April ‘s Window

 

In Nantucket, April is not quite winter, not quite spring. Not cold, but not warm. Daffodils brighten the gray trunks and skies, but the rest of the plant world is quiet. Astronomically and calendar-wise it is spring, but visually and weather-wise, it is not.

April is a gateway into growth and green. As I hike through Squam Swamp on April 26, it's windy and showers are spitting.  The trees groan as they dance together, while the ferry horn moans and the wind soughs through the trees.  The Tupelos are bare, but the first wood anemones are opening up in sunny spots on the forest floor.  The leaves of Canadian mayflowers are poking up through the moss. The red maple flowers litter the trail.

There are many vernal pools, so different from the dry ponds of late March.  My weather station recorded 3.93 inches of rain so far in April, compared to 1.4 inches last April.

Wood Anemone

Josh and I hiked Stump Pond on Sunday, April 27, to get out of the 20 mph west wind.  We were rewarded with the complete Windswept Bog wetland restoration and Trailing Arbutus and Houstonia Caerulea in the protected sunny spots.

Trailing Arbutus, Epegia Repens

Quaker Ladies, Houstonia Caerula

When we hiked Norwood Farm on April 28, the ponds had been replenished a bit, although Almanac Pond is very very small. 

I had a bird of prey morning at Squam Farm, with an American kestrel, a Merlin, two northern harriers and ospreys! 

Almanac Pond

American Kestrel

Northern Shoveler in Sesachacha Pond

Eastern Towhee at Squam Farm

FOY Shad

Oystercatcher at Jackson Point

Storksbill

Pi Day on Nantucket

March 14, 2025.  Pi Day.

The wind has scoured the landscape, including the stubborn oak leaves. The mowed verges are golden brown, contrasting with the greys of the leafless trees.  There is a flannel blanket of pewter clouds in the sky. Sesachacha Pond is high, with no opening to Cain's Pond. A single long-tailed drake swam by, as close as  I have ever been.  American wigeon and ruddy ducks and buffleheads swim on the pond. At Norwood Farm, there silence.  No birdsong and no airplane noise.  No bikers or cars or hikers or deer.  A flock of yellow-rumped warblers and a few Carolina wrens observe me.

The ponds are very low.  Almanac Pond is non-existent ; others noticeably smaller. The cumulative rain from December through February was only 4.62 inches. In 2023 and 2022, the totals were 6.83 and 6.56 inches. I am missing data for 2024.

At the end of the winter, there are always dead animals that didn't make it. There are two dead deer in pine forest at base of the bluff. The dead deer near Cain's Pond is still there. Much of the talk has been about the number of eiders which have washed up dead on the beaches. During my walk to the Creeks from Monomoy, there were at least 10 dead eider. Apparently there are many more out on Coatue. Eiders are the largest population of birds in Nantucket in the winter.

It has been a cold winter. The mean temperature in January was 31 and February 33.3. In 2023, January was 41.9 and February 40.1 degrees. In 2022, January was 30.3 and February 36.5 degrees. Did that make it harder on the birds, or was it bird flu?

At the Milestone Bog,  I see two groups of  six and seven deer running.  This weekend I am only seeing groups of deer.  Overall, the deer population continues to grow.

The clouds obscure the rising of the Worm Moon as well as sunrises. 

The Worm Moon rising

March 17 sunrise

Whimbrel at The Creeks, March 16

Early Willet, The Creeks, March 16

Almanac Pond, March 14

Norwood Oak

Sconset updates: Captain's Cabin up on risers for a new basement, the Baileys house on Sankaty Avenue looks put together, there is new house on the lot below the Wade Cottages.

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