News and Events for Nantucket Island
We’re fortunate on Nantucket that we can “beach it” all year round. As a dog owner, I frequent lots of different beaches in all seasons. But it’s summertime, so many more of us are enjoying the beaches. It’s also a great time to linger at the beach. Long walks at a slow pace has me observing so much more. These beaches of the north shore are some of my favorite. Think Dionis, 40th Pole, Water Tower, and Steps, for example. These are great for lazy beach walks and wonderful beachcombing.
It’s once again BioBlitz time on Nantucket! Mid-summer is the perfect time for a BioBlitz. It’s peak growing season, height of insects, the tail end of nesting season for many birds, decent weather for beachcombing, and there are lots of people on island to help us count them all!
by Sarah Treanor Bois, Director of Research & Education for the Linda Loring Nature Foundation Poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, is a native, woody plant prevalent throughout Nantucket. As the name implies, it is “toxic” or “poisonous” to the touch for many of the public. While 85 % of Americans are […]
by Dr. Sarah T. Bois, Director of Research & Education for the Linda Loring Nature Foundation Until recently, Turkey Vultures were a rare occurrence on Nantucket. They would make the occasional Christmas bird count and were listed as a rarity in the 1979 Checklist of Nantucket Birds by Edith Andrews […]
by Dr. Sarah T. Bois, Director of Research & Education for the Linda Loring Nature Foundation Springtime on Nantucket is a special time when muddy roads and icy sidewalks make way for budding crocuses and nesting song-birds. Spring officially begins with the Nantucket Daffodil Festival that has always been held […]
~ by Katherine Brooks, Maria Mitchell Association ~ The story of the striped bass skeleton hanging in the Maria Mitchell Association’s Hinchman Natural Science Museum begins with an old Nantucketer, Granger Frost, who caught the striped bass off of Tuckernuck in 1971. The bass, lovingly named the 7th Earl of […]
The Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) biological collections’ oldest specimen is the Wood Fern (pictured above). Maria Louisa Owen, an expert in mosses and moss-like plants, collected this fern in 1879. This was during the height of “Pteridomania” – also known as the Victo- rian fern craze – which was sweeping […]
~ by Katherine Brooks, Maria Mitchell Association ~ The story of the orphan tropical fish sounds like it could be the nautical version of “Annie,” or a spin off of “Finding Dory,” but the story of the orphan tropical fish hinges on the theme of displacement and is an example […]
~ by Katherine Brooks Maria Mitchell Association ~ Have you heard a piercing shriek in the night accompanied by a flurry of white light? Although it sounds like the making of a summercamp ghost story, what you might be observing is the barn owl – unique in its aesthetics with […]
