Keep Calm and Bird On: June 2024

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

By June most of the spring migrants have moved on; a few juveniles may linger on what was their wintering ground until they mature enough to breed in subsequent years. But many species of birds do return to breed on Nantucket. So it’s a good time to enjoy bird behavior and confirm breeding.

 

Watch Ospreys catch and deliver fish. Dad eats first, usually away from the nest at his “lounging” spot. Then he brings fish to the nest for Mom, and eventually, the youngsters.

 

Give Piping Plover your full respect and obey the signs, bearing in mind that birds can’t read, and could be anywhere, just trying to survive by being inconspicuous. But beware of Herring Gull or Black-backed Gull, or especially Tern colonies, and give them a wide berth, because in defense of their young they can and will dive-bomb, or even strafe and draw blood. Watch from a safe distance for their protection, and yours.

 

You might still see a male Northern Harrier swoop by, making a food-pass, tossing a mouse or vole to the female who catches it mid-air.

 

You might watch a Killdeer, Robin, or even a Common Yellowthroat, give a world-class pretense-injury act, called a distraction display, leading predators away from a nest.

 

On a still, calm, full moon night–if such a thing should happen during the month Nantucketers call “Juneuary”–it’s great to go out to the moors after dark and listen for Whip-poor-will or Chuck-will’s-widow. If a swampy spot is nearby, a Virginia Rail might speak.

 

Watch for Tree or Barn Swallows carrying insects to a box, or an Eastern Kingbird bringing a butterfly toward a well-hidden nest. Black-capped Chickadees may gorge on sunflower seeds in the winter, but their kids eat only the best high-fat, high-protein insects and caterpillars in season. And this is true of a lot of other species.


Happy birding!

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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

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“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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