Traveling Birds, Traveling Bird Exhibit

I used to be standing on high of a tall, hill-like jetty close to Rockkport, Massachusetts, gazing out on the Gulf of Maine, once I heard a brief rattling name from someplace above me within the blue sky. It was early within the afternoon on a heat autumn day. The chook variety was not overwhelming. The anticipated herring gulls passed by. Far out to sea on a human-made jetty of huge blocks of stone sat a preponderance of nice black-backed gulls. A single northern gannet beat its lengthy wings within the distance.

After which there was the rattle name once more.

I noticed it then, a excessive, lone chook. It gave a mild “tew” name after which one other rattle. A snow bunting? No, the chook had no white patches within the wings. Oh, a Lapland longspur! Then the speck disappeared into the gap, heading towards land.

Each snow buntings and Lapland longspurs breed throughout the Arctic after which fly south for the winter. However normally not till later in October or November. What could have pushed this chook to drop south earlier? Had the chook been in Nunavut or Greenland just some days earlier than? My thoughts turned northward.

I used to be lately in Massachusetts the place I spoke about Boreal birds and conservation on the Essex County Ornithological Membership, a chook membership based in 1916. The occasion was at the side of a brand new touring exhibition at the moment hosted on the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem. The exhibition is sponsored by Audubon and  centered on the Boreal Forest biome. It’s referred to as Figuring out Nature: Tales of the Boreal Forest, and will probably be on the museum till September 2026. It’s full of massive, lovely images and different imagery, interactive video games for teenagers (and kids-at-heart), and the superb sounds of birds from the Boreal Forest softly permeate the soundscape, making it really feel like a relaxing oasis. The exhibition is organized by season, and this model (it’s a Smithsonian Touring exhibit, making its manner across the nation) has a beautiful moss wall, a historic canoe mannequin, and an artwork set up by a neighborhood Indigenous artist.

The exhibition highlights many components of the ecological in addition to cultural significance of the Boreal Forest biome together with sections on caribou, fish, and, after all, birds. And it highlights many Indigenous voices all through. One nook has a brief video that has great interviews with Indigenous leaders in addition to non-Indigenous teachers and conservationists (together with me!).

It’s properly price a go to at any time. If you’re, by any likelihood, among the many throngs of individuals going to Salem round Halloween time, the exhibit makes a welcome respite from the busier (and spookier) actions occurring in the remainder of city. 

I heartily advocate a go to to Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest on the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.