Let's Write About Talented Mockingbirds!

Echo essay published in the Penobscot Bay Pilot, (PenBayPilot) a MidCoast Maine newspaper.  By Jeff and Allison Wells

Listen to the Mockingbirds

The authors once recorded a northern mockingbird that imitated not only bird songs but also a car alarm and sirens. Courtesy of Allison Wells

Certain bird species come and go in our Maine neighborhood. 

This includes mockingbirds—northern mockingbirds to be exact, since there are another 13 species of mockingbird found south of the U.S. We see a mockingbird in or near our yard just about every year. But they’ve never stayed and set up territory. That means that we don’t get to experience, on a daily basis, what makes northern mockingbird so famous: their ability to mimic.

We were reminded of this recently when a local birder posted his recording of a mockingbird singing from a Portland location at midnight. In the recording, you can hear the bird imitate perhaps as many as 14 or 15 other bird species. This particular bird must have either spent a lot of time around robins and blue jays or just liked the sounds they produced because it had examples of multiple different vocalizations of those two species.

While both male and female mockingbirds sing, males are the ones you’re likely to hear singing most vigorously in spring and summer. Females are thought to choose the males with which they will pair based, at least partly, on numerous aspects of their vocal performance. This seems to include how they incorporate various sounds into their repertoire. As mockingbirds birds mature, they add more and more sounds into their playbook.

Like many people, we have had the wondrous experience of listening to the talented mimicry of mockingbirds both in Maine and across the U.S. A few years ago, we recorded one that we were particularly impressed with that held sway in the cemetery beside the Augusta airport. That bird cycled through one impression after another in rapid succession. In addition to many bird species, it even included sounds of sirens and car alarms!

One of the species it imitated was the whip-poor-will. We have never heard whip-poor-wills in that area, and there are no eBird records of whip-poor-wills from that spot. Do whip-poor-wills occur there regularly but have gone undetected by birders? Or did this bird pick up this song from somewhere, else even though we think of mockingbirds as non-migratory?

Brown thrashers are closely related to mockingbirds and are also excellent mimics. Courtesy of Jeff Wells

Interestingly, a brown thrasher was singing near this particular mockingbird and eventually flew up and took over the perch where the mockingbird had been singing. Brown thrashers are closely related to mockingbirds and are also excellent mimics. Unlike northern mockingbirds, brown thrashers do migrate, spending winters in the southern U.S. 

Is it possible that the brown thrasher heard whip-poor-wills singing when it was down south and brought that imitation back to use on its breeding grounds in Maine? Further, could the mockingbird neighbor have picked up the whip-poor-will imitation from the thrasher, rather than from an actual whip-poor-will?

There are so many fascinating questions about the songs of mockingbirds, thrashers, and other mimics. How do they decide which sounds to learn and incorporate into a song? How do they decide which sounds to juxtapose or repeat? The process seems similar to how a songwriter or an improvising musician decides what musical motif to play, the sequence of repeated motifs, which motifs sound best or most interesting when followed by another. Is each individual singing mockingbird essentially engaging in what we would consider an art performance if the bird were a human? Who knows, maybe the repetition of sounds like this is what started the human march to language!

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Vice President of Boreal Conservation for National Audubon. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. He is a coauthor of the seminal “Birds of Maine” book and author of the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. 

Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership organization working statewide to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and are the authors of the popular books, “Maine’s Favorite Birds” (Tilbury House) and “Birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: A Site and Field Guide,” (Cornell University Press).

Let's write about a lesson from "The Greatest Generation" a Second World War witness

An essay submitted to the Door County Pulse newspaper in Bailey's Island, Wisconsin:

My father was typical of his "Greatest" generation; quiet, responsible. He enlisted in the Army during World War II and was a platoon sergeant in some of the worst South Pacific battles. He shared only a few stories from those times.

During one battle, his platoon was pinned down by an enemy machine gun. Somehow, he managed to get close enough to that gun to destroy it with a grenade. During that battle, many in his platoon were killed in action. Subsequently, when his platoon was again under fire, in foxholes, he saw one of his new recruits standing up exposed, frozen in terror. My father left his foxhole, grabbed the young recruit, threw him into his foxhole, and dug a new one for himself. Then he watched as a shell landed right into the foxhole in which he’d put the new recruit.

