Mid-August Diary

 

Pearl Crescent butterfly
 on a Sweet Everlasting

August 11:  At Masquetuck, a lone red eyed vireo continues to sing.  The marsh is changing color now and the sea lavender is blooming.  A belted kingfisher hunts at the edge of Polpis Harbor. 

August 12:  Highlight of my hike at Eel Point  is two immature little blue herons! Multiple night herons, great and snowy egrets and peeps.

Immature Little Blue Heron

August 14-15: Hard to distinguish the "special" terns like the Roseate, Arctic and Forster's from the common terns.  Trips to Sesachacha Cut and to Low Beach to check them out.  The killdeer and least terns are regulars at Sesachacha near Caleb's Pond-  where  the shores are covered with marsh fleabane (pluchea odorata),  which is much prettier than its name.  Rose mallow highlight are Squam Pond.  I am eyeing the beach plums at the entrance to Low Beach.

Squam Pond

Lesser Yellowlegs

August 16: There are luscious but unripe grapes at Entry to Ram Pasture from Marvin’s woods.  They are on my list for picking later! The scent of the sweet pepper is waning.  The coastal JoePye weed and the pearly everlasting are blooming at Marvin's Woods and on the Head of the Plains.  Yellows are appearing but it is not full-on goldenrod season yet. The ospreys have flown south.  The kingbirds are still hawking for insects and there are more of them!

Coastal JoePye Weed

White Coastal JoePye Weed

August 17: Mushrooms emerge after the rain at Squam Swamp:  Milky Bonnets (Hemimycena lactea), Fragile Dapperlings (Leucocoprinus fragilissimus),  Fishbiscuit Russulas (Russula compacta).  One great crested flycatcher and a number of towhees, catbirds, bluejays and a chucking common yellowthroat. So green in the fog...still the scent of sweet pepper and even a late swamp azalea.  I missed the little club spurred bog orchids,  which Kelly Omand says is between posts 20 and 21 in late July..

Fragile Dapperlings

Milky Bonnets

Russula

Biking to Jewel Pond on the moors, I see a lesser yellowlegs and a  least sandpiper , which must have popped over from Sesachacha. The pond is really low, and fringed by gratiola aurea, Pipeworts (eriocaulon aquaticum), and Virginia morning beauties (rhexia virginiana).

Morning Beauties

Sweet Pepper and Supermoons

 

Sweet Pepper,
clethra alnifolia

I set off to hike Norwood Farm in search of smelling the sweet pepper, clethra alnifolua, in bloom. It is hard to describe how it’s scent  demands focus.  The sarsaparilla odor takes over my senses.  If you want to be removed from the cares and craziness of the rest of the world, walking scented paths reigns supreme. Between the scent, listening for birdsong, watching for favorite wildflowers  and following flitting butterflies, how could I possibly think of anything else? Smells subdue Trump’s indictment, US debt downgrade,  continuing war in Ukraine, controversies over college admissions....

The little ladies tresses orchids (spirantheses tuberosa) were in bloom!  The St John’s cross, hypericum stragulum, was also out.  The sickleleaf silk-grass, pityopsis falcata, were in full bloom along the Pout Pond road. They used to be known as sickleleaf asters.  I hadn’t seen barn swallows before at Norwood Farm, but they darted past  in the insect heaven.

Little Ladies' Tresses,
Spiranthese tuberosa

St. John's Cross,
hypericum stragulum

Intimations of summer’s decline were evident: The first of the goldenrods, the slender goldentop (euthamia caroliniana),  have opened, and the leaves of the Tupelo are turning their red and mahogany.  But there was still the clatter and clamor of young eastern towhees and catbirds near the ponds. 

Slender Goldentop

Sickleleaf Silkgrass

Tupelos

Tupelo leaf

Last night was the first of August 2023's two supermoons, the Sturgeon Moon.  According to the Farmer's Almanac,  this is the time of year that indigenous populations found large numbers of sturgeon easy to catch in the Great Lakes.  I don't know if I've ever eaten sturgeon.

