Keep Calm and Bird On: April 2025

April 1, 2025
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews

April marks the true spring transition, as “winter birds” begin heading north and migrants begin to drop in. All winter we enjoyed the relatively drab—except for a dab of yellow—on the Yellow-Rumped Warblers. But they are already beginning to get their yellow waistcoats at the end of March and will be nearly unrecognizable as they molt into breeding plumage.

 

Pine Warblers will be arriving in greater numbers and singing in the tops of, yes, pine trees. They can have variable plumage so a good question to ask as you wonder what you are seeing is, "If it isn’t a Pine Warbler, what is it?”

 

We will be saying “good bye for now’” to Loons and Grebes while awaiting the arrival of Snowy Egrets, and keeping an eye out for Little Blue Herons and Cattle Egrets.

 

We will be awaiting the Blue-Winged Teal while continuing to enjoy Bufflehead, and listening to the keening wail of Black Scoters as they stage for migration.

Song Sparrows are ubiquitous year-round regulars, found in every part of the island where there is some cover. But they will soon be joined by Savannah Sparrows, which prefer open fields and grasslands. Listen for their buzzy, insect-like vocalization in Head of the Plains. Chipping Sparrows are also arriving, but their preferred nesting turf is under the cover of shrubby tangles in the pines at The Gardner Farm off of Hummock Pond Road.

 

But we never know what rarity might show up. Will a stray Sandhill Crane find its way to one of our golf courses? Will a Tricolored Heron suddenly appear in a marsh? It is worth keeping your eyes open, but also an open mind. Even if something seems outrageous and totally unexpected, check all the details, and write them down or sketch if you cannot get a photo. Good observation makes the difference between a record and a maybe.


Image by Tom Griswold.

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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
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