Edith Andrews, doyenne of the island's bird-watching establishment, founded the Nantucket Bird Club in the early 1940s. After earning a master's degree in ornithology from Cornell University in 1946, she returned to Nantucket to begin a productive career as staff ornithologist at the Maria Mitchell Association and curator of the Mitchell House. Andrews is one of only seven people, and the sole woman, ever to be inducted as an Honorary Member of Harvard's Nuttall Ornithological Club, an award that places her in the company of some of history's birding giants. She is the author of several books, including Birds of Nantucket and Birding Nantucket, and for many years has contributed a weekly column on birds to the Inquirer and Mirror.

This embroidered narrative brings together Andrews's own favorite island birds.