March 12 and 13, 2020

On March 12, Josh and I hiked the Ram Pasture out to the beach at Clark's Cove, then back via Clark's Cove Road and Barrett's Farm Road.  A peregrine falcon was watching the outwash plain.  We also saw the usual gulls (herring and greater black-backed), mallards,  and an assortment of chickadees and yellow-rumped warblers.  A red-tail hawk , turkey vultures and crows were  out hunting. Song sparrows, blue jays and a cardinal were also about.

Red-Tail Hawk

Peregrine Falcon 

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Peregrine takes off

Peregrine takes off

Clark's Cove

Today it blew and rained.  The temperature is 50 degrees,  with the wind from the WSW.  I hiked the Squam Swamp loop.  It is like a magic forest with the lichen and spanish moss abloom in the fog.  I expected elves to put out of the trunks in the vernal pools.  The swamp is as wet as I have ever seen it.  There are many more vernal pools and the wetlands usually filled with ferns are filled with water.  I will have to look back to see if I've hiked it in mid-March.  It has been a rather mild winter;  the first daffodils are now blooming at the rotary.

Budding Red Maple (Acer Rubrum) with Spanish Moss

Pincushion Moss , Leucobryum glaucum

Broom Forkmoss,  Dicranum Scoparium

Usnea and Acer

Low Beach

Josh and I hiked out Low Beach to Tom Nevers.  A major ferry-stopping storm last weekend has eliminated part of the scarp.   The sand is brown in many spots.  There is a huge wetland in front of all the homes on Low Beach Road beyond the Coast Guard Station. We had to hike along deer trails  for some time before we could get to the road.

  We had fun watching a peregrine falcon.

..and a red-tail hawk mobbed by crows

Winter 2020

February 24, 2020

It is a beautiful, sunny winter weekend.  Josh and I are training for hiking in Scotland,  so we hiked into town on the Moors and back home- 15 miles,  on Saturday.  We did a figure eight loop around Norwood Farm and Stump Pond on Sunday.  I  hiked the beach on Friday and Monday.  Enjoyed our Birding Group on Sunday.   All good except that the Sankaty Head Lighthouse is not rotating.  Despite the amazing stars:  Big Dipper on its handle and Orion in the South,  we miss the Lighthouse's rotating light.  

Pout Pond Road flood

Norwood Farm Tree 

Almanac Pond flooded to road;  ponds very high

Long tailed ducks and surf scoter out front

Seal down front

Tree Swallow off the bluff

Windswept Bog

Bufflehead off the bluff

Holly  at Stump Pond

November 2019

Pout Ponds November 3

Clark's Cove Nov 2

Oct 26 

 Love October in Nantucket. From the golden goldenrod to the goldenrod "ghosts"  From the sprawling clematis paniculata to its veins.  The color goes to the white groundsel (also called high tide bush-Baccharis Halimnifolia) and the red winterberries,  and the last vestiges of red on the moors.

After-bloom of the Clematis Paniculata - Oct26 on the Bluff Walk

Scalloping at Polpis! Oct 6

Golden Rod in early fall

Groundsel- Oct 6

Sankaty Light- Oct 5

Liatris,  Blazing Star,  Oct 5

Fall 2019

Harvest Moon Rise on September 13

Squam Farm Sept 13

Tupelos  Squam Farm Sept 13

Squam farm

Lezpedesa, Bush clover at Squam Farm Sept 13 

Sweet Everlasting,  Squam Farm,  Sept 13
Gnapalium obtusifolia

Blazing Star at Squam Farm

Blazing Star in Sankaty Golf club grass

Goldenrod and the bluff October 5

Pout Ponds Sept 22

Sept 22 Blazing Stars, Liatris Spicata

Sept 22 Blazing Star

Roses Rebloom, October 5

Gerardia at Pout Ponds on Sept 22, Agalinis purpurea,  also called Slender False Foxglove.  Also seen at Windswept Bog

Autumn Clematis and Goldrenrod on the bluff on Sept 14

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Clematis Paniculata on the bluff

Asters

Lots of Monarchs this weekend