Last week was a busy one on the South Fork. I received an email with a photo from Mariah Whitmore of a sandhill crane near Multi Aquaculture Systems on Napeague. I immediately informed Terry Sullivan and a few other birders. Terry went out to see shortly after and came back with more wonderful pictures of the crane. Readers of “Nature Notes” may recall reading about the last sandhill crane to visit the South Fork a few years ago, accompanied by Terry’s photo of it.

In his new novel, “Assassin of Shadows,” Lawrence Goldstone offers an alternative theory to the events of the McKinley assassination.

When the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed by the United States Congress, abolitionists nicknamed it the “Bloodhound Law” for the dogs that were used by bounty hunters to track down runaway slaves. Not only were runaways pursued, but the law also resulted in the kidnapping and conscription of free blacks into slavery.