Keep Calm and Bird On: March 2023

Ginger Andrews • February 27, 2023
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews

March is a tough month for birds as well as birders—the seesaw between winter and spring continues. I used to say that Nantucket’s spring was doled out one day at a time, beginning in February and finishing up halfway through June. This year it has almost seemed as if it’s winter that is getting served in periodic small, though violent, doses. 


As I write at the end of February, the first American Oystercatcher at Eel Point was already here, spotted on February 21. It is something of a conundrum this year, however, because although it seems early, it could also be late. Two American Oystercatchers were found on Tuckernuck’s Christmas Bird Count on December 28, 2022. Was it here all along? Who knows. One Piping Plover was seen in January—they have also been known to winter over.


So, as our shorebirds begin to return to claim their territory on island beaches, the hardiest, if they survive, will get first dibs. Look for them on exposed flats where marine worms feed below on even tinier morsels. Oystercatchers will also take the ribbed mud mussels found growing in our salt marshes, as well as, surprisingly, in brackish areas. 


Killdeer are also returning, and so are Piping Plover. Towards the end of the month, if not sooner, Ospreys will be back, too. But don’t forget to fill in your winter list—Saw-whet Owls, Red Crossbills, Iceland Gulls and Purple Sandpipers are here for just a bit longer. Be sure to catch Harlequin Ducks off the ‘Sconset Bluff before they depart.


So, layer up and get outside, knowing that if it seems hot it will soon be cold, or windy, or both. Or vice versa. 


Photo of Osprey Adult by Ginger Andrews

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 7, 2025
July 31, 1883. I had two or three rich days! On Friday last I went to Holderness, N.H.. to the Asquam House; I had been asked by Mrs. T to join her party. There was at this house Mr. Whittier, Mr., and Mrs. Cartland, Professor and Mrs. Johnson, of Yale . . . The house seemed full of fine, cultivate people. We stayed two days and a half. And first of the scenery. The road up to the house is a steep hill, and at the foot of the hill it winds and turns around two lakes. The panorama is complete one hundred and eighty degrees. Beyond the lakes lie the mountains.  The Asquam House sat atop Shepard Hill and was built in 1881. A hotel, it has space for fifty guests, it was located near Squam Lake and became part of a summer enclave that developed there in the later part of the nineteenth century. Today, the area is a National Historic Landmark, but sadly, the hotel was demolished in 1948. Maria would have been familiar with these people seen here – and others I did not include – but particularly John Greenleaf Whittier who was something of a family friend. He was close to one of her younger brothers, William Forester. JNLF

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

The Birth of the Maria Mitchell Observatory: Celebrating Over 100 Years of Discovery

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 30, 2025
As we are now complete with the conservation of the historic Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO), I thought it would be good to post a series of blogs concerning it history and activities, as well as some of the amazing people who have made it what it is over the last 100 plus years. Therefore, over the next few weeks, the focus will be on the MMO. And it is now open for tours – Monday through Saturday 11-1PM. Founded in 1902, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) had its beginnings in the Mitchell House where Maria Mitchell was born. Over the first few years, the preservation of the Mitchell House, family artifacts, and the collection and display of Nantucket’s native flora and fauna, as well as a small library, were the key components of the MMA. Special “Moon Evenings” were held on the lawn and people observed Nantucket’s night skies using several small telescopes, including William and Maria Mitchell’s two-and-three-quarter-inch Dollond telescope. The popular evenings led to the inevitable – a desire and need to expand based on the demands of the visitors to, and members of, the MMA. In 1906, Lydia Hinchman, a founder of the MMA and a family member, purchased the house and lot adjacent to the Mitchell House. The house – once the home of William Mitchell’s father and mother – was taken down. The MMA began a dialogue with the Harvard College Observatory and its director, Edward Pickering, Ph.D. The connection to Harvard was to become essential to the success of the beginning years of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and continued a legacy of friendship and work – Maria Mitchell and her father worked with the Bonds who once ran the observatory at Harvard and the families were close friends. Besides his assistance, Pickering asked a member of his staff, Annie Jump Cannon, to assist the MMA. This “provided an indispensable collaboration for Nantucket astronomy,” with Cannon spending two weeks on the island in 1906 and 1907 lecturing and teaching. While back at Harvard, she continued to teach the students on Nantucket by mail. Cannon would go on to be recognized as the leading woman astronomer of her generation and as the founder of the MMA’s Astronomy Department. JNLF
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