Midsummer

 

It has been a summer of northern harriers!  We see at least one  daily hunting along the bluff.  It seems that whenever I am out for a hike,  there is one as well.  Are there more northern harriers than usual?

Sabatia 

Nantucket  has changed into its midsummer wardrobe.  The Sweet Pepper,  Clethra Alnifolia,  is blooming and casts such a sweet scent in the wet places.  (On July 27,  there was some Rhododendron Viscosa,  Swamp Azalea,  still in bloom in the north-facing low places.) Hypericum Stragulum,  St. Andrew's cross, is out.  It is on the Massachusetts endangered list and is currently found only on Nantucket in Massachusetts. The Virginia Meadow-beauty is now out around the ponds.  I spied Sabatia Campanulata again at Almanac Pond.  Or is it Sabatia Stellata?  I am waiting for botanist Kelly Omand to tell me.

At Squam Farm and at Norwood Farm,  I can see the goldenrods, but not blooming yet.  Well, maybe a few downy goldenrods are peeking.  The sumac is turning red, the grasses are browning, the tupelo is reddening and the huckleberry, too.

Virginia Meadow Beauty

Huckleberry 

Common tern

Sesachacha is regularly home to a pair of short-billed dowitchers,  semipalmated sandpipers,  least sandpipers,  killdeer, lesser and greater yellowlegs and of course the egrets, mallards,  cormorants and canada geese. Osprey love to fish there.

July was dry, with only .74 inches of rain.  There was only one day with rain over .1 inch. June had only .43 inches of rain. May had 3.49 inches and April 3.93.  Last  year,  July had 3.19 inches of rain,  June had 2.95,  May .92 and April  1.40.  So the four month total  is 8.59 inches in 2025 and  8.46 in 2024, but distributed more to the spring this year.  It has not been enough to revive the ponds .  Precipitation was 33.79 inches in total 2022, 21.59 inches in  2023, 17.24 in 2024 (but missing January and February readings)  and 14.52 so far this year.  Many ponds are just wet mud.

Norwood Pond

Almanac Pond

The  Boston Globe rain an article from the Associated Press about how there are more lightning bugs this year,  perhaps because of a wet spring.  I certainly had my peak lightning bug experience in late June.

Semipalmated Sandpiper 

Lesser Yellowlegs

Early July

July brings the scent of flowering privet; fresh Yarrow and St Johnswort bloom as the arrowwood viburnum fades. Ox-eyed daisies persist. Crescents, wood nymphs and checkerspot butterflies flutter about the Polpis Land Bank meadow. The scent of the swamp azalea (Rhododendron viscosa) is still strong in the wet places.


The rhythms of summer are taking hold: a Northern Harrier is visiting us daily as she hunts along the bluff between 9 and 10:30 in the morning. I see a monarch every day after June 30. I bike or hike most mornings. We see friends in the evening.


Then there are the non-routine sightings that bring surprise and joy because they are unexpected. On June 30 I spied Ghost Pipes ( monotropa uniflora) before post 42 at Squam Swamp. The next day I saw a Black Skimmer feeding in Madaket Harbor. The last time I saw one in Nantucket was 2019. A black tern in breeding plumage sat among the least and common terns on Esther's Island on July 1.

Ghost Pipes

Nantucket has been declared in drought by the state and I can see it in the ponds. June's rainfall was only .43 inches, according to my personal weather station KMANATU15. The town has initiated restrictions on watering lawns to twice a week. We still enjoyed a rainbow in the late afternoon of July 2.


A field of Colicroot (Aletra farinosa) is blooming at Milestone Bog on July 2. Low sheep laurel is scattered in that field. By July 12, I found a Wood Lily (Lilium philadelphicum) at Squam Farm.


The weather has been consistently foggy in the morning with winds from the southwest, but today, July 13, the wind is now from the east.


Young ducklings, cygnets, piping plovers and American oystercatchers are swimming and running with their parents. At Massaoit Bridge, the Osprey pair has three chicks.


I turn to nature's beauty as a balm to the turbulence in the world: tariffs, wars, taxes can't hold a candle to the Nantucket's sunrise or moonrise.

Piping Plover

Song Sparrow

Spotted Sandpiper

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Wood Lily 

Aletra Farinosa, white Colicroot

Leap into summer

Cain’s Pond Sunset

 June 25

It's been three weeks since our last trip to Nantucket and it is now popcorned with arrow wood viburnum.  People are still seeing the Sandhill crane, but it was not at Moor's End farm when we passed.

I headed out for a night time bike ride to Sesachacha Pond at sunset.  The scent of swamp azalea filled the night.  A black-crowned night heron eyed the fish at Cain's Pond while a young Osprey also eyed them from above. A common yellowthroat led the bird chorus.  Sesachacha wasn't drained this spring.

At 8:34, an Eastern Whip-poor-will started calling, even as the yellowthroats kept witchedy-ing.  I decided to head into the moors toward Mirror Pond to find a chuck-wills-widow.  Fireflies lit my way!  It was like I was in a Disney Movie with fireflies as the honor guard and guardians both.  I've never see a so many fireflies at once on Nantucket-hundreds.  The most I've  ever seen was in New Jersey in Basking Ridge in 2006. Was it the hot days that sparked a hatch? Some other natural phenomenon?

The chuck-wills-widow was singing near Mirror Pond.  Probably 2. 

Mirror Pond

What  a magical night!  And a clear sky full of stars, too!  Cygnus, Ursa Major and Minor, Cassiopeia.

Pickerelweed

Azalea Viscosa

The sunrise is north and moving south now that it is just past the summer solstice.  By the equinox, the sunrise will be directly east of our bedroom window.  

