Nantucket
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Basic beach
I live on an island. It’s a rather lengthy island, and so, unimaginatively, it’s been called “Long Island” for several centuries now. I’m on its far western end, in the once-upon-a-time city and now borough of Brooklyn, which, uh, doesn’t really think of itself as being a part of “Lon Guyland.” The reasons for this…
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Winter Trio
The winter beach can be an unforgiving landscape, scraped by the wind and beaten by the waves. There are almost always dead sea birds to be found washed ashore. This red-breasted merganser was on its way to being thoroughly recycled. Note the serrated jaws here, a characteristic of the species notably lacking in the loons.…
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Winter I
This is the season of potential. All around us in natural nooks and crannies are the seeds, eggs, and larvae of the spring’s renaissance. These are egg masses, I presume of some kind of insect. Another nearby mass was wrapped with a leaf. Ha, that old trick!
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Another beach
The Common slipper shell, Crepidula fornicata, a.k.a. boat shell, a marine gastropod, or snail, pilled up at the Jetties on Nantucket. A not particularly rocky area, the island’s surrounding waters present less than enough bases for these snails to attach onto, so they often attach to each other, in chains. The species name comes from…
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Sea duck washed ashore
A female Common eider, Somateria mollissima, dead on the beach, one of several in a mile or two of walking. These eiders are found close off-shore of Nantucket Island through the winter. The males of this large sea duck species are boldly patterned in black and white. Eiders are the source of eiderdown, soft inner…
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Remains of the night
Out Madaket way, a row of arbor vitae had been cut back recently because they were crowding the road. Underneath were dozens of bodies. Was it the work of a serial killer? No, some owls had been feeding. Pellets are what these regurgitated masses of prey vomited up by birds are called. A number of…
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Columbus Day Weekend
The primary color amid the pine trees of Cape Cod was the flaming autumn red of Virginia creeper, surrounding the tree trunks like red tights. On Nantucket, we found a leaf-green bobble-headed praying mantis on the wood-pile as we hung up some clothes to dry. She slowly moved her head to and fro, as her…
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Night and Day
… you are the one.” All these insects were found in various parts of Massachusetts at the beginning of this month. I am unsure of IDs for the last two. The butterfly may be a pearl crescent. The Dobsonfly at the very top was a good two inches long, one of the weird delights brought…
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Eastern Cottontail
The mammal’s eye. Some bird seed encouraged this one to get closer. Three others grazed the yard. That’s a rabbit-blood-bloated tick on the ear there. The flash gave it a red-eye effect like a wild sunset. As if it was guarding the Cave of Caerbannog. “Oh, it’s just a harmless little ‘bunny’ isn’t it?”
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Banding Osprey
Last week I had the good fortune to attend an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) banding on Nantucket island with people from the Maria Mitchell Association. There were three youngsters in this nest, one down from the original four hatched earlier. Unfortunately, it has not been a good season for nesting osprey on the island; fish, the…
Backyard and Beyond 