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monarch migration September 16, 2001 |
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Today's
Starting Pitcher: Photos: Monarch butterfly on goldenrod Straw man with pumpkins and flags Common saltwort (I think) Unidentified yellow flowers in the sand Today's
Bird Sightings: This
Year's Bird Sightings: |
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It's a spectacular day, bright blue
and breezy. As Nancy and I stand at the North Pool Overlook,
a pair of glossy ibises comes in for a landing right over
our heads. They feed intently among a flock of mallards and
few shorebirds I can't quite identify with the sun in my
eyes. One of the ibises keeps raising up both wings in that
characteristic ibis gesture you always see in Egyptian
sculptures (Egyptians were always sculpting ibises and
cats). Another birder asks me if I know what kind of a
display that is (mating, territory, something else?) but I
don't. I wonder out loud if the new Sibley book on bird
behavior coming out in October will The parking lot at Hellcat is full so we have no place to leave the car for our planned walk on the Hellcat Marsh Trail. Oddly the Sandy Point parking lot, which the gatehouse said was full, had a space so we go for a walk on the beach at Sandy Point instead. Gulls, sanderlings, and humans are
flying. OK, one human and he's not really flying. He's got
one of those big wing shaped kites and he keeps trying to
get it to lift him up. It pulls him along over the sand -
kinda like water-skiing on sand - and he does get airborne
for a couple of seconds on three of his tries. It looks like
fun. A lot of people are flying kites (kites are allowed on
the state beach at Sandy Point but no on the refuge). They
are A man and two boys are playing baseball with a yellow tennis ball and a stick of driftwood. The guy keeps fouling off the younger boy's pitches. I can't help smiling at them. We walk and walk and walk. I get sand in my shoes. I get a little sunburned. I get sand in my hair. I can never figure out how I get sand in my hair just from walking on the beach. I must be some kind of sand magnet. More monarchs flutter by on the beach. A lone sanderling flies back and forth along the water line until it reunites with its flock and they do that group mind sanderling thing and wheel out over the water flashing their white undersides. Yup, this is the time of year people move here for. I can't imagine living anywhere else. Now if only I could learn to tell all 12 species of goldenrod apart. The only ones I'm pretty sure of are seaside goldenrod and tall goldenrod. I think the one in the picture with the monarch might be lance leaved goldenrod but I'm not at all sure. I've read that the 12 species that grow in New England all hybridize so I'm not sure how I'd ever learn to recognize them all. It's a fun goal to have though... These other little yellow flowers
don't look exactly like any And neither the wildflower book nor the field guide to some subset of every kind of life form that lives in New England book has common saltwort or any of the other succulent type things that look like it except glasswort. Come to think of it, glasswort is astoundingly common on Plum Island according to various guide books but I'm not sure I've ever seen it let alone photographed it. The thing I think is common saltwort could be tumbleweed or something like that too, but none of my books have any pictures of that either. I can see a forthcoming library building phase. Wonder if there's a Saltworts for Dummies or an Idiot's Guide to Goldenrod. |
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Copyright © 2001, Janet I. Egan |
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The
monarch butterflies are migrating. They're all over the
place at Plum Island. I even saw lots of them in downtown
Newburyport. I am always amazed to think those tiny thin
wings can carry them all the way to Mexico - and fueled by
nectar from goldenrod and beach roses and all those fabulous
autumn weeds. 
answer that question. The other birder points out that
October is only 2 weeks away and says he's looking forward
to the book. Me too.
cheerful
and bright against the brilliant sky. 
thing
in the book either.