 |
| Pout Pond |
 |
| Slender-leaved goldenrod |
 |
| Heath Aster, Aster Ericoides |
 |
| Arrowhead, Sagittaria Latifolia |
 |
| First Blazing Star of the season, Liatris |
 |
| Eastern Silvery Aster, Aster Concolor |
 |
| Sickle-leaved aster, Chrysopsis Falcata and Slender Bush Clover, Lespedeza Virginica |
 |
| Foggy Middle Moors |
The kids have left; we loved having them! Arthur said his favorite Nantucket activity was paddling with me in the kayak in Polpis Harbor. Noa liked the monkey hanging from our chandelier and Frankie was always eager to dig. And of course the bubble machine was a success!
Now the roads are lined with sweet everlasting (Gnaphalium obtusifolium) and Slender-leaved goldenrod (Euthamia tenuifolia). The tupelos are turning mahogany. These were the predominant flowers at Norwood Farm when I hiked yesterday. There was a NCF sign that the St. Andrew's Cross (Ascyrum Hypericoides) which is so common there is unique in New England. The winds are more frequently from the North and northwest. Today is 69 degrees at 1:30 pm with winds from the north.
Asters are starting. I saw the perennial saltmarsh aster (aster tenuifolia) this morning at Polpis harbor (along with sea lavender and salicornia) when we went clamming.
Sea Lavender (Limonium Nashii)
 |
| Arthur & Noa at Coskata |
 |
| Bushy Aster ( Aster Dumosus) |
 |
| Kettle Pond at Norwood Farm |
 |
| Favorite Norwood Farm Oak |
 |
| Bush Clover |
 |
| More Ladies Tresses at Norwood Farm |
 |
| Sunrise, September 5 |
 |
| Sunrise |
Noa and Frankie
For many shorebirds, Nantucket is their waystation on the long journey south. I've seen many of the visitors during my kayaking in Polpis Harbor to Pocomo, and on my hike with Libby Buck of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation at Eel Point yesterday.
While the oystercatchers and least terns do breed here, the semipalmated plovers, black terns and Laughing Gulls do not. There is a big nesting colony of laughing gulls on Monomoy and they are pushing into Nantucket. The semipalmated plovers breed in the artic.
 |
| Willet |
 |
| Young piping plover |
 |
| Semipalmated plover |
 |
| Piping Plover |
 |
| Add caption |
 |
| Black bellied plover |
 |
| Semipalmated Plover |
 |
| Oystercatcher |
 |
| Black Terns with Common Terns |
 |
| Black bellied plover |
 |
| Short billed dowitcher |
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 |
 |
| 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 |
