Research/Collections
The Natural Science Department of the Maria Mitchell Association actively conducts research and surveys of Nantucket’s ecology and biodiversity. Current projects include the Osprey Research project, the American Burying Beetle project, and the Electronic Field Guide to Invasive Plants on Nantucket. The Maria Mitchell Association plays a key role in the collaborative Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative.
Ospreys on Nantucket
At the end of each summer, the Ospreys that nest and raise their young on Nantucket embark on a long journey back to Central and South America. Some, like Mr. Hannah (the Osprey being radio-tracked in a collaborative study by the Maria Mitchell Association and The Trustees of Reservations) travel all the way to Brazil. Specifically, Mr. Hannah is south of the Equator along the Jurua River in Amazonas, Brazil.
As winter gives way to spring, the Osprey return to Nantucket. The first sighting of an Osprey usually occurs around the end of March. Each year, the Maria Mitchell Association holds a contest and awards a prize to the first person to report an Osprey on Nantucket. The exact day varies year to year, but if Mr. Hannah is any indication of how the other Ospreys are making their travel plans, it may be later in the month than earlier: “As of this past Wednesday, the most recent download of data that we have received, Mr. Hannah is showing no signs of moving north” says Dr. Bob Kennedy. “With four thousand miles to travel and with a predicted arrival date back on Nantucket around the 31st of March, I expected him to start moving about 10 days ago.”
Is the less-than-desirable weather in the Northeast tempting Nantucket’s Ospreys to stay a little longer than usual in their tropical winter homes? Since the radio-tracking device was placed on Mr. Hannah only this past summer, it’s hard to say whether this is normal for Mr. Hannah. “Since we have no prior information on his migration north, it is all guesswork as to when he will leave and how fast he will travel,” adds Dr. Kennedy. “March 31 is thirty-five days from his last known position so he will at least have to travel 114 miles a day on average to get back home, and that is equivalent to about five hours of flying per day.”
Call (508) 228-9198 to report a sighting, and you could be the winner of the 2010 contest! Additionally, those interested in hearing more about the Osprey and the research project are welcome to attend the Consortium of Nantucket Naturalists (CNN) meeting at the MMA Natural Science Museum on April 20th at 12:00 noon. We will connect to Google Earth and track his fall migration south, his winter home and his spring migration north, if he succeeds in getting back to Nantucket! He has a very long and hazardous trip ahead of him. All are welcome to the talk.
About Mr. Hannah
Update from Dr. Bob 3/16/10:
Tracking Mr. Hannah has, needless to say, been one of the most exciting activities in my 41 years as a professional ornithologist. His movements around Nantucket showing us how hard he searched for food for his nest mate and himself told us that food availability on Nantucket was not as good as you would think. And then his spectacular departure from Nantucket on September 6th heading to Sandy Hook, New Jersey at over 50 mph. His travels through the US, over the Atlantic between North Carolina and Vero Beach, Florida, AT NIGHT, and his perilous journey across the Straits of Florida to Cuba, then to Haiti and the Dominican Republic (both Osprey War Zones), on to Colombia, and then heading due south through Venezuela back into Colombia, and into Brazil, crossing the Equator and the Amazon River and ending up on October 11 in a tiny spot along the Jurua River, 4000 miles from Nantucket. He remained at his winter home, an area about 3 miles wide from east to west and 2 miles wide from north to south, until last Friday, March 5. At that time, just as suddenly as he departed Nantucket in September, he launched himself north. Here is the (beginning of the) story of his quest to head home to reclaim his nest at Coatue.
At 10 am on March 5, Mr. Hannah was perched along the Jurua River in his winter home. Shortly after 10 am some switch inside Mr. Hannah's brain was triggered and he launched out of his winter home, rose from 73 feet elevation to 658 feet and started flying due north. By 11 am on the 5th he was 7.5 miles north of his winter home and rapidly heading north. Here are some details of his trip north:
11 am on March 6, he was crossing the Amazon River, 70 miles from his winter home
6 pm on March 6, he had just crossed the Equator, 260 miles from his winter home
2 pm March 7 he entered Colombia, 350 miles north
Evening of March 9/10 he spent along the border of Colombia and Venezuela, 711 miles north
2 pm today, March 11, he left the coast of Venezuela
6 pm today, March 11, our last known location for Mr. Hannah, he seemed to have settled down for the night on the northern-most point in Venezuela, on the north shore of the Peninsula de Paraguana, just south of Aruba Island, and 1,150 miles north of his winter home.
We do not know if he did stop for the night or just stopped to rest before taking off across the Caribbean. We will know when we get the next download of satellite data within the next few days.
So Mr. Hannah travelled over 1150 miles in 6 days or about 192 miles per day.
By next report, Mr. Hannah will likely have crossed the Caribbean, passed through the Dominican Republic and Haiti and will be travelling through Cuba. If he continues his speed of migration, he will arrive on Nantucket by the end of the month.
Thanks again for all of your encouragement and support.
Mr. Hannah and Dr. Bob, signing off
On May 13, 2009, a historic event happened on Nantucket. The male Osprey at the Coskata 1 nest was caught and Dr. Rob Bierregaard (Dr. Bob Kennedy's Osprey Colleague) attached a Satellite GPS Solar paneled transmitter to him using a back pack. This is one of the first adult male Ospreys to carry the most sophisticated transmitter available in the world. The transmitter gives his precise location hourly from 5 am to 5 pm each day. Also, if he is flying, it transmits his altitude, flight speed and flight direction. We are pleased to report that this tracking project is a partnership between the Maria Mitchell Association and The Trustees of Reservations.
