A Daily Dose of Awe

Josh and I took a walk around Windswept Bog on Thursday June 17. It used to be a working cranberry bog, but is now in the process of returning to a wetland. The flowers are taking advantage of that! There are view of whole fields of the the wild iris, blue flag.

Rose Pogonia,
Pogonia Ophioglossoides

 My daily awe was provided by a patch of wild orchids, the dominutive rose pogonia, (Pogonia ophioglossoides) near Stump Pond. I first saw an early colicroot and a plump thistle, and turning around saw another patch of white...and was surprised by the rose pogonia! These finds make the continuing sandplain blue-eyed grass seem almost humdrum! 

 It's the time of year when snakes and turtles are regularly crossing my hiking paths, for more surprises. On the roads, its Viburnum, Milkweed and Multiflora roses time. The multifloras have been rambling for a week, but the viburnum and milkweed have just popped.

On Sunday, the ovenbirds are still singing in Squam Swamp, accompanied by many red-eyed vireos and great crested flycatchers and an eastern wood peewee. They really belt it out...almost as much song per ounce as a carolina wren!

Sandplain Blue-eyed Grass, sisyrinchium fuscatum, is globally rare...except for ACK and MVY

Painted Turtle

Rosa Virginiana

A juicy pasture thistle, Cirsium pumilum

Colicroot, Aletris, contains a compound that mimics estrogen

 

Spring Songs: Common Yellowthroats and Towhees

 

The Song of Solomon has a wonderful description of the coming of spring and summer: "The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove  is heard in our land.”

Here in Nantucket,  the singing birds in May and early June are common yellowthroats and towhees. The flowers show themselves, but the singing-est birds hide. Most  of my walks (and my Polpis bike loops)  are filled with the "preet"  and "drink-your-tea"  of towhees and the "whichety-whichety-which" of the common yellowthroats.  The birds themselves are often hidden in the now leafed-out trees and bushes.   After many attempts,  I caught these birds mid-song.  Do you want to sing, now, too?

 

American Towhee

Kayak launch

At 8 am, It was already a sunny and warm 71 degrees with a wind from the west at 10 miles per hour.  Polpis Harbor was quiet, except for the oystermen heading out to their farm.  The parking lot was empty, but the stands were now full of kayaks, many forced to share berths.

At first I thought my kayak had been taken by The Land Bank, as their stern sign warns that boats left before April 15 will be removed. But I knew that we’d brought the kayaks in late April ( a Facebook post to prove it!) and I looked more carefully and found my trusty Walden down at the end of the rank.

What a day!  An osprey flew above, clutching a fish. Paddling out to Quaise Point, I spied an oystercatcher on nest next to the marsh.  Two males came to warn me off.  I headed into what I call Medouie Creeks  ( but is called Island Creeks on Google Maps), passing a group of ruddy turnstones.  Ducks flushed, willets called, and how could I be hearing common yellowthroats while kayaking in a marsh?  I guess they can sing as loudly as Carolina wrens!

As I headed back to Polpis Harbor, two fishermen in a small boat were casting lines in the channel. “ No bites yet!” They smiled.  A family of 7 yellow- footed snowy egrets pecked in the sand at the point. It was almost high tide.

The paddles, the boat, the water and sky, the familiar shoreline .  Birds giving birth.  A new morning! 

Ruddy Turnstones

Oystercatchers guarding females

The Spring Procession

The Daffodils.  The shad and mayflowers,  the flowering cherries.  The beach plums and crabapples.  The golden heather. Through it all,  the Quaker Ladies.  The Rosa Rugosa and ox-eye daisies.

Spring progresses, with each of its waves of leafing and blooming.  The nature world changes rapidly,  with winter's gray moors punctuated by green pines and cedars becoming spring's  yellowy greens and fuzzy whites; and the red of emerging leaves and scrub oak catkins.  Soon the trees and shrubs will settle to their summer's green, but the flowers will continue their procession.

Nature is constantly changing, but the rhythms of that change, endure.

Bearberry near Altar Rock

Lichen and Golden Heather

Rosa Rugosa on the Bluff

Stump Pond

Blue-eyed Grass at Stump Pond

Blue Flag at Windswept Bog

The moors from the 4th Milestone to Altar Rock Trail

Golden Heather

 Golden Heather blankets the hills on the middle moors,  and brightens the roads when clumps grow alongside.  Hudsonia ericoides is as much an emblem of spring on the island as the flowering low-bush blueberries and huckleberries.  It' s more beautiful than the catkins from the scrub oak.  And it seems to withstand years of less rain like this one.  The ponds are the lowest we've seen in years.  At Pout Pond,  the viola lanceolata are where they pond might usually be.

The bird's foot violets are out at the intersection of Altar Rock Road and Pout Pond Road.  And we are seeing lots of Beach Plum blooms along the Pout Pond Road.  Hope we will get some for jam!

The first blue-eyed grass is opening on the moors,  and also at Norwood Farm.

Toby Sackton helped me find the black-necked stilt at the Nantucket Harbor Flats,  but I still haven't seen the glossy ibises that have been hanging out there.  They may have flown. 

My biggest find has been the ovenbird in Squam Swamp.  I didn't see it,  but got great recordings of it singing (along with great crested flycatchers and black&white warblers).

Discovering something new in the wild every day just makes me happy.  Is it that I like to search for the new?  Like being in nature?  Like the total absorption in the environment that I need to do to listen for birds,  look for their movement and see the flowers? It is a loss of self and immersion in the world around me,  which never ceases to offer something new and delightful.

Viola Pedata, Bird's Foot Violet

Viola Lanceolata,  Bog Violet

Pout Pond

Black Huckleberry

Low Bush Blueberry

Golden Heather, Hudsonia Erocoides

Bird's Foot Violet

Pout Pond

Black Necked Stilt at The Creeks

Black-necked stilt

Return

 

We took the boat back to Nantucket  on the first day of the new summer-y schedule.  The air is lively with that earlier spring of light greens reaching into a blue sky, red catkins and new growth, crabapple petals carpeting the ground, lilacs blooming.

We’ve missed the amelanchier shad and the cherries flowering, but  now the winds seem less harsh than earlier in the spring.  We even have some late narcissus blooming in the garden, although the island-wide show is done.

The beach plums are in full bloom all over the island;  this year I vow to make a map so that when they ripen, we have lots of places to look.  My Polpis bike loop is with towhees, Carolina wrens, chipping sparrows, pine warblers,  yellow warblers, common yellowthroats- I had forgotten how many of them are singing at this time of year.

Birds are the sounds of the spring, as they declare their territories, find mates,  and declare the dawn.

Spring Forward

April 22, 2021 

Why do I write this blog?

I write because of the surprises I find nearly every day by observing nature closely.  I don't listen to an audible book or a podcast when I walk,  I find myself consumed by the sights and sounds of what is around me.  Today the creaks of the trees in Squam Swamp were as vocal as the birds.  The change of seasons is as fascinating as any change process, and one we can inspect every year of our lives!  A step forward and a step back....

Today started out at 37 degrees with  winds from the west at 25 miles per hour, with gusts up in the  forties. But it is spring and the daffodils are at full bloom.  I found the earliest wildflowers,  wood anemones,  in Squam Swamp this morning. Yesterday I listened to and saw a pine warbler in the piney woods at the bottom on the Sconset bluff. 

I suppose it is my version of meditation.

Northern Gannet off the Bluff

Swamp Maple and Lichen

Early Wood Anemones

Squam Swamp's Vernal Pools

Daffodils on the Bluff

First fern fiddleheads

Pine Warbler

Laughing Gull