Robert A. Culbert
All of us have been impressed by the birds that have shown up at the old jetties at Harthaven this spring. The latest highlight is Alex Greene’s royal tern on June 8. This species now occurs regularly on the Vineyard in the late summer, but it is unusual in the spring. Another unusual spring tern is the black tern that Pete Gilmore found there on May 30, when he was searching for the sandwich tern that Alex had seen.
When we think of singing, we usually think of people or birds. In the spring we may think of pinkletinks, but we usually think of them as chorusing rather than singing. Very few people will think of grasshoppers, crickets and katydids as singers, but they are. And in this unusual spring, when oak trees are already beginning to leaf out, these insects may start their raspy singing soon.
Black-capped chickadees are singing frequently now, and it is a welcome sound of spring. Their song is a clearly whistled feee-beee. Chickadee song on the Vineyard is unique, as both notes are sung on the same pitch; almost everywhere else the second of these two notes is at a lower pitch than the first note. The chick-a-dee-dee-dee that we hear frequently is their call note rather than a song.
Approximately 1,500 crows roost at the land bank’s Tradewinds Preserve off County Road in Oak Bluffs. This roost was noted this winter as a result of the recent Christmas Bird Count; Tom Chase’s field team counted these crows and found the second confirmed sighting of fish crows on the Island. Allan Keith’s field team could not find last year’s roost of crows off North Road in Chilmark, which included the first confirmed sighting of fish crows on the Island.
The 52nd annual Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count was held on Monday, Jan. 2. The weather was less than ideal. While the temperatures were warm, between 40 and 52 degrees, a westerly wind was brutal, a steady 15-20 miles per hour with frequent gusts up to 35 miles per hour. We recorded 21,787 individuals of 120 species.
On Jan. 21, during the snowstorm with about one and one-half inches of snow already on the ground, Lanny McDowell spotted an ovenbird as he was looking out a window from his house near Lake Tashmoo. It was about five feet below him, hopping on the snow. He went outside and briefly saw it again, flying weakly into an evergreen hedgerow.