After the "Storm"

Wood Lily
Lilium Philidelphium

Our Brooklyn kids and our four grandchildren left Nantucket yesterday and the house seems oddly quiet. I really enjoyed taking Arthur to the "Bug Bonanza" program at the Maria Mitchell Hinchman House Natural Sciences Museum, and all the grandkids to "Ravenous Reptiles" there. Lots of time was spent digging holes at the beach, burying kids, and jumping waves.

During the whirlwind of activity by Arthur (7), Noa (4), Frankie (4) and Simon (1), I almost missed the changes of the summer season. A more consistent southwest wind came in over the past week, changing what had been a foggy July. The sweet pepper (Clethra alnifolnia) is opening and spreading its spicy scent. I saw a Wood Lily at Squam Farm on a short walk with Frankie, and the Meadow Beauties are now out at Windswept Bog. I discovered them, and two Northern BobWhites, during a "last-day" walk with Sam, Mari , Arthur , Frankie, Josh and Mari's mother Michiyo. Arthur caught and released a copper butterfly and bluet damselfly during our outing. We all ate dewberries.

Virginia Meadow Beauty
Rhexia Virginica

The average temperature for the month was 70.6 degrees, with .8 inches of rain and the dominant wind from the southwest. Other parts of the country are sweltering. We installed a new Davis Vantage Pro 2 weather station when the anemometer died on our previous one. So I can't compare July to June in terms of temperature, but in terms of rain, there was 3.22 inches in June.

I am looking forward to the Sturgeon Moon, which will rise from the ocean on August 2.  This is the moonrise on July 29.

Moonrise, July 29

 

Before the kids arrived,  I believe I saw the first Whimbrel to stop in Nantucket on this year's southward migration.  I had hiked from Wauwinet to Coskata Pond via the Head of the Harbor and was rewarded on July 10 with this sighting.

Whimbrel at Coskata, July 10

July 18

Lost in the wilderness

 

Blueberries

Swamp Azalea,
Rhododendron Viscosa

Colicroot at Windswept Bog, Aletra Farinosa

The arrowhead viburnum has run its course.  What was a field of irises at Windswept Bog is now a field of Rosa Carolina, and the colicroot field is blooming.   The false indigo was getting ready to burst near the Pout Ponds on July 1  and Josh and I saw the first sickle grass on our hike from Reyes Pond on July 8. It’s the parade of summer.  There were 6 types of mushrooms in Squam Swamp during my hike on  July 7, and I nibbled on a number of ripe high bush blueberries.

I got lost in the moors on July 9.  #wildnantucket is real!  I set out seeking the white-fringed orchid in the Sconset Dump.  There was lots of new growth and I lost the path, got disoriented.  Bushwhacking left me scratched bloody and tired.  I called Rob Benchley for a rescue.  Phew.  He talked me through my moves …which were there on Google Maps’ satellite, but which I was having trouble reading my location.

I did walk through a field of colicroot, see the remains of sheep laurel, tromp through huge ferns and smell the swamp azalea.  And I got a shot of the white-fringed orchid before bloom. Rob and Carol rescued me and drove me home.

White-fringed Orchid, before bloom

Colicroot at the Sconset Dump

The GreyLady is earning her name this summer.  We’ve been in a southeast wind/east wind weather pattern that keeps the fog coming.  Temperatures have been cool , in the sixties or low seventies, with a mean temperature of 67.85 for the first 7 days of the month.  Every day was foggy for the past several weeks,  until today, July 11.  The winds have shifted to the west and the sky is clear.  The temperature is also up to 77, the highest of the year.

Honey Mushroom, Armillaria mellea

Poison Champagne Amanita, Amanita crenulata

Eastern American Platterful,
Megacollybia rodmanii

Amanita Sect. Validae

Jellied false coral fungus,
Sebacina schweinitzii

Brown American Star-footed Amanita,
Amanita brunnescens

Chicks

 My new kayak  has been launched!  It was so upsetting to have my trusty Walden stolen from Polpis Harbor in late October. I had to replace it.  So now the Eddyline Skylark 12 has been exploring Polpis.

