Keep Calm and Bird On: June 2025

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

What is so rare as a day in June? We wonder, as last winter reappeared with snow and ice after a three-year absence and spring turned chill after a warm beginning. Will we have Juneuary? But weather aside, breeding birds are here and going about their business.

 

Ospreys are sitting on nests, some since early March. So, some will be hatching soon. Females lay one to four eggs; average: three. Young hatch up to five days apart.

 

When you see only the top of the female’s head, down in the nest, she is incubating. If she is glued to the nest, tearing up fish with her beak and bobbing her head up and down, she’s probably feeding young.

 

The first to peck its way out of the shell has the advantage of a head start, growing faster, and perhaps monopolizing food. If there is not enough for all, its siblings may starve. This may sound cruel, but it’s a reality of the bird world. Dad, as the provider, eats first, then Mom, then junior, and the rest in order of appearance. Ospreys live 20 to 25 years, so even complete lack of success in any one year is of less importance for them than for shorter-lived birds. And since DDT was banned in 1972, they have doubled their population every five years in New England.

 

Nantucket’s Ospreys have been very successful over recent years, with about 40 nests currently active. Not all of them are necessarily going to raise young this year. Some may be young birds just “housekeeping” and do not yet have the hang of things. Experienced females, from four to six years old, start sooner in the season. They’ve learned the intricacies of incubation, brooding, and feeding. They are better at protecting chicks from excessive cold or heat. Osprey parents often reunite as pairs; males with good fishing skills raise more young. Of course, fish have to co-operate by being plentiful; but that’s luck.


Osprey Images by Tom Griswold.

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Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 24, 2025
Nov. 15, 1876. Congress. The Woman’s congress met in Philadelphia. The papers were numerous and excellent. Mrs. Howe’s on paternity the most successful. Grace Anne Lewis, ABB [Antoinette Brown Blackwell], Mrs. Diaz [Abby Morton Diaz], Mrs. Perus and others had very good papers. The newspaper treated us very well. The institutions opened their doors to us, the centennials gave us a reception. But – we didn’t have a good time! 1 st . The Hall was a very bad one to speak in, almost no one could be heard. 2 nd . The Women’s committee of Philadelphia led by Mrs. Bartol, attempted to control us . . . Several women protested via passed note to Maria Mitchell that they did not want to discuss suffrage for women at the Congress. Really? Why were they even there then? Apparently, they were afraid (I can see that). Ultimately, papers were presented and discussed concerning women’s suffrage. They even had people oppose the nomination of Julia Ward Howe as President. A small group of women offered up other nominations with one finally saying that the new president needed to be from the west, implying there was too much northeast representation on the board. Maria was not pleased in the least. Ultimately, Julia Ward Howe became President. JNLF

Curator Almost Eaten By Large Lobster

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 17, 2025
Clementine has finally molted! We at the MMA have been awaiting this for quite some time so I decided to re-post an old blog about Clementine. Well, not quite. But, part of my job is to also take care of all of the MMA properties. So, I headed over to check on one and what cleaning supplies are needed for the summer and for our staff spring clean-up of the site. In one room, some of the animals from the Aquarium over-winter. One of those is “our” lobster, Clementine, so-called because she is orange in color. (Orange lobsters are five times rarer than blue lobsters and only one in ten million lobsters are orange.) She is fairly active and though the hope is that she “sleeps” a bit for the winter, she doesn’t seem to. So, enter curator into room who glances over and hopes the lobster does not “run” to the side of the tank asking to be fed. Yes, she really does that – she has gotten used to people. I always hate it because I feel guilty – I do not feed her because that falls to the Natural Science Department and I do not want to hurt her or her schedule in any way. In any case, “Whew!” She actually seemed quiet at the back of the tank. Maybe she was “sleeping.” I kept moving to the next room and glanced back. Low and behold, she was at the front of the tank waving her claws! Seriously? So I kept moving on – after telling her, “I can’t feed you,” – and she went to the back of the tank again! Another, “Whew!” I decided to text Emily, our Director of Natural Science (at that time), and relay what happened. I get a text back. “You can feed her if you want.” “Really?” I texted back. “What do I give her?” So, Clementine then ran back to the front of the tank when she saw me opening the freezer and taking out the mussels and a shrimp. I got another text from Emily: “Use the forceps to hand them to her.” Well, I wasn’t about to put my hand in there! So, I get the shrimp, put it in the forceps, open the top of the tank and start to put my hand down, and INSTANTLY two HUGE lobster claws come out of the tank and grab not the shrimp but the forceps! I wish I had a picture. I was afraid she was going to take the forceps. And then, I was afraid my hand was going to be her lunch. I could not get her to release the forceps – it was a battle royale though the battle was more on her part because I was afraid I would break her claw! After some twisting of the forceps and tugging, she finally relented, took the shrimp, and began her lunch. Another, “Whew!” I was afraid I was either going to hurt her or I was going to be explaining to my three-year old what happened to Mommy’s hand at work. Veuve Clicquot with that, Clementine? Apparently, someone else knew what transpired with the lobster. As I left the building, a male mallard duck was paddling around in the rather large puddle – if you can call it that – located on the property. We have recently had a large amount of rain. He was laughing (I mean quacking) at me. In all seriousness, I have never met a lobster with so much personality. Yes, personality. Clementine may just have changed my tune on lobster rolls. JNLF

Miss Herschel

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 10, 2025
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