Leap into summer

Cain’s Pond Sunset

 June 25

It's been three weeks since our last trip to Nantucket and it is now popcorned with arrow wood viburnum.  People are still seeing the Sandhill crane, but it was not at Moor's End farm when we passed.

I headed out for a night time bike ride to Sesachacha Pond at sunset.  The scent of swamp azalea filled the night.  A black-crowned night heron eyed the fish at Cain's Pond while a young Osprey also eyed them from above. A common yellowthroat led the bird chorus.  Sesachacha wasn't drained this spring.

At 8:34, an Eastern Whip-poor-will started calling, even as the yellowthroats kept witchedy-ing.  I decided to head into the moors toward Mirror Pond to find a chuck-wills-widow.  Fireflies lit my way!  It was like I was in a Disney Movie with fireflies as the honor guard and guardians both.  I've never see a so many fireflies at once on Nantucket-hundreds.  The most I've  ever seen was in New Jersey in Basking Ridge in 2006. Was it the hot days that sparked a hatch? Some other natural phenomenon?

The chuck-wills-widow was singing near Mirror Pond.  Probably 2. 

Mirror Pond

What  a magical night!  And a clear sky full of stars, too!  Cygnus, Ursa Major and Minor, Cassiopeia.

Pickerelweed

Azalea Viscosa

The sunrise is north and moving south now that it is just past the summer solstice.  By the equinox, the sunrise will be directly east of our bedroom window.  

Josh and I walked Norwood Farm and heard a black-billed cuckoo near the "corner pond," which is filled with pickerelweed.  Almanac Pond is ringed with yellow gratiola aurea. A few  toadflax and Quaker ladies are still blooming, reminiscent of spring as we leap into summer.

Almanac Pond rimmed by Gratiola Aurea

Foggy Early June

Six weeks is as long as I have been away from Nantucket in several years. Anticipation! I am sure to have missed the Black Stilt which visited, but maybe the Sandhill Crane is still there. My entire spring migration birding was at Mount Auburn Cemetery this year.

The Wild Cherries are in bloom, giving the green of the island a pearly luster as their panicles catch the light.  They are the plant version of fog, which is swaddling the island. The fog is moving gently back and forth, leaving everything moist and verdant.

On the verges, the Scotch Broom and white climbing roses are in bloom, and the ox-eyed daisies are starting up. 

Blue Flag

Blue flag is blooming at Windswept Bog, blue toadflax, and also some Pasture thistle.  The killdeer are loving the disturbed land and mud that is part of the wetland restoration. There are so many of them, at least 15, calling continuously and showing themselves.  The parts of Windswept that were restored in 2023-2024 are now filled with sedges.  I hope the fields of blue flag will grow back.  

Killdeer

It's the time of year that cars are stopping on the Polpis Road because snapping turtles are crossing.  This happened to me three times this weekend, once on my bike and once in the car- 2 turtles within a quarter mile.

Luckily, Jacqui Papale saw the Sandhill Crane at Moors End Farm and posted it on eBird.  Josh and I checked it out ...and there he was!  Majestic bird, standing on one leg.

Sandhill Crane

Too short a visit to check out the ponds.  I missed the beach plum bloom and the golden heather this year because of our trip to the Netherlands and the impending arrival of a new person, grandchild #6.

Fledgling Time

May I have this dance?

Pasture Thistle

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.