We are thinking today about some of Maine’s great ornithologists and wanted to profile one that few people may have ever heard of. Her name was Cordelia Stanwood. There may be no birds named after her but there is a popular wildlife sanctuary: the Birdsacre Stanwood Wildlife Sanctuary in Ellsworth. The 200-acre sanctuary and the original home of Cordelia Stanwood can be found on Route 1 heading out of Ellsworth toward Mount Desert Island. Most of Stanwood’s writings and photographs have been preserved at the Stanwood Museum. A wonderful portrait of her life was presented in the book Beyond the Spring, by the original curator of the Stanwood Museum, the late Chandler Richmond.

When in her late thirties, after a career as a school teacher and art instructor in various parts of New England and New York, Cordelia returned in 1904 to the home where she was born in Ellsworth. Recuperating from what was said to have been a nervous breakdown, she began a new career as an avid naturalist, writer, and pioneer wildlife photographer. She seemed to have a particular and special ability to find bird nests. In fact, Richmond in his book, notes that she had found more than 100 nests in the vicinity between 1905 and 1908! She used that skill to begin carrying out extensive behavioral observations of nesting birds at a time when much about their natural history and behavior was poorly documented or unknown. Cordelia maintained field journals of these observations for decades, and as she learned more she began an extensive correspondence with noted ornithologists and natural history writers of her day including John Burroughs and Frank Chapman. Soon she began publishing her findings in academic journals, eventually amassing more than 20 publications including in well known ornithological journals like The Auk and The Wilson Bulletin, among others. Stanwood continued providing detailed natural history observations that eventually appeared in at least a dozen of the famous Life Histories of American Birds series by A.A. Bent. At the same time, she also worked to hone her popular writing skills and was able to begin publishing articles in popular magazines that brought in much-needed income for her. She was one of the earliest writers to begin illustrating her articles with her own photographs.

What is particularly amazing about Stanwood is that she found a way to continue this passion despite not having a professional position or income from a museum or academic institution. She was one of the first woman ornithologists and naturalists in a time when such professional pursuits were typically open only to men. In fact, part of the way she made ends meet was to make and sell a variety of handcrafted items like fancy baskets, rugs, and picture frames. This kind of resourcefulness makes Cordelia Stanwood not only a Maine pioneer of ornithology but a true Mainer!

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists 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 book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds.”