"Tour De Ponds"

 I set out today to find some beach plums on the Middle Moors...but the bushes I checked out were bare!  Did the plums not grow,  or did the birds or people get there first?  The blossoms were glorious during the spring....

My bike ride turned into a Tour de France-  but a tour of the Middle Moors Ponds.  It's the time before what looks like fall... with the golden sickle-leaved asters on the roads,  the sweet everlasting and downy goldenrod opening,  and the first asters popping.  The Sweet Pepper  (Clethra Alnifolia) is gone.

Stump Pond with Osprey

Almanac Pond

Norwood Farm Pond

Pond at corner of Pout Ponds Road  and Wigwam Ponds Road

Fourth Wigwam Pond

Gibbs Pond

First Wigwam Pond

Second Wigwam Pond

With Lily Pad and Pickerel weed

With Blue Darner

Third Wigwam Pond

Fourth Wigwam Pond

Late August

The month has been flying by...the sweet pepper is now almost done and the goldenrod is out. Joe, Amy and Frankie have been with us for almost two weeks and will be staying until August 31.  What fun to get to know the little one!  Going to the playground with her is a trip,  watching all the children interact.  And Frankie is not yet 20 months old!  "Play"  and "Please"  figure in the kid exchanges.

I took a Bike ride on August 16  to check out Jewel Pond, Stump Pond and Windswept Bog.

Morning Beauty meadow in Windswept Bog,  near Almanac Pond Road

Morning Beauty at Windswept Bog, Rhex Virginica, Aug 16

Pickerel Weed at Jewel Pond...RedTail Hawk at Windswept Bog

Bush Clover

Sweet Pepper

y While the yellow warbler's "sweet, sweet, sweet,  I'm so sweet"  is a sign of June and July,  the smell of the sweet pepper,  Clethra Alnifolia is the sign of August for me.  The sweet pepper is now out in force,  and the scent is my favorite Nantucket scent,  bar none.  Charlie and I took a walk at Norwood Farm today, August 8,  and reveled in the aroma.   Another treat was seeing a stand of the  white fringed Spiranthes orchid,  Ladies Tresses.  The bird highlight was a merlin being chased by a kingbird.

Been waking up early to see the sunrise and kayak at Polpis Harbor.  So many shorebirds!  Always common terns and oystercatchers, yellow legs and willets,  but short-billed dowitchers and whimbrels, too.  And the fun of discovering a wild Turk's Cap Lily on the Land Bank walk to Swainsen's Neck.

Ladies Tresses Orchid,  Spiranthes tuberosa

Pout Ponds... August water level

Checkerspot on Sickle-Leaved golden aster, Chrysopsis Falcata

Signs that fall will come

Sweet Pepper,  Clethra Alnifolia

Swamp Willow Herb at Squam Farm, August 4. Decodon Verticillatus

Wild Turk's Cap lily, Lilium Superbum at Polpis

Sea Lavender is out!  Polpis Harbor August 4.  Limonium Carolinanum

Water Pennywort, Hydrocotyle umbellata, at Pout Pond August 7

Monarch on Verbena Bonariensis in our garden, July 27

St. Andrew's Cross, Ascyrum Hypericoides,  mats all over Norwood Farm

Late July

It's the time of chicory and Queen Anne's Lace on the roadsides. The last of the swamp azalea's aroma is still in the wet places,  but the sweet pepper (Clethra Alnifolia) is straining to bloom soon.  After hunting for Nantucket's wood lily,  I was excited to see on at Squam Farm on Sunday July 26 during the birding group's outing.  

Stump Pond on July 24

Morning Beauty at Windswept Bog on July 24
Rhexia Virginica

Monarch on verbena bonariensis in the garden

Wood Lily, at Squam Farm on July 26

Inland

   I hiked  the Milestone Cranberry Bog with the birding group on July 19,  and Squam Farm on July 16.  The highlight of the bog walk was seeing this polyphemous moth  on the ground  

Daisy Fleabane, Erigeron strigosus

Bird's Foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus

Tufted Vetch, Vicia Cracca

Solanum dulcamara, Bittersweet nightshade

Chicory:  Cichorium intybus

 Milestone Bog: Polyphemous moth

Rambles

Josh and I hiked Eel Point on July 17,  and to Coskata on July 20.  I had heard that the shorebird migration is already starting, but we saw mostly the usual suspects:  Oystercatcher, great egrets, willets (and herring and black backed gulls and Canada geese) on our hike along the harbor out to Coskata in the late afternoon.    I remarked on the number of horseshoe crab shells -  surely 30 or so.

There were piping plovers at Eel Point,  and about 40 very loud willets,  probably calling alarm to protect their young. We also saw least sandpiper and oystercatchers. 

Oystercatcher at Head of the Harbor

Great Egret

So many horseshoe crab shells

Hiking to Coskata on the harborside

Piping Plover

Sanderling

Least Sandpiper

Willet

Willet at Eel Point 

Eel Point, July 17, 2020

 

Norwood Farm and Pout Ponds

Sickle-Leaved Asters are out on the moors,  a sure sign that summer is now waning.  How can that be?   The swamp azalea is still blooming at the Pout Ponds  .And the low-bush blueberries and false indigo are out.  The blueberries were near a field of narrow leaved white topped asters {Seriocarpus Linfolius).  Some early Queen Ann's Lace and Chicory are on the roadsides.    The St. Johnswort is still blooming on the moors,  along with the Yarrow (achillea).

Waterlilies in Norwood Farm Kettle Pond

  

Sickle-leaved Aster, Chrysopsis Falcata

Common Wood Nymph

Common Wood Nymphs abound on the moors

Crown Vetch, Coronilla Varia

wild Indigo- Baptisia tinctoria