That is a painfully tragic story of just one second in a war that lasted years. We can all understand the tear in my father’s eye as he related the story

My father went to the other side of the world to defend and promote democracy for us and the rest of humanity. He was decorated with two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart for his service. 

Donald Trump and the current military leadership appear to be undermining the principles that inspired and define our country’s support for democracy- "defending democracy". That is like spitting on my father’s grave. Not only does it destroy the efforts of countless American heroes for over 200 years, it offends me personally.

Ukraine is fighting that same battle now, for themselves and the rest of civilization. The battle in Ukraine is an opportunity for us. It is an opportunity to battle against fascism and authoritarian regimes without sending US soldiers to die in battle. If we don’t take advantage of this opportunity, it is likely that a less desirable option will eventually be our only choice. Is that what you want? On which side will you find yourself?

From Mitch Leavitt  Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin

End tariffs now! Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans harming American businesses

This echo opinion is published in the Reno Nevada "Reno Gazette Journal".....just put the name of the U.S. state where you live because the tariffs are negatively impacting the American economy regardless of where we are living and working.

Tariffs are killing businesses. Congress must take back control 

By Kurt Thigpen

Tariffs might feel like a distant policy discussion for some, but here in Nevada, (or Maine) they’re threatening the livelihoods of people across every industry — small business owners, contractors, importers, creatives and countless others who make our economy run.

Trump’s tariffs will raise prices on everyday goods that many of our industries rely on — construction materials, manufacturing components, food and beverage imports and more. These added costs will land squarely on the backs of working Nevadans (or Maine people...put your state's name here)  and the small businesses trying to keep their doors open, some who are still hanging on by a thread after the effects of the pandemic.

In a state where economic diversity is finally taking root beyond gaming and hospitality (and tourism), these tariffs are a blow to our momentum. Businesses are already navigating labor shortages, rising costs and supply chain volatility. Adding more uncertainty with politically motivated tariffs is not just reckless — it’s destructive.

As a small business owner in the marketing and advertising industry, I’ve already seen contracts paused or canceled due to federal grant programs being slashed and uncertainty around funding and market conditions. Our industry is often the first to feel economic shifts, and while it’s easy to dismiss marketing as non-essential, the truth is that it's a key driver of tourism, business development and job creation in Nevada — we bring in billions of dollars economically every year for all industries. When we feel the squeeze, it’s usually a sign of broader trouble ahead.

And the worst part? These tariffs can be enacted without congressional approval. One person can unilaterally make a decision that affects every business in our state — and there’s no accountability, no checks and balances.

Congress must step up and require legislative approval for any new tariffs. This isn’t just about policy — it’s about protecting jobs, stabilizing local economies and ensuring that the decisions being made in Washington don’t devastate the progress we’ve fought so hard for here in Nevada.

Nevada’s (and Maine's) entrepreneurial spirit is strong. Our economy is powered by innovation, resilience, and a community of people who show up for each other. But even the most resilient business can’t withstand the whiplash of unpredictable trade policies.

If Congress doesn’t act, more Nevada businesses will suffer, more jobs will be lost, and the foundation of our economy will continue to erode. It’s time to stop playing politics with people’s livelihoods.

Our leaders need to act now — before it’s too late.

Kurt Thigpen is a former elected official, and small business owner based in Reno, Nevada.

Let's Write about the College of the Future- A vision to transcend attempts to politicize academia

The College of the Future Starts Here

An invitation to attend the inauguration ceremonies for Dr. Jeannine Uzzi, the 6th president of Thomas College in Waterville, on April 11th, 2025, opened an opportunity to learn about her vision for the future of higher learning. Her informative speech should be widely circulated, especially because she transcends the currenly growing environment where academia is becoming unfairly politicized.

Dear Students, Colleagues, Trustees, and Friends of the College

Dr. Jeannine Uzzi gave an educational speech abou the college of the future during her inauguration ceremony on April 11, 2025, to officially become the 6tth president of Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. Thomas College serves a student body filled with first-generation college students. It’s the kind of place where education can truly change the trajectory of a life. And she’s stepping in with clear eyes, a full heart, and the courage to lead.

People often ask me why anyone would want to be a college president today. I always answer, “How could I not want to be a college president today?” As someone who benefitted immensely from higher education, I feel an ethical imperative to spread the benefits of higher education to more learners. This is why I go to work every morning.

