Keep Calm and Bird On: October 2024

October 1, 2024
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews

As fall progresses, birding gets better and better. More migrants pass through, while summer residents—at least some of them—still linger. But it is also a great time to focus on Sparrows, which are not all just brown blobs if you can get a good look at one.

 

But aren’t sparrows too hard? Do the words “malar stripe” make your brain freeze? No, they don’t need to. Although it's the technical term for the markings that frame the throats of many sparrows, Malar stripe is no worse than “supercilium” for the part of a bird that could just as well be called “eyebrow.” Malar stripes are vaguely reminiscent of mutton-chop whiskers, a style of facial hair adopted by quite a few 19th century ornithologists. But the whole point is to look at the little brown job and absorb as much detail as you can, not to memorize technical terms. Unless that is something you thrive on, of course. But if what you see reminds you of something else, that is a good way to remember it.

 

Suppose you notice the blindingly white throat of a White-throated Sparrow, and it reminds you of a fake-Santa beard? It’s perfectly fine to make up your own mnemonics. If thinking of Santa Claus helps you remember a White-throated Sparrow, there’s nothing wrong with that.

 

Nor to think of a Chipping Sparrow as having black eye-liner. Black eyeliner, white eyebrows, and a rusty cap, gets you very close to a definitive ID of Chipping Sparrow. But what if the bird just described has a dark central spot on its chest, a dot, or as Edith Andrews used to call it, “a stick-pin?” Although these have also gone out of fashion, watch some old western movies, or look it up. Once you’ve seen one, it’s easier to remember. With the features described above, but with the addition of a stick-pin, you probably have an American Tree Sparrow. And now that you know two sparrows, more will follow, earflap by tail-stripe, until sparrows are no longer quite such mysterious brown blobs.

Recent Posts

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
Show More