The Wheel of the Seasons

 

Pearl Crescent on Goldenrod Aug 7
South Road near Tom Nevers

  

Pearly Everlasting stands
dot the Madaket Moors

Seeing the goldenrod start to open makes it seem like summer is beginning to end.  The beach plums and grapes are still on the bush and vine,  but the early summer is gone.  The pearly everlasting stands lighten the Head of the Plains.

Today  I hiked Squam Farm to Squam Swamp and back to the Farm.  It was 74 degrees with winds from the west at 10 mph while I walked from 4:30 to about 6 pm.  The clethra is just past its peak,  but the walk was so fragrant.  The woods were so quiet.  There were only a handful of catbirds and towhees in evidence,  along with a yellowthroat chugging.  A pair of kingbirds were the highlight in the huge field near the former sheep barn.  I was surprised more birds weren't out taking advantage of all the insects,  including lots of dragonflies.  There were also a couple of blue jays, a chickadee and a group of red-winged blackbirds. 

The St. Johnswort is past,  but the marsh St. Johnswort  (hypericum virginicum) was thriving in the wet places.  And the St. Andrew's Cross (hypericum stragulum)  was on the sides of the paths in abundance.  A few late yarrow,  achillea,  and even a late ox-eye daisy could be seen.  There was a clump of the native mint in the field near the barn. The black cherries are ripening,  and the mockernut hickories are full of nuts.  My favorite find was the "antler and spindle fungi," from the family Clavariaceae in  Squam Swamp..  

Willow-herb at the Farm 

Black cherry 

Hypericum virginicum

Queen Anne's Lace

Antler and spindle fungi 

in Squam Swamp

Shorebirds

Walking on the beach, kayaking to Pocomo Meadow, visiting the UMass Field Station...the shorebirds are beautiful companions.  

Snowy Egret at Masquetuck, Aug 4

Whimbrel takes off at UMass Field Station

Island Creek, Pocomo

Black-bellied plovers

Yellowlegs at Pocomo

Whimbrel at Island Creek

Black-bellied plovers
across from Quaise Point, Aug 3

Common and Least Terns,  Eel Point, July 30

Least tern and common tern

Sanderlings, Eel Point, July 30

Semipalmated plover

Piping Plover, Madaket Harbor side
of Eel Point, July 30

Oystercatcher

Ruddy Turnstone

Swamp milkweed

While walking on the Holly Farm Land Bank Land in Polpis Harbor today,  I chanced upon this swamp milkweed,  asclepias incarnata,  one of the three types of milkweed that grow on Nantucket.  The common milkweed,  asclepias syriaca,  is the host to the monarch butterflies which are so gaily flitting about these past three weeks,  and blooms earlier. The third variety is the wavy-leaved milkweed,  asclepias amplexicaulis.  

It always excites me to see a new species, so I was already happy.  Then, a hummingbird clearwing, hemaris thysbe,  alighted on the milkweed.   My daily dose of awe!

A pink variety of clethra alnifolia 
on the Polpis Harbor road

Summer's climax?

Josh and I hiked Norwood Farm on Saturday, July 31, in order to inhale the scent of the sweet pepper, clethra alnifolia, now in full bloom. The richness of the scent and the milky blooms contrasted with the now brown grasses. Few wildflowers were blooming except for the St. Andrew's Cross (hypericum stragulum) as a yellow carpet in spots. The tupelo have begun to turn that rich cordovan, mulberry, deep red that signals the end of summer. A couple of very early goldenrod had opened on the moor roads. 

The ponds are full of water-lilies and swamp willow-herb (decodon verticillatus) , with a few pickerel weeds at the edges. They are very low. I didn't even file an ebird because the birds were the usual towhees, robins, jays and crows. I did hear a downy woodpecker.

I see Monarch butterflies daily in the yard at bluff's edge.

Sweet Pepper,
Clethra Alnifolia

An early goldenrod

Black cherries?

The "Norwood" Oak

Almanac Pond is low, July 31

Sunrise, August 1

American Germander at Clark's Cove,
teucrium canadense

Teucrium canadense

Pearly Everlasting at Head of the Plains,
August 1,  many stands.
Anaphalis margaritacea



  

Summer Rambles

High summer means the Queen Anne's Lace and chicory on the road-sides and bike-path-sides. Sickle-leaved asters on the moor roads.  Toothed White-topped asters on the sides of the moor roads and wood nymphs dashing about.  

On Friday, July 23,  a group of us took a walk with Kelly Omand,  botanist of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, starting from the Barn at Sanford Farm,  through the old Weaver property.  The farm had a  whaling TryWorks  in the yard---filled with cement.  We saw wood lilies,  early pink and white Joe Pye weed (eutrochium),  pearly everlasting, hollies and black cherries (along with the usuals)

Pearly Everlasting,
anaphalis margaritacea

Painted Lady Butterfly,
Vanessa cardui

Native mint

Joe Pye weed, 
eutrochium dubium

Wood Lily,  Lilium Philadelphicum

Coastal Joe-Pye Weed, white variant
eutrochium dubium

OnSaturday, July 24,  Josh and I kayaked Polpis Harbor out to the Meadows and Island Creek.  I saw my first whimbrels of the year.  

On Sunday,  July 25,  I hiked out to Pout Ponds in the break in between (and during)  the rain.  The wild indigo is now going to seed.  I stopped in at Jewel Pond on the way home,  and saw the pickerel weed and floating hearts.

Pickerelweed,
pontederia cordata

Little floating heart,
nymphoides cordata

Pipewort, eriocaulon aquaticum

Eastern wild indigo,Baptisia Tinctoria

Jewel Pond

Sickle-leaved aster with blueberry

Toothed, white-topped aster,
sericocarpus asteroides