T he group of birds referred to as shorebirds includes a wide array of species. There are all the sandpipers and all the plovers. There are turnstones, godwits, curlews, avocets, woodcock and phalaropes as well. On Martha’s Vineyard we are fortunate to still have the right sorts of habitat to attract a few shorebird nesters. We have willets in the tidal marshes at a number of locations, and it is possible there are still killdeer and spotted sandpipers, although four-legged predators have made them exceptionally scarce.

You almost have to be in a bank vault not to hear the volume of eager bird song these days. From goldfinches to mourning doves, catbirds to cuckoos, just about all of the nesting species which annually choose the Vineyard as a seasonal home announce themselves with some sort of call. Woodpeckers use a favorite sounding board to resonate their presence, while shorebirds, terns and gulls are more apt to utter cries or whistles.

From my office I can hear a bird hit the glass sliders in the bedroom. Some sound worse than others. In no instance is it a pleasant sound. Stella, our boxer, always hears them too and comes to find me, with a look that says, “Did you hear what I just heard? Come on, let’s check it out!” Sometimes there’s nothing to find, and it is business as usual. Sometimes all the birds are completely out of sight, meaning the neighborhood Cooper’s hawk has cruised the area at mach speed, closing down shop at the feeders. Sometimes there’s a groggy accident victim.

W e had committed to spending the last week of May along the New Jersey side of Delaware Bay, on the beaches that stretch north from Cape May. One of my two partners in this project, Porter Turnbull, had set up our first meeting at a service stop far down the Garden State Parkway. Our discussion was with a longtime fisherman who has been an advocate for commercial horseshoe crab harvesters. The meeting outlined the complexities of balancing the interests of crab fishermen, shorebird researchers and the wildlife that served both.

At the southern end of the tidal waterway called the Lagoon, which has shores in both Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs, is a property which is home to the Oak Bluffs Pumping Station, a working 19th-century complex of buildings, machinery and wells which continues to provide a portion of that town’s water supply.

Birders love this place, especially in springtime.

The Waskosim’s Rock Reservation is a Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank holding which can be reached off North Road at the West Tisbury-Chilmark line. Because of its habitat diversity, its elevation changes, its lack of so-called improvements, its overall acreage (just under 185 acres), its beech-lined stream and excellent trails, it is a great find for birders as well as other people seeking recreation.