Yet today, nearly one third of Americans have decided that higher education isn’t worth it, and contrary to what we often see cited as the reason, it’s not only about cost. In Maine, for example, students can attend community college tuition-free, but college attendance is still down 20%. Americans widely acknowledge the objective benefits of a four-year degree when it comes to lifetime earning power and health outcomes, but many also say they do not value the education that leads to the degree. How did this happen?

If I asked you to close your eyes and imagine a college, you would probably picture a lush green lawn and buildings covered with ivy, all surrounded by a fence or wall—a beautiful barrier—between the college and the rest of reality. This image, while in many ways outdated, is informed by a sector of the economy that gives its highest ratings to schools that reject the most students. And while it is true that one highly selective university recently reported its cost of attendance at a whopping six figures per year, in reality, highly selective colleges and universities educate less than 5% of all American students.  

Today, a college degree and the benefits it affords are more accessible than ever. Degrees can be earned at any age, online, at one’s own pace, while working, and often at deep discounts off the full cost of attendance. And today’s colleges and universities—even those with modest price tags—abound with resources for learners of all kinds: degree and certification programs leading to lucrative fields; career counseling; financial literacy support; mental health counseling; and services for students with disabilities. Many colleges and universities also offer prior learning assessment for adult students who have met learning outcomes through work or military service. What is more, colleges and universities offer support for small businesses and a wide variety of professional development opportunities, not to mention arts and cultural events, many of which are open and free to the public. Colleges and universities often drive the economies of the towns and cities in which they are located.

It’s time for us to stop perseverating on the 3-4% of schools who reject 95% of their applicants and start celebrating the 95% of schools—schools like Thomas College—who accept the majority of students who apply. It’s time for us to stop worrying about the price of Stanford and start talking about the schools that educate the vast majority of American students. These institutions and all who support them must trumpet their existence and shout their impact from the rooftops. The U.S. economy is simply too large to rest on students educated by the Ivy League and its highly selective peers: we desperately need the institutions that provide critical access to higher education to build our future.

If we can let go of the idea of the college of the past—that ivy-covered gated community—we can start to imagine the college of the future. The college of the future will not seek first to guard its gate; it will not be elite or selective but impactful. The college of the future will embrace the need to provide multiple pathways to success for its students. The college of the future will be porous; it will welcome students from all walks of life; and it will be a catalyst for community, workforce, and economic development. The college of the future will have multiple routes in and out: well-traveled roads leading from the high schools and community colleges that feed it to the employers, communities, and sectors it feeds. The college of the future will reach out to its civic, educational, and corporate partners as a core part of its business model. It will proactively embody its connections to the public and private sectors; to corporate and non-profit partners; and to peer institutions not only in traditional higher education but also in career and technical education and the trades. Rather than an ivory tower, the college of the future will function as connective tissue between the present and future, both for individuals and for entire communities.

At Thomas, we have been “walking the walk” this year alongside our private high school partners and town academies: we have traveled from Thornton Academy to Washington Academy, from Gould Academy to the Hyde School, and on every visit we asked how Thomas College could help. What value could we add? What gap could Thomas fill in the school curriculum or summer programming? How could we get more students at those high schools excited not just about Thomas College but about college in general?

Some schools returned our visits with their own; some were so excited by the prospect of a partnership that they visited us before we could get to them. In every visit, there was something important to be learned and an opportunity to be explored for the mutual benefit of our institutions. This spring we delivered micro credentials in design thinking to students at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics and expertise in finance and entrepreneurship at Fryeburg Academy. This summer, we’ll host international students from Maine Central Institute, and in October, MSSM will host its Robotics Symposium at Thomas College.

Doris Bonneau of Auburn, Maine (left) and I were delighted to meet up with Dr. Glenn Cummings, the former President of the University of Southern Maine in Portland-Gorham and Lewiston, during the inauguration ceremonies. Always a pleasure to speak with Dr. Cummings! 

Thomas College has taken important steps toward becoming the college of the future, and next year our pace will only increase. The future of higher education is being written today at Thomas College. Join us, keep reading, and—when higher education is the topic—share our story!

Sending my best to you,


Jeannine Diddle Uzzi, Ph.D.
President

Let's Write about World War One: Cantigny after the battle

Hello From a French Village Recalls the U.S. as a Staunch Ally: An Echo history report published in the New York Times by Graham Bowley.

