Windswept Bog and Stump Pond, September 9

In the shady places, St. Andrew's Cross,
Ascyrum Hypercoides 

Nodding Ladies Tresses at Windswept Bog

Stump Pond Willow Herb, 
Decodon verticillatus

Gone-by Gerardia at Windswept

Roundhead Bush Clover,
Lespedeza capitata

Bush clover and goldenrod

Bushy Aster, Aster dumosus

Tupelo and Fox Grapes

Tall Goldenrod?  Solidago Altissima

 

Pout Ponds Hike, September 8

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

Labor Day Weekend

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

 

Shorebird Migration

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

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Black bellied plover

Semipalmated Plover

Oystercatcher

Black Terns with Common Terns

Black bellied plover

Short billed dowitcher