Henry L. Ferguson Museum

Don't forget to register in advance for today's virtual illustrated lecture: Blowin’ in the Wind? by Dr. Tiffany Smythe, professor of maritime policy at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Don't forget to register in advance for this Sunday's Virtual Illustrated Lecture: "Regenerative Gardening" by Craig Floyd, a tenth generation Farmer from Stonington and Farm Manager at the Giving Garden at Coogan Farm owned by the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center.

Don't forget to register in advance for today's virtual screening of the illustrated talk by HLFM director Pierce Rafferty, which traces the evolution of farming from the first American Indian inhabitants through to our last remaining farmers at the Fishers Island Oyster Farm.

Have you ever wondered what butterflies were visiting your backyard? Don't forget to register in advance of today's HLFM Illustrated Lecture by Kim Hargrave, Education Director Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center.

Mayflower off Hay Harbor, July 27, 2020. Photo by Josh Leuchtenburg.

Don't forget to register in advance for tomorrow's virtual program: Beaks, Feet & Feathers! This DPNC co-hosted family program is for ages 5 and up.

Don't forget to register in advance for today's virtual illustrated lecture by HLFM Director Pierce Rafferty. He will examine the untold story of Fishers Island’s once strong but now all-but-forgotten connections to Bethlehem, PA.

Don't forget to register in advance for today's family program: Slithering Snakes hosted by Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center

Do these photos, taken two years apart, show the same turtle? Last week, Jeff Edwards spotted a Diamondback Terrapin near the Oyster Pond - the first sighting on Fishers Island since 1984 (right). Or so we thought! One week later, Laura Chapman helped revised the record with this photo (left) of another Diamondback Terrapin taken in 2018, near the Water Works. Compare the shell patterns, coloration, and scars. Are these two different turtles or one and the same? Let us know... below. #diamondbackterrapin #doppleganger #fishersisland

Don't forget to register in advance for the July 19th virtual talk: "The Science of Climate Change" by Peter Raymond. Co-Hosted by New London Maritime Society.

Don't forget to register in advance for the July 12th virtual talk by Connecticut State Historian, Walter Woodward!

Dead Dwarf Sperm Whale, South Beach, F.I. July 9, 2020. Photo by Carol Giles. This whale has been identified as a Pygmy sperm whale not a Dwarf sperm whale by an Animal Rescue staff member at Mystic Aquarium. Photos of the teeth have been sent in to the Rescue Program Director of the New York Marine Rescue Center who has forwarded them to an expert at NOAA. There should be confirmation of the identification tomorrow.

Scudder at Pit Party, circa 1962, snap shot courtesy of Melie. Visit FergusonMuseum.org. to see the 2020 Virtual Exhibition.

Don't miss the opening of the Henry L. Ferguson Museum's first virtual annual exhibition! It's now open and ready for visitors on the museum's website. This year’s exhibition examines the current state of the fort properties that stretch across the Sound from Napatree Point, R.I., to Gardiners Point Island, N.Y. Looking beyond the visually compelling crumbling facades of gun pits, the striking through-line of this exhibition is the active repurposing of large sections of these former military reservations by scientists, naturalists and conservationists into nature sanctuaries and preserves. https://fergusonmuseum.org//annual-exhibition-2020-the-co/

ANNUAL EXHIBITION Goes live on the new web site on June 27, 2020 The Coastal Forts of Eastern Long Island Sound: Abandonment, Ruination and Repurposing

Keeping with the turtle motif, this beauty was snapped in 2017 by A.F. Collins and never given the recognition that he/she deserves.

Links to register for three Fishers Island Seagrass webinars are below: Tuesday, June 16th 12-1 pm: https://us02web.zoom.us//register/WN_CjQTQrhYRHKObMbuBRXkVw Thursday, June 25th 5-6 pm: https://us02web.zoom.us//register/WN_7b3GKNTQTTG1P-IJjNqc0w Friday, July 10th 10-11 am: https://us02web.zoom.us//register/WN_VvwKxj_RQuKSdSosq-b6GA

Very clever nest location atop ledge of stand alone tall stump, 3/4s of the way up. One baby bird in occupancy.