A faded American flag with 48 stars thought to have been left behind in Cantigny after the battle.Credit...Mathieu Richer Mamousse for The New York Times

French visitors are coming to Washington with an old U.S. battle flag and a plan to rekindle memories of the American soldiers who rescued their region during World War I. (Merci❗ )

"Louis Teyssedou, a history teacher from Amiens, half an hour’s drive from Cantigny, :as hatched a plan to try to keep the communal memory alive. He has led his high school students through a study of the battle, and this month he is leading a group of them to Washington, D.C., to honor its significance."

Hello (Bonjour❗) From a French Village That Recalls the U.S. as a Staunch Ally:  French visitors from France are coming to Washington with an old U.S. battle flag and a plan to rekindle memories of the American soldiers who rescued their region during World War I. More than a century after the fighting stopped, the U.S. Army’s First Division has not fully faded from memory in Cantigny, the tiny hilltop village in northern France that it helped to save in World War I. In the woods, there is the trench that was once the unit’s muddy forward position. In a cellar, graffiti scrawled on stone by young, green doughboys, among the first Americans to see action in that war. In patches of farmland, the live shells that for years have turned up during plowing. And in an otherwise unremarkable back room, grenades and shell casings found in the fields, along with a faded flag with 48 stars, thought left behind as the unit marched east to fight more.

In the history books, the battle at Cantigny in May 1918, is recalled as a crisis point in the war. The Allied forces, replenished by the arrival of newly minted American soldiers, beat back a spring offensive by German units looking to aim their booming guns at Paris.

In the village, the remembrances have always been more personal: More than 300 Americans died there. Cantigny, population about 110, has but a single church but it has four monuments, a few hundred yards apart, that honor the men who fought alongside the French under Gen. John J. Pershing. Maj. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was among them. Pershing’s French military liaison was a descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who had been America’s military patron.

The American Monument in Cantigny, France, commemorates a battle there in 1918 when American forces fought their first major offensive in World War I.Credit...Mathieu Richer Mamousse for The New York Times

But Cantigny, like many places, has changed. The older villagers whose grandparents may have fought in the war are fewer. Many of the simple redbrick homes are still farms, though some newer residents are commuters who work in outlying towns. The young are consumed by their own evolving lives.
“Enthusiasts and history buffs have a sense of pride and a duty to remember and revive this entire military past,” said Gilles Levert, 73, a retired factory worker. “For the vast majority of others, parents don’t feel concerned. How can you expect their children to be able to take ownership of the history of their region?”
Louis Teyssedou, a history teacher from Amiens, half an hour’s drive from Cantigny, has hatched a plan to try to keep the communal memory alive. 

He has led his high school students through a study of the battle, and this month he is leading a group of them to Washington, D.C., to honor its significance.

They will be carrying the old battle flag and a hope to rekindle the warmth of Franco-American relations that stretches back to 1781, when the United States and France came together at Yorktown, brothers in war.

The group has a full schedule that includes efforts to meet descendants of those who fought at Cantigny and a plan to lay a wreath and unfurl the flag at Pershing’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery.

“It’s a project to show how Americans helped France,” Mr. Teyssedou said.

Although the trip was planned long before the American elections, Mr. Teyssedou said he recognized that he arrives in Washington at a time when U.S. relations with Europe are severely strained. So strained that for some Europeans the memories of American heroism in past conflicts have begun to curdle.

“Coming in this context justifies … coming,” he wrote in an email, noting that his is not a diplomatic mission but an educational one. Still, he said, the historic archives that the students have been working in are “transmitters of memory.”

“They remind us,” he said, “that our two countries share a shared history.”

World War I was nearly three years old when President Woodrow Wilson declared in 1917, that the United States would join the fighting. The first American units were withdrawn from the Mexican border and shipped off from Hoboken, N.J., for Europe.

Their arrival bolstered Allied morale, and the U.S. troops, aware of the symbolism, paraded through Paris to the grave of Lafayette, who 150 years earlier had rallied France to the American cause. Col. Charles E. Stanton, a senior officer, stood before the tomb to announce that the United States honors its debts.

“Lafayette,” he declared, “we are here!”

