Sumer Is Icumen In

The first day of summer came in like, well, a summer's day: sunny, blue sky, high humidity and a sense of moist warmth hanging over the landscape. The tide was still fairly low and the Black-crowned Night-Heron was still poking around the edges of the pond -- at least until I arrived and spooked him. The Purple Martin colony seems to have sprung back to life and there were Martins as well as Barn Swallows working the air over the marsh which had the promise of considerable insect nourishment. A rather tuneful and colorful male Baltimore Oriole was busy in the oak tops and a White-breasted Nuthatch, perhaps our first summer wandering visitor, was moving with a Chickadee family flock that also included a Downy Woodpecker.

On the flower scene, I noticed a stand of native rose -- is it Virginia, Carolina, Pasture or Swamp Rose? I'm never quite sure -- at the head of the marsh and also along the right of way that runs parallel to the head of the marsh. The Wild Rose by our pond as well as a big stand of Germander or Wood Sage (and a lot of Poison Ivy as well) was wiped out by Hurricane Irene so I was glad to see that the rose at least has survived (I'm not worried about the Poison Ivy and as to the Germander, we'll see). These Wild Roses, unlike the cultivars, have a simple single halo of petals with a large rosette of yellow stamens in the center; the usual color of the petals is a deep rose (rather than pink). These beautiful flowers are a kind of poem to welcome summer in. As Edward McDowell put it, To a Wild Rose!

Eric Salzman