Keep Calm and Bird On: April 2023

Ginger Andrews • March 30, 2023
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews

Perhaps no month on Nantucket better exemplifies the changeable, chaotic nature of spring better than April. Winter one moment, summer the next (but often, not for long). And everyone, including birds, is busy, in a hurry, impatient to get ready for the coming season. It's a restless time; a mix of the delightful and the dreadful.


In the dreadful category, Great Black-backed Gulls have recently been seen acting strangely—shaking their heads, walking backwards, or "acting drunk" falling over, unable to fly—these are neurological symptoms and a possible sign of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). This has been known to affect humans who have had intense exposure, so it is best to avoid dead birds, and keep dogs away. With the exception of Barn Owls, which we will be happy to go out and collect ourselves with accurate directions, the Maria Mitchell Association is not accepting dead bird specimens at this time. Other groups may be taking samples, so please check for further announcements.


That said, there are more benign dramas to watch. A Northern Harrier pair may do a food-pass, with a vole dropped by the male and caught mid-air by the female. This is an acceptance of courtship, and later a stealthy way of hiding the nest location. Watch a Woodpecker drilling a new nest hole, and come back later to see if the cavity is occupied—and by whom. Observe Ospreys rebuilding their nests, defending them, or sometimes picking new mates. 


Don't be afraid to go outside. If you become bored with the usual suspects, take time to watch longer. You may see interesting behavior. And who knows, with persistence you might learn something new to science, too.



Photo of Osprey by Ginger Andrews

Recent Posts

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 6, 2026
July 15. {1863} My dear Sally . . . I think Mitchell is all right in his algebra. He can’t stand an examination in Trig but I don’t believe he will have a rigorous one. Father has seen the Prof. and will give him a letter to them.  If you can’t be honest with your sibling, who can you be honest with? Apparently, Sally Mitchell Barney’s son, William Mitchell Barney – known as Mitchell as his cousin William Mitchell Barney was known as Willie (how is that for honoring your father?!) – was visiting his aunt Maria and his grandfather, William Mitchell, at their home in Lynn, MA. Sally still lived on Nantucket and I suspect Mitchell was not only visiting but getting some much needed help with his mathematics by his aunt Maria. As always, she is brutally honest – he won’t pass a test in trigonometry (but, neither would I!). JNLF

Top O’ the Ridge!

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 29, 2026
In April and early May, at long last, the Mitchell House roof was replaced. (I noted this in an earlier blog.) I had also noted that the roofwalk, given the condition it was in and its location – sitting on the ridge – had to be replaced. They had thought they could jack it up – as they have done with other walks – but the Blizzard of February 2026 that was ALL wind (83 MPH winds – read Category 1 Hurricane) and no real snow, made the walk impossible to treat in such a manner (read: crumble). So, after much discussion, review by our preservation easement holder, and permits, as well as some fundraising, we are replacing the roofwalk. The prior walk was not the original. The original blew off in a gale in the late nineteenth century, replaced at some point in the 1930s, and likely replaced again in the 1960s or 1970s. Then, since that time, it was heavily repaired. Its framing members were notched to accept the ridge boards (read: peak) of the roof and I think that may have been an original way to construct a walk. Makes perfect sense – and gives the walk more support and a lower profile. It was after all about putting out chimney fires and preventing roof fires. People copied what worked – and there have been a few others noted to be built in this manner still. It presents an issue though – because if you need to work on the ridge board or close to it – you cannot get to it easily – I guess you may be able to access it to some extent by lifting the deck boards of the walk. The new Mitchell House roofwalk will sit about six inches above the ridge – which will also allow air to circulate better over the ridge and the shakes in that area. That is the only thing that will really be different. It is protected by a preservation easement – as part of the Mitchell House’s easement – and frankly, even if we did not have an easement, we would not want it to look any different. So keep your eyes to the skies at 1 Vestal as we work to re-build the walk. With a special thank you to Barber and Sons and Lydon and Sons. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 22, 2026
1875, June 20. A meeting of the Officers of Congress was called at the house of Mrs. Hanaford, 5 Summit Ave., Jersey City. The weather was intensely cold. I went to New York on the 19 th and stopped with my friend Mrs. Clapp, 100 W. 54 St . . . .It was a question who should preside. Mrs. Hanaford thought the Chairman of the Executive Committee should and I had been told that I should, etc. The question was decided by the non-arrival of the Chairman of Ex.Com. I called them to order at an hour after the time appointed. Of course I made many blunders, as I have never presided before, but I continued for 4 hours. We did a few good things . . . The thing most weighing on Maria’s mind at this meeting was the looseness of membership for the Congress. She felt people were not being vetted properly in some areas of the country and thus they may allow in “undesirables.” I would take this to mean women who were not entirely behind the cause of the Congress and the Association for the Advancement of Women. I am not surprised by her suspicions and likely she was correct – one could see naysayers gaining access to this group and trying to destroy it from the inside. The women’s rights movement would have many schisms within it as people disagreed and broke into smaller factions.  Another important thing to point out is that Mrs. Hanaford is Nantucket-born Phebe Coffin Hanaford. Raised a Quaker, like Maria, Coffin Hanaford would become the first woman Universalist minister in New England – among many other firsts. She grew up with Maria, attended and taught at the Coffin School here on Nantucket, and was a founding member of another women’s organization, Sorosis, which Maria was also a founding member of. It’s nice to see two sister Nantucketers continuing to work together as adults – far from home! JNLF
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