Piping plover, NYS endangered, at an unidentified FI beach. Fabulous photo by Todd McCormack.

Two of the little Great Horned Owls...

Great horned owl now has confirmed 3 little ones. Classified location and photographer. She needs her peace.

New osprey platform along 8th hole, Big Club. JR pictured. Photos by Ken Edwards.

Humans aren't the only creatures craving the sun. This image is a bit more upbeat than the last

The diseased Sugar Maple that delivered such vibrant fall colors for the last 15 or 16 years is no more. Removed today by a (figuratively) skeletal Race Rock crew who were distancing perfectly. Will update when replacement tree goes in.

List of 140 bird species seen on Fishers Island in 2019. Thanks to Terry McNamara and all who contributed sightings.

Fire House Fishers Island December 1950. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Please join us for our Annual Holiday Open House at the Museum, Monday, December 23rd, 5 to 7 pm. All welcome!!

Melie and friend ready for the HHC costume dance. (Date not available from the road.)

It's worth remembering what a great leap forward the 2003 Museum was as far as Natural History exhibit display. The bird specimens transitioned from the linear display seen here (Male/Female Male/Female Mothball Mothball Mothball) to selected display of birds linked thematically. The curators of the new Natural History Gallery in 2003 were Carey Matthiessen, Ed Horning, Charlie Ferguson and Penni Sharp, sadly all no longer with us. Serena Furman of A Space Design was instrumental in designing the new exhibit formats, assisted in technical aspects by Valarie Kinkade of Museum and Collector Resources.

Come to Scotch on the Rocks an illustrated talk by Museum Director Pierce Rafferty on Prohibition and rum running in our region. 4pm Sunday October 13th, 2nd Floor of the HLFM. Reception to follow.

The last hatching for #monarchbutterfly for the season. These beauties spotted down at the Race will hopefully make it all the way to Mexico for the winter. They cluster together on trees at night and follow the winds by day. On the way they’ll be challenged by pesticides, plus the decline of milkweed and other important native plants as they journey southward. The mountains in central Mexico where they overwinter are being threatened in part due to increased demand for avocados and subsequent deforestation. What are a few things you can do? Plant more butterfly- and bird-friendly native species in your gardens, cut out pesticides in your gardens and your diet and it’s time to rethink avocado toast! #miraclesofnature #monarchmigration

Terrific turnout for Saturday’s Henry L. Ferguson Museum Hawk Watch led by Maggie Jones The extraordinary number of #monarchbutterfly down at Elizabeth Field and the Race really stole the show! Blue skies and butterflieswhat a great morning!

The first known photographs taken on Fishers Island were daguerreotypes taken of the wreck of the Steamer Atlantic on North Hill in November 1846. An illustration of one of the images was reproduced in a NY newspaper that same year (posted here). Also posted is the advertisement by Mr. Pratt, the New London-based photographer, and one of the two Currier lithographs that depict the tragic wreck. The original daguerreotypes have never been located and represent a Holy Grail of desired lost FI photographs.

A more significant Goose Island in painting attributed to Josiah Bartlett, circa late 19th century. Note what appears to be a house in background on the island.

Avian-Hoo-Done-It! This fresh carcass of a young osprey was discovered on the Brickyard Trail. The osprey’s head was missing. What creature did the deed? This Northern Black Racer isn’t talking. Great Horned Owl a suspect.

Two images of ground osprey nests on Gardiners Island circa 1911 from "The Home Life of the Osprey" by C.G. Abbott. No ground dwelling predators on Gardiners Island at that time to force higher nests in trees (although some were in trees).

Our collection often yields surprises. This classic piece of ephemera popped up in a long ignored batch of flyers, menus and placemats. Dunk and cover! Very reassuring! (Not.)

