13, 2024

The Cold Moon is December's full moon, and calls to me. The rising sun is almost at its southernmost point; after the Solstice it will rise more and more to the north. The sun rises before the moon sets. The sunrises are easy to get up for at 7 am. The sunrise is full of hope no matter what the weather. 

Windswept Bog is closed to hiking; it is being restored to a natural wetland, so I hike Milestone Bog.  The golden grasses wave and contrast with the burgundy cranberries. My walk is mostly quiet of birdsong , except for the odd Canada goose honk or crow's caw. Flickers jump up at the end of the bog, a red-tailed hawk hunts, a great blue heron huddles in the Lee of Gibbs Pond. Signs of oncoming winter. 

Our Sunday morning birding group of 4 saw a tufted duck on Hummock Pond and 6 palm warblers at Bartlett's Compost heap. That is the most I've seen at anyone time! The way we found the tufted duck was a great collaboration.: I spotted a duck that was different from the scaup, thinking perhaps it was a ring-necked duck. Ginger Andrews instructed me to look for the tuft. Spruce and I looked at the bill and found the black nail at the end. 

I missed seeing the Northern Lapwing and the tundra swan. I haven't been in a mood to hunt the rarities, although I enjoy them when I see them.

The gannets are moving off the coast. The moonrise winks between the clouds.  We miss seeing the actual Cold Moon rise because of the clouds. 

November

From the Sconset Bluff

From the Creeks

November 22

We made the trip to Nantucket despite the weather forecast of rain and high winds.  It's a chance to see the next chapter in the yearly procession of plants.  A chance to hear the howl of the winds  and slap of the white caps on the sea.  A chance to be face to face with sunrises and sunsets. A chance to experience the raw wildness of the sea and nature.  

We arrived Friday with rains and hopefully the end of drought.  There was hardly any rain in August (1.4 inches), September (1.55 inches), and October(.53 inches).  That's according to my weather station, and I wonder if my rain collector is accurate in the northeasters with their slanting downpours.  In any event, it is a consistent measure.

Rain totals for August, September, November

2024:  3.5 inches

2023: 8.7

2022:  9.1

2021:  9.7

2020:  5.8

Scoters, long-tailed ducks, eiders, buffleheads, loons and grebes dot  the ocean, along with northern gannets, herring, greater black-backed and lesser black-backed gulls.

Harlequin Ducks

At low tide, I hiked to see harlequin ducks at the rocks off Sankaty Head.  They return to a spot they like , just as we do.  After a break in the rain, Josh and I walked the Creeks and see a palm warbler and a pie-billed grebe. 

American wigeon and a host of ruddy ducks at Sesachacha. Windswept Bog is closed to hikers until March 15, while the second stage of wetlands restoration takes place.

The late sunrises and early sunsets made for a cozy day on Saturday.  I finished knitting two  baby hats; football is scrambled except for Notre Dame's big win over Army.  Many boats were cancelled because of the high winds, gusting in the 40s.

Ginger Andrews suggested the birding group deal with the 25 plus mile an hour winds by hiking at Pines and Larches near Miacomet on Sunday morning. The bluestem grasses are golden in the slanted sun.  Yellow rumpled warblers surround us along the brushy paths.

Walking in Squam Swamp, the Tupelos are long leafless.  The mosses and holly trees are a green spot amidst the gray, until we reach the beech grove with its golden haze of leaves. No birdsong and only a couple of sparrows jumping. 

Tupelo’s at Squam Swamp

Beech grove

October in Nantucket

Like Thoreau, I have a longing for wildness. The more digital and technological life becomes, the more I love the wild.  It may seem strange to call an island favored by billionaires wild, but it is an island exposed to the winds and waves of the North Atlantic, a precious ecosystem of sand plain grassland, and more than 50% of its area is conserved.

My foraging year has included blueberries, beach plums and fox grapes, and this past weekend we scalloped at Pocomo. Yummy ceviche followed as we celebrated Josh's 75th birthday with his close friends David and Michael and their wives. We sent them home with our wild  fox grape jelly.

We took our first trip of the year to Great Point. Fisherman were catching false albacore when they could beat the seals.  We showed off our favorite Norwood Farm walk. Firey maples, late seaside goldenrod and late asters adorned the landscape.  Most of the pond lilies were gone, but blueberry bushes and cotton grass lit up the ponds .

As I hiked Windswept bog before departing, I chanced upon a rusty blackbird eating viburnum berries.  A clay-colored sparrow mixed in with white-throated and song sparrows. Several sharp-shinned hawks scuffled and sheared through the landscape.  There were late patches of the purple gerardia which was so prolix last month. When next I visit, the bright colors will be gone.

Cain’s Pond

Windswept Bog

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Rusty Blackbird

Green-winged Teal

Northern Seaside Goldenrod
Solidago sempervirens

Summer’s End

 On September 16,  I hiked Norwood Farm. The downy Goldenrod is in full bloom, contrasting with the deep red of the Little bluestem grasses. The Fox grapes leaves are yellowing; the aroma of overripe grapes perfumed the air . I felt like the member of a wedding party walking down the aisle as bouquets of sweet everlasting and downy goldenrod lined the path.

I enjoyed the quiet ( except for the jay's and towhees) after our 5 weeks of kids and grandkids visiting.  I love the hubbub and chance to be with family, and now summer's end signals the beginning of a quieter time.

Black Huckleberry

Aster

Tupelo

Norwood Oak

Sweet Everlasting and
Downy Goldenrod

The red Huckleberry and Crumpled elegant fern livened other spots, amid the spent Sweet Pepper (Clethra Alnifolia )and scrub oak.  An Eastern Garter snake slithers out of the sunny trail and into the brush.

There hasn't been much rain in a month, as evidenced by the dried up ponds:  the Norwood Pond, Corner Pond and Almanac Pond. And  Dried out marsh st. Johnswort at the edges.  There are Few sickle-leaved silk grass  remaining on the road , with a few asters on the side, including Late and New England asters( Symphotrichum Patens and Novo-Angliae.)

The dry weather has meant so many beautiful sunrises...and close to the autumnal equinox, they are due east from our bedroom window!  And with sunrises between 6 and 6:30, a lot easier to get up for!

The berry season now ending has been highly productive for us foragers:  blueberries, beach plums (12 jars of jelly)  and  grapes ( half of our takings has yielded 12 jars of jelly).

American Black Duck

Gull-billed Tern

 

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