Last evening at the point. A swim in the lee like flying through a turquoise dream, dinner as usual, waxwings singing bittersweet in the oaks at camp. Part of us stays when we leave a place.

#pointTurnstone

And one finally hits. Wind thrashes the trees in camp and I stand out in the uncanny light watching so one doesn’t take me out. Lightning strikes twice in quick succession over a hill to the north. Thank the sky for another day.

#pointTurnstone

Thunderstorms pass around the island, shaking leaves and quieting the songbirds. Big waves propagate through air and water beneath the dome.

#pointTurnstone

Tern skull found at the end of a long day working at the point. Long light draws down again.

#pointTurnstone

Four more plover eggs hatch at the point. The adult carries each of the shells from the nest, and drops one in the calm water where it bobs offshore like a delicate vessel. Four more little creatures dry in the sun.

#pointTurnstone #pipingPlover

Sunday morning at the point: big wind from the north, breakers, rain. Nineteen newly-hatched plovers warm under the adults out on the open cobble. A bunch more soon.

#pointTurnstone

Lilacs on the island bloom two weeks after the mainland, so May redux in June. Don’t mind.

#pointTurnstone #flowerReport

Still smoky here. A cruise ship passes the point — I can’t rule out something interstellar. Who sees it but me? Pin cherry at peak bloom.

#pointTurnstone #flowerReport

Thin fog moves in to circle the island. Or is it smoke? A sudden wind raises whitecaps on the passage and the mainland slips in and out of visibility.

#pointTurnstone

Potentilla, merganser, morning work. Reminds me to stretch the spine out for the day.

#pointTurnstone

Walk the shoreline, then walk it again. Once again before dinner.

#pointTurnstone

First evening of the week at the point is quiet, nearly still. Waiting for a pair of plovers to change places on the nest while smoke rises from a smoldering pine plantation on the mainland. Cottonwoods leaf out slowly.

#pointTurnstone

The first piping plover nest of the season at Point Turnstone: two perfect eggs right at home in an expanse of cobble. Many more to follow.

#pointTurnstone

First full day at the point. Harrowing boat ride into nauseating six foot waves. Then the beach and the dunes, camp, calm. Sun and birds. Here again.

#pointTurnstone