"Although this famous rum runner was eventually sunk after a running battle with three Coast Guard patrol boats, it is useful for illustrating the type of souped-up speed boat that ultimately defeated the Coast Guard and all its military fire power. The NOLA was steel clad, had a smoke screen device, and 300-horse power WW1 Liberty aircraft engines converted for boat use that could attain speeds of up to 37 knots carrying an 800 pound load." Pierce Rafferty's "Scotch on the Rocks" Prohibition talk on Sunday, August 25, 4pm at Museum. Reception to follow.

Pete Malinowski of Billion Oyster Project addresses the assembled on the deck of the HLFM on August 22nd. Much fun had by all.

Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova (New Belgium and New England), a famous 1635 map by Willem Janzoon Blaeu, was produced several decades after Block’s Chart of 1614. Blaeu’s map was largely based on that famous chart, but also included many new place names drawn from other sources. I was initially puzzled to see that the name attached to Fishers Island was ’t Lange Eyland. Assuming this was a map maker’s error, I contacted David Yehling Allen, the author of Long Island Maps and ...Their Makers: Five Centuries of Cartographic History. Mr. Allen informed me that it might not have been an error at all, for at the time the Dutch had yet to understand that Long Island was indeed one island. Allen explained that although Block had circumnavigated Long Island, he perceived it from the water as a series of islands cut by channels. Thus it was distinctly possible that early Dutch navigators could have given Fishers Island the simple descriptive name, The Lange Eyland, before our large neighbor to the south received it. Without any further proof, the notion of Fishers Island as an early Long Island would have quickly lost credibility. However, a second discovery convinced me that the first was no fluke. While reading chapter eight of New World (1625) by Dutch geographer Johannes De Laet, I came across the following passage. Please note that bracketed place names have been added for identification. In this Great Bay [Long Island Sound] are many islands both large and small that have no particular names, so far as is known to us, except that on a chart of this quarter made some years since, several small islands at the entrance to this great bay, near Fisher’s Hook [Montauk Point], of which we shall speak presently, are named Gesellen (the Companions) [Shelter, Gardiners, Plum, and the Gull islands]. And another across the bay, called Long Island, to avoid which, when rounding Fisher’s Hook and running for the small Frisian River [the Thames], one must steer to the northwest. (Emphasis added) The geography matches up perfectly and provides strong evidence that the first Dutch name for Fishers Island was The Long Island. Follow up work must be undertaken to determine when Long Island itself was first named.

H.L. Ferguson’s history of Fishers Island sets the parameters for the uncertainty of the origins of its name: How the name of Fishers Island was given to it will probably always remain doubtful. Historians differ as to whether it was named after one of Block's companions or named from the occupation of the Indians who were then the inhabitants of the Island. Frances Caulkin’s in her History of New London (1852) draws attention to the Block companion theory in a footnote: ...[B.F.]Thompson (History of Long Island, [1839] p.248) says that Fishers Island was originally called Visshers Island, and was so named by Block, probably after one of his companions. The same assertion has been made by other historians, but it does not appear on what authority. Exactly! No specifics have ever been provided in the almost two centuries since Thompson put forth that theory in the 1830s. The "companion theory can be put aside, way aside. Caulkins also gave her opinion on the origins of the Fishers Island name: Montauk Point he [Block] named Fisher’s Hook, from the employment of the natives, who gained their chief subsistence from the sea. Fishers Island probably received its name on the same account, but at a later period than Block’s survey. Unnamed in the wake of the Block voyage, Fishers Island does receive a Dutch name soon after. The evidence suggests that name was NOT Visshers Island (Fishers Island), but rather "t' Lange Eyland" (The Long Island), as shown in this detail from "Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova," a 1635 east/west oriented map by celebrated Dutch map maker Willem Janzoon Blaue. We were Long Island before Long Island was Long Island. Some documentary evidence of that claim in the next installment. More soon. See more