The Gannet Show

So much bird action here in early May!  We get distracted when we see fifty or so gannets diving off the bluff.... this was the scene on May 13.

The local birds

The northern gannets have been our daily companions this winter and spring. It has been such a treat to see them everyday from my perch on the second floor balcony.  The long-tail ducks seem to have already departed,  and the number of buffleheads has declined.  All three scoters still inhabit the Atlantic in our front yard.  

The tree swallows have returned in number,  and Josh and I saw many of them in flight over the flooded Milestone Bog today,  along with many barn swallows.  Canada Geese with many young paraded across the bog.  A kingfisher sat with a fish at the flooded pit.  Skyler Kardell is seeing pipits and snipes at the bogs,  but no luck for me.

On Sunday, May 3 I hiked the field station and heard and saw my first yellow warbler of the year.  The tree swallows posed for me.  The willets sang. My breath was caught (but not a great photo)  of a magnolia warbler. On April 29,  when we hiked out Wauwinet Head of the Harbor to the inlet before Coskata,  we were treated to oystercatchers, willets, piping plovers, egrets and northern harriers.   Details are in my ebird reports.

Canada Geese with 8 chicks, May 6, Milestone Bog

Kingfisher, with a fish,  at Milestone Cranberry Bog May 6

Yellowlegs at Milestone Bog May 6

Great Egret, May 6

Chickadee dee dee at Squam Farm, May 5

Tree Swallow at UMass Field Station, May 3

Here's looking at you, kid

Oystercatcher trio at Head of the Harbor, April 29

Willet at Head of the Harbor, April 29

Amelanchier

By any definition,  the arrival of the Shad Blow,  or Amelanchier Canadensis,  signifies the arrival of Nantucket's spring.  One day it just pops out,  and that day was yesterday, May 5.  As I cycled the Polpis loop,  it lit up the woody shrubs which have not yet leafed out.  And when Josh and I went to hike Squam Farm,  there it was....along with swaths of Quaker Ladies, Houstonia caerulea.  Many wood anemones, anemone nemorosa,  were along the paths and into the wood in the "hidden forest" there.  I love that the flowers are so small,  yet they gather in great numbers to light up the otherwise greyish brown landscape.

Amelanchier Canadensis at Squam Farm

Wood Anemones,  Anemone Nemorosa

Cinnamon Ferms sprouting in the wet spots

Wood anemones, Squam Farm

Shad at Stump Pond, May 4

Fields of Bluets at Stump Pond, May 4 and Squam Farm, May 5

Colors of Spring

April 26

Some might think the color of spring is green....and it is,  as we watch the bare brown twigs start to leaf out,  growing greener over these weeks.  This privet,  for example.    And the mosses that have been coming alive over the past month.

But I find the other colors of spring equally wonderful:  the red of the new maple buds and the growing huckleberry on the moors;  the white of the earliest wildflowers,  and the yellow,  not only of the daffodils,  but of the yellowy greens that come first.  They can also result in some great color combinations:  like the swamp maple red and lichen.

March 13,  Squam Swamp

Huckleberry on the Middle Moors

White flowers of spring

First Amelanchier,  Shad,  May 4

Quaker Ladies at Windswept bog

Mayflowers on Road from Pout Pond

Ann's Lane

Mayflowers!

I have been waiting for the appearance of spring wildflowers. I  hiked Stump Pond today, April 29,  and was delighted to find 3 different white spring flowers:  Mayflowers, Quaker Ladies and Wood Anemones.  Bring it on spring! 

Mayflower

Also known as Trailing Arbutus

Wood Anemone

Quaker Ladies, Bluets

Massachusetts state flower

Foggy Bog

 Josh and I hiked around Milestone Cranberry Bog in the fog yesterday.  Dreamy.  

Canada Geese with chicks

When April with its sweet-smelling showers....

Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

1         Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
 :              When April with its sweet-smelling showers
2         The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
               Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
3         And bathed every veyne in swich licour
               And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid
4         Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
               By the power of which the flower is created;
5         Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
               When the West Wind also with its sweet breath,
6         Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
               In every holt and heath, has breathed life into
7         The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
               The tender crops, and the young sun
8         Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
               Has run its half course in Aries,
9         And smale foweles maken melodye,
               And small fowls make melody,
10         That slepen al the nyght with open ye
               Those that sleep all the night with open eyes
11         (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
               (So Nature incites them in their hearts),
12         Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
               Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,
13         And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
               And professional pilgrims (long) to seek foreign shores,
14         To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
               To (go to) distant shrines, known in various lands;
15         And specially from every shires ende
               And specially from every shire's end
16         Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
               Of England to Canterbury they travel,
17         The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
               To seek the holy blessed martyr,
18         That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

              Who helped them when they were sick.

No doubt we will all be eager to travel as the weather gets better after 6 weeks in coronavirus quarantine!

As we approach Daffodil Weekend, the north facing daffies are still with us!  It is sunny today,  but the wind is blowing from the West Northwest at 25 mph, with gusts to 45 mph.

Polpis Road near Sesachacha Pond

Pout Ponds

Pout Ponds

Lichen

Blooming Bearberry!

 

Hike to Pout Ponds...with no plane noise overhead!

Canada Geese and Bufflehead at Pout Ponds

The view to Serengeti