On our first voyage on July 1 ,  Josh and I heard the elusive Clapper Rail in the Pocomo Meadow.  Others had heard (and seen it) at the UMass Field Station. 

The Oystercatchers are nesting in their  usual spot across from Quaise Point, and  it was a treat to see one of the chicks take flight on July 7.  I am learning to  balance the kayak and my  Canon R5 with 400 mm lens which is normally in  my dry bag!

Piping plover chicks abound at Madaket (June 29)  and Eel Point (June 26).  I just haven't been to Great Point to count the numbers there!

Stay away from my chicks!

Sunday, June 25

 

Yellow-crowned night heron

There have been a series of articles in the New York Times about Americans “de-churching”, disengaging from church.  If they are, they are missing out on an important opportunity for community.  Some say they commune with nature instead.  If that is the case, our Sunday morning social birding is the ideal for both.  Our leader, Ken Blackshaw even calls it “bird church.”  However, next Sunday I’ll head back to Mass at Sconset Chapel, which I love.

This week I saw two  Yellow-crowned night herons with “bird church"  at the  fresh pond at UMass Field Station.  The black-crowned night herons are regulars, but the yellow-crowned is rare enough to show up in the Boston Sunday Globe bird sightings.  In the afternoon, I  tramped around Squam Farm and Squam Swamp.

Blue-eyed grass , dewberry and ox-eyed daisies lined the Squam Swamp path.   Red-eyed vireos, common yellowthroats and towhees were my choir.  A flicker and a brown thrasher were treats at Squam Farm, as was a swatch of  swamp azalea, rhododendron viscosa . The grasses and grapes and daisies stretched over the former sheep farm. 

Swamp Azalea,  Rhododendron viscosa

Ox-eyed daisies

Arrowood Viburnum

Planes approaching every 3-5 minutes on Sunday afternoon makes it hard to bird by ear!

It is the start of arrowwood viburnum time, and the Polpis road is lit up with their blooms.  The multi flora roses are faded and the viburnum moves  the summer forward.

June

Coming and going to an island makes the seasons of the spring seem more defined than they might be if I were in one place. Returning to Nantucket after a three week absence, we have moved beyond the lime green/reddish hues of early spring to the time of white and yellow: white multiflora Wild roses blooming profusely and lazily draped on anything green they can find, wild cherry bloom-candles lit, ox-eye daisies sprightly waving, Scotch broom shining out. The white waxy coating of the cedar berries dapple the dark cedars.

The semester has ended and it seems like a vacation time. The hazy smoke from the Canadian wildfires arrived but doesn't seem to have settled. I injured myself gardening and have somewhat restricted mobility, but Sconset is my place to heal.

The wild iris is blooming in the Windswept Cranberry bog and the blue-eyed grass continues. A few remnant Quaker Ladies remain, but the canada mayflower and the starflowers in Squam Swamp are complete. Soon we will have the arrowwood viburnum, rosa virginica and the colicroot. The spring has been cool and very dry. My weather station recorded only 1.08 inches of rain , compared to 3.65 inches in May of 2022. The mean temperature for May was 52.1 degrees, compared to 53.7 in May 2022.   With a third of the month gone, June has had .24 inches of rain, compared to 2.03 inches last year.   Temperatures have mostly been in the fifties,  compared to 62.2 last June. 

The sun rises at 5:07, but first light is close to 4:30 am. By the Solstice, it will be even earlier.

This is the time of year when the common yellowthroats "wichety wichity" songs fill the air as they defend their territories. The oystercatchers at the northwest point of Polpis Harbor have chicks; the osprey are fishing and the kingfisher is rattling. I head out at 9:30pm to hear the chuck-will's-widows singing in the Sesachacha Heathlands and am rewarded by their calls and the starry skies and no wind. 

Iris Prismatica, Blue Flag

Iris and Blue-eyed Grass

Cedars fruiting at UMASS Field Station

Wild Cherry

Stump Pond

Scotch Broom on the Polpis Road