Birds in the Bushes

BIRDS IN THE BUSHES,
A Story About Margaret Morse Nice
By Julie Dunlap
Illustrations by Ralph L. Ramstad
Carolrhoda, 1996

Category: Middle Grade Biography

You know that question you sometimes hear, the one that goes: “If you could travel back in time and have lunch with one person from history, who would it be?” Since reading Julie Dunlap’s middle grade biography BIRDS IN THE BUSHES, I’ve decided that my answer to that question is: Margaret Morse Nice.

I picked the book up on a whim. I am preparing for some field research that will soon have me tracking birdwatchers (actually, bird counters) for a new book, and when I searched the children’s catalog at my local library this line of flap copy caught my eye: “Even becoming a wife and mother of five daughters couldn’t keep her in the house and away from birds.”

In some ways, Margaret’s story is familiar, even today: an intelligent woman bucks tradition, goes to college, earns a degree, embarks on a science career, falls in love, begins a family, and leaves her work behind.

But in other ways, Margaret’s story is wholly unique and inspiring.

She married in 1909, at the age of twenty-four. She abandoned her plans for a Ph.D. She raised five children. But she never, ever let go of her passion for discovery. She was creative, she found a way to work within her means (think massive, eight-year song sparrow study in the woods behind her house), and she learned important things about the world around her.

If I could have that lunch with Margaret, I’d insist on packing the food so that she could spend her precious time out in the field studying sparrows. When we finally did settle down with sandwiches and iced tea—after her daily observations were finished—I’d ask her about being a woman and a scientist, about being a mother and an investigator, about doing science independent of academia. Most of all, I’d ask her about those birds in the bushes, her beloved song sparrows.

What inspirational person would you like to have lunch with today?