Mr. Hannah left Nantucket in early September, and within three days had already traveled hundreds of miles to Florida! (See map below)
On September 28 it looked like Mr. Hannah was settling into a small area in north central Venezuela as he spent about 10 days in that area. It seems he was only resting from his 11-day, 3,000-mile trip from Nantucket. He then took off to the south at 2 pm on the 27th, arriving in the headwaters of the Orinoco River in Department of Apure, Venezuela on the 28th. He remained there until 3 October and then headed south again, crossing into Colombia on October 4 following sections of the Orinoco River along the border of Colombia and Venezuela. Since he arrived in South America, he has travelled over 750 miles south. His combined straight line flight from Nantucket is about 3,500 miles, which he has covered in 30 days.
In the subsequent weeks, Mr. Hannah made his way into the Amazon Basin, eventually setting into a medium-sized tributary to the Amazon. As of mid-October, Mr. Hannah logged about 4000 miles of travel from Nantucket - or almost exactly 45 degrees of latitude, or one eighth the circumference of the planet! He reached farther than we had expected, but now seems to be settled in the vicinity that he reached on 11 October his last location. Mr. Hannah's new home must be good fishing grounds for him On Nantucket his diet consists of many species of fish including Striped Bass and Pumpkinseed Sunfish Now picture him eating Peacock Bass and Piranha among other things. And while eating his fish, imagine Hyacinthine Macaws (beautiful blue parrots over three feet long) flying overhead and Screaming Pihas (a species of bird with a very loud bizarre call) ring out from the surrounding jungles below.
Thanks for following Mr. Hannah's adventures. Check back, we'll keep you posted!
American Burying Beetle Project
The American Burying Beetle (ABB) is one of the few invertebrates on the Endangered Species List. The American Burying Beetle has an unusual life cycle that sets the species apart from most other insects. The Maria Mitchell Association is collaborating with the Roger Williams Park Zoo and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure the survival of this unique creature. The project has been in place for 14 years, and the results of the study are showing promising results.
Currently, the researchers catch beetles, count them, and bury pairs with a quail carcass to help them reproduce. ABB scientists estimate that there are just over 100 individual beetles on the island each year. Visit the Maria Mitchell Natural Science Museum [link to Natural Science Museum page] to see the display on the American Burying Beetle project. How many of these beetles live on Nantucket? What do they eat here? Will the Nantucket beetles survive into the future? These are questions this study hopes to answer. 
Unlike most insects, the American Burying Beetle provides its young with parental care. The beetles are recyclers, using a dead animal as a food source for their larvae. To successfully rear young, American Burying Beetles require a dead bird or rodent of a specific size. If the dead rodent or bird is too small, there will not be enough food for the larva. If the animal is too large, the parents cannot bury it properly. Both the mother and father dig an underground brood chamber, prepare their animal carcass so it stays fresh and they actually feed their larvae for several days after they hatch. Most insects never even see their young hatch out of eggs!
Since the early 1900’s the number of dead rodents and birds has decreased and undisturbed land (needed for brood chambers) has diminished. However, there is a small population on Nantucket that was reintroduced in 1994. “In 2008, we’ve caught more beetles than any previous year, and found that they are distributed across the entire eastern part of the island,” says Andrew McKenna-Foster, Director of the MMA Natural Science Museum at Hinchman House. “This is a sign of success.”
Lou Perrotti, Conservation Programs Coordinator at the Roger Williams Park Zoo, agrees. “This is the longest running invertebrate reintroduction project in the U.S.” says Perrotti. “The success of the species is not only very encouraging but has great implications for future reintroduction projects around the world.”
It’s easy to overlook the importance of insects and other invertebrates because they are not as visible as other species. However, they are often the first creatures in an ecosystem to feel the damaging effects of changes brought on by man. Recognizing the vital role insects play in an ecosystem is the first step in learning how to ensure the survival of insects such as the American Burying Beetle and in turn the health of humans, food crops, and the natural world.
For more information on the American Burying Beetle, please visit the Roger Williams Park Zoo American Burying Beetle site and the Recovery Project site.
The Electronic Field Guide to Invasive Plants on Nantucket
Electronic field guide technology, developed at the departments of Computer Science and Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, is the basis for this joint endeavor with the MMA to electronically document island biodiversity. The Electronic Field Guide to the Invasive Plants of Nantucket (EFG) is the first product of this partnership. To help bridge the gap between people and the natural world, the EFG uses taxonomic and ecological data along with visual aids to connect people to a database of more than 60 terrestrial alien plant species that occur on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. This user-friendly guide introduces the general public to the fundamentals of plant identification while describing the impact non-native species have on the ecosystems of Nantucket. It enables users to recognize invasive plant species and teaches them about the threat these species pose to natural habitats. The underlying database will also serve as a baseline for scientific research.
Please click here to access the Electronic Field Guide
Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative
The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative (NBI) is a partnership between Nantucket conservation organizations, government agencies and individuals interested in documenting the biodiversity of the islands and adjacent waters and monitoring and conserving that biodiversity over time.
This collaborative effort is being undertaken to inventory and monitor the many species of plants and animals found on Nantucket and to educate the public about the importance of protecting the rare elements that contribute to Nantucket’s rich local biodiversity.
Click here to access the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative website.
Collections
The Natural Science Museum houses many biological collections, including the Edith F. Andrews Ornithology Collection, an insect and spider collection, reptile and amphibian specimens, mammal specimens, fish and shellfish collection, rock and mineral specimens, and an herbarium. Many of these collections were started decades ago, thus they represent not only local Nantucket populations of these various species but also documents how the species have changed throughout recent history.