Josh and I walked Norwood Farm and heard a black-billed cuckoo near the "corner pond," which is filled with pickerelweed.  Almanac Pond is ringed with yellow gratiola aurea. A few  toadflax and Quaker ladies are still blooming, reminiscent of spring as we leap into summer.

Almanac Pond rimmed by Gratiola Aurea

Foggy Early June

Six weeks is as long as I have been away from Nantucket in several years. Anticipation! I am sure to have missed the Black Stilt which visited, but maybe the Sandhill Crane is still there. My entire spring migration birding was at Mount Auburn Cemetery this year.

The Wild Cherries are in bloom, giving the green of the island a pearly luster as their panicles catch the light.  They are the plant version of fog, which is swaddling the island. The fog is moving gently back and forth, leaving everything moist and verdant.

On the verges, the Scotch Broom and white climbing roses are in bloom, and the ox-eyed daisies are starting up. 

Blue Flag

Blue flag is blooming at Windswept Bog, blue toadflax, and also some Pasture thistle.  The killdeer are loving the disturbed land and mud that is part of the wetland restoration. There are so many of them, at least 15, calling continuously and showing themselves.  The parts of Windswept that were restored in 2023-2024 are now filled with sedges.  I hope the fields of blue flag will grow back.  

Killdeer

It's the time of year that cars are stopping on the Polpis Road because snapping turtles are crossing.  This happened to me three times this weekend, once on my bike and once in the car- 2 turtles within a quarter mile.

Luckily, Jacqui Papale saw the Sandhill Crane at Moors End Farm and posted it on eBird.  Josh and I checked it out ...and there he was!  Majestic bird, standing on one leg.

Sandhill Crane

Too short a visit to check out the ponds.  I missed the beach plum bloom and the golden heather this year because of our trip to the Netherlands and the impending arrival of a new person, grandchild #6.

Fledgling Time

May I have this dance?

Pasture Thistle

April ‘s Window

 

In Nantucket, April is not quite winter, not quite spring. Not cold, but not warm. Daffodils brighten the gray trunks and skies, but the rest of the plant world is quiet. Astronomically and calendar-wise it is spring, but visually and weather-wise, it is not.

April is a gateway into growth and green. As I hike through Squam Swamp on April 26, it's windy and showers are spitting.  The trees groan as they dance together, while the ferry horn moans and the wind soughs through the trees.  The Tupelos are bare, but the first wood anemones are opening up in sunny spots on the forest floor.  The leaves of Canadian mayflowers are poking up through the moss. The red maple flowers litter the trail.

There are many vernal pools, so different from the dry ponds of late March.  My weather station recorded 3.93 inches of rain so far in April, compared to 1.4 inches last April.

Wood Anemone

Josh and I hiked Stump Pond on Sunday, April 27, to get out of the 20 mph west wind.  We were rewarded with the complete Windswept Bog wetland restoration and Trailing Arbutus and Houstonia Caerulea in the protected sunny spots.

Trailing Arbutus, Epegia Repens

Quaker Ladies, Houstonia Caerula

When we hiked Norwood Farm on April 28, the ponds had been replenished a bit, although Almanac Pond is very very small. 

I had a bird of prey morning at Squam Farm, with an American kestrel, a Merlin, two northern harriers and ospreys! 

Almanac Pond

American Kestrel

Northern Shoveler in Sesachacha Pond

Eastern Towhee at Squam Farm

FOY Shad

Oystercatcher at Jackson Point

Storksbill

Pi Day on Nantucket

March 14, 2025.  Pi Day.

The wind has scoured the landscape, including the stubborn oak leaves. The mowed verges are golden brown, contrasting with the greys of the leafless trees.  There is a flannel blanket of pewter clouds in the sky. Sesachacha Pond is high, with no opening to Cain's Pond. A single long-tailed drake swam by, as close as  I have ever been.  American wigeon and ruddy ducks and buffleheads swim on the pond. At Norwood Farm, there silence.  No birdsong and no airplane noise.  No bikers or cars or hikers or deer.  A flock of yellow-rumped warblers and a few Carolina wrens observe me.

The ponds are very low.  Almanac Pond is non-existent ; others noticeably smaller. The cumulative rain from December through February was only 4.62 inches. In 2023 and 2022, the totals were 6.83 and 6.56 inches. I am missing data for 2024.

At the end of the winter, there are always dead animals that didn't make it. There are two dead deer in pine forest at base of the bluff. The dead deer near Cain's Pond is still there. Much of the talk has been about the number of eiders which have washed up dead on the beaches. During my walk to the Creeks from Monomoy, there were at least 10 dead eider. Apparently there are many more out on Coatue. Eiders are the largest population of birds in Nantucket in the winter.

It has been a cold winter. The mean temperature in January was 31 and February 33.3. In 2023, January was 41.9 and February 40.1 degrees. In 2022, January was 30.3 and February 36.5 degrees. Did that make it harder on the birds, or was it bird flu?

At the Milestone Bog,  I see two groups of  six and seven deer running.  This weekend I am only seeing groups of deer.  Overall, the deer population continues to grow.

The clouds obscure the rising of the Worm Moon as well as sunrises. 

The Worm Moon rising

March 17 sunrise

Whimbrel at The Creeks, March 16

Early Willet, The Creeks, March 16

Almanac Pond, March 14

Norwood Oak

Sconset updates: Captain's Cabin up on risers for a new basement, the Baileys house on Sankaty Avenue looks put together, there is new house on the lot below the Wade Cottages.