From there it was on to war. At the time, Cantigny had been taken by the Germans, the foremost tip of an offensive that threatened to drive a wedge between British and French forces. From the elevated ground, German commanders could overlook the Allied lines and launch a devastating thrust deeper into France.

The military newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, depicted the circumstances for readers at the time.

“On the one hand,” the dispatch read, “was a German army on the Western Front, reinforced to nearly twice its former proportions by the collapse of Russia, armed and trained to the last degree of perfection and animated by a hope of success, which, because it was based upon such almost immeasurable strength, amounted to conviction.”

“On the other hand,” it continued, “were the armies of France and England, doggedly determined still, but sorely-tried through nearly four years of ceaseless battle and cruelly battered by the gigantic plunges of the enemy in his spring offensive.” “What factor,” it asked, “could furnish to one side or the other the balance of weight which might turn the scale?”

The answer would be the charge of 2,000 American soldiers who initially stormed from their trenches at 6:45 a.m. on May 28, 1918, behind a barrage of artillery fire laid down by French and American guns. They were accompanied by 12 French Schneider tanks, French flamethrowers and French observation balloons and air support.
The combined forces captured Cantigny within an hour and pushed past it into fields to the east. For three days, they then held off German counterattacks.

Many of the American dead were buried on the battlefield, though they were later exhumed and moved to the Somme American Cemetery in Bony. Cantigny was left a lifeless, smoking ruin.

Much of the fighting was at night and combat tactics had evolved so that the artillery fire moved along with the infantry, the guns firing ahead of the troops as they advanced, according to Mike MacDonald, president of the 28th Infantry Regiment Association.

“It was a horrific battle,” he said. For all its horror, the battle made clear to skeptical Allied commanders that the untried American forces were dependable.

“It was just taking a little village on top of a hill, but it was a big statement that the American expeditionary forces could fight,” said Matthew J. Davenport, author of a book about Cantigny, “First Over There.”

Soldiers from the 28th Infantry Regiment going over the top of trenches during the Battle of Cantigny on May 28, 1918.Credit...Associated Press

“Bravo the young Americans!” crowed The London Evening News. “It was clean-cut from beginning to end, like one of their countrymen’s short stories, and the short story of Cantigny is going to expand into a full-length novel which will write the doom of the Kaiser and Kaiserism.”

Experts say the battle helped establish modern American military doctrine with its focus on combining and synchronizing the various elements of combat power — tanks, infantry, engineers, artillery and air support. After Cantigny, the number of American soldiers grew from about 300,000 at the time of the U.S. entry into the war to 4.5 million by the end, 2.5 million of them stationed in France.
For historians, the battle was also significant because of the remarkable constellation of personalities that were involved or associated with it.

Victor Hugo’s great-grandson, Jean Hugo, an artist, acted as a translator for the Americans and sketched the ruins of the battlefield. A cousin of Willa Cather died leading American troops,.there, his death becoming a central part of her novel “One of Ours,” which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Many men, like Roosevelt, gained experience at Cantigny that would be called upon decades later in the next world war. Capt. Clarence R. Huebner, who commanded a battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment, led the First Infantry Division a quarter-century later at Omaha Beach. The officer who planned the Cantigny attack, Lt. Col. George C. Marshall, then 37, would become the U.S. Army chief of staff in World War II and later Secretary of Defense and State.

“This was the future leadership of the American army learning how to fight the German army,” Mr. Davenport said.

In his memoir, Marshall wrote in freighted terms about the importance of Cantigny to him and to the global democratic values at stake.

“Quitting the soil of Europe to escape oppression and the loss of personal liberties, the early settlers in America laid the foundations of a government based on equality, personal liberty, and justice,” he wrote. “Three hundred years later their descendants returned to Europe and on May 28, 1918, launched their first attack on the remaining force of autocracy to secure the same principles for the peoples of the Old World.”

In the century since the battle, the landing at Normandy and the liberation of Paris in 1944 have become more powerful reminders of the bonds between the Americans and the French. But in Cantigny there are always signs of the earlier struggle — not just the monuments, but street names like Rue de la 1ère Division Usa and the uniform buttons, rifle cleaners, belt buckles and horse buckles found in the wheat fields. 

The walls in the cellar of a farmhouse where American soldiers recuperated from their wounds still bear their idle inscriptions: “U S A,” “U.S. Forever.”