Keep Calm and Bird On: July 2025

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

July is a hazardous month for birds on Nantucket. This year is a season of second—or third, even fourth, nesting attempts, after a cold, stormy, spring. Higher than usual tides, strong winds, delayed food availability, naturally affect beach-nesters. Predators can wipe out eggs or young. Ravens on Tuckernuck were reportedly eating Plover and Oystercatcher eggs “like popcorn.” Gulls, crows, feral cats, loose dogs, and heedless vehicles hold danger.

 

Even if adult birds passed the initial gauntlet, young birds are most vulnerable when they begin encountering the world for the first time. Adults may discover that what seemed like a safe yard a month or six weeks before is suddenly occupied by human activity, with dogs or cats, sudden lights, noise, machines, toxic sprays, that were not there in April or May. Traffic has tripled; many birds in the Maria Mitchell Association collection were salvaged after being hit on a road. Windows are cleaner; so, what looks to a bird on the outside like a patch of open sky, or a route through a yard, may turn out to be hard as a rock, breaking necks or concussing skulls. 

 

Even if there are quiet areas in a yard, spraying trees could drench a female sitting tight on a nest in hazardous, sticky, or irritating, foul-smelling, toxins. Killing insects also removes birds’ major food source: insects. Even birds content to eat seeds in winter prefer to raise their young on beetles, caterpillars, or adult insects, to give them the high-fat, high-protein food they need for quick growth. They do not have a long time to get the job of reproduction completed.

 

Danger comes from below as well as above; poisoned rats and mice do not die immediately; as they suffer, they become easy prey. Thus, they are fatal to secondary consumers like hawks and owls. In the case of Barn Owls, one highly toxic rodent can wipe out the whole family when it kills the male who provides for them.

 

Can we live with “Nature?” Too many people, these days, seem to answer “No.” But to disconnect from the natural world endangers our health too.

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Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Dr. Jackie Milingo, MMA's Director of Astronomy, as Featured October Science Speaker Series

October 2, 2025
NANTUCKET, MA— —The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces that it will host its new Director of Astronomy, Jackie Mlingo, PhD., as a featured presenter for its October Science Speaker Series. The presentation will take place on Wednesday, October 15 at 7pm in person at the MMA Research Center, 2 Vestal Street, and via Zoom. The event is FREE to all. Have you ever noticed the dark spots that sometimes appear on the Sun’s surface? These “sunspots” are just one example of star spots—mysterious patches that appear on stars across the galaxy. Far from being simple blemishes, star spots reveal the powerful magnetic forces at work inside stars, forces that also drive solar storms and shape the space weather that can impact entire planetary systems. In this talk, Dr. Milingo will share her research on star spots and how she uses them as a window into teaching undergraduates the process of scientific discovery. She will also explore how science can reach far beyond the classroom—bringing STEM into everyday spaces and sparking curiosity across communities, from kindergartners to lifelong learners. Dr. Jackie Milingo is an observational astronomer who earned B.S. degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Oklahoma. Her research is currently focused on understanding magnetic activity cycles in sun-like stars through long-term studies of starpots. Dr. Milingo joins the MMA after a year-long AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the U.S. National Science Foundation, where she was a Fellow in the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, as well as the Astronomy Division in the Math and Physical Sciences Directorate. Before her fellowship, she was a professor in the Physics Department at Gettysburg College for over twenty years where her work included mentoring undergraduate research students. Dr. Milingo joined the staff of the MMA in early September after a year-long, worldwide search for a new astronomer. She becomes the eighth MMA Astronomer and Director of the Astronomy Department of the MMA since Margaret Harwood, the MMA’s first astronomer, served from 1916 to 1957. Dr. Milingo has spent her career committed to generating transformative experiential learning opportunities, contributing to public education and outreach, removing barriers for students, and changing the conversation and learning spaces in astronomy, physics, and STEM in general. This event will be held both in person and via Zoom. Pre-registration is required to attend either option. To register for the free, in-person event, use the registration link below: https://112458a.blackbaudhosting.com/112458a/October-Science-Speaker-Series--Dr-Jackie-Milingo To register for the free, Zoom option, use the registration link below: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5q4kXF2rRHi8iWbFPkLN5w The Science Speaker Series is generously sponsored by the Maria Mitchell Association’s lead sponsor, Bank of America The Maria Mitchell Association was founded in 1902 to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. After she discovered a comet in 1847, Mitchell’s international fame led to many achievements and awards, including an appointment as the first professor of astronomy at Vassar College. Maria Mitchell believed in “learning by doing” and today that philosophy is reflected in the MMA’s mission statement, programs, research projects, and other activities. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages. ###

Keep Calm and Bird On: October 2025

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

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 29, 2025
Sept. 25, 1854. . . . The best that can be said of my life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can be said of me is that I have not pretended to what I was not.  I think of two things when I read this. One is that Quakers believed in being industrious and not wasting time. The second point makes me think immediately of Holden Caulfield – The Catcher in the Rye if you don’t know that character’s name – and his various references and discussions to “phonys” as he refers to them though Maria’s mention here is not entirely in the same vain. A materially successful Quaker was one who was living “in the light,” as Quakers referred to it. Even if gifted with material wealth, Quakers still lived frugally and were a hard working group of people. As Hector St. Jean de Crèvecoeur noted, “Idleness is the most heinous sin that can be committed in Nantucket . . . for idleness is considered as another word for want and hunger.” If you were not productive and industrious, you would starve – and it would affect others in the community since isolated Nantucket acted as a corporate family economy – everyone was relying on one another for survival. While Maria is also not necessarily going to this depth of industrious it is a Quaker ethic that was strongly imbued in her. She certainly was a hard worked with numerous accomplishments to her name and many different projects completed even by 1854 at age thirty-six. And don’t forget October 1 st is the anniversary of Maria’s comet discovery – October 1, 1847. JNLF
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