I swear I saw the bark on that oak tree move; can’t be. Wow, it is a tiny bird. It just flew to the base of a neighboring oak tree trunk.

There are all manner of firsts, first steps, first love, first kiss and, for birders, a first sighting of a particular bird species. Known as a “lifer,” or life bird, the view of a species which had escaped you previously or is in a new habitat is exciting. A fair percentage of bird-watchers keep life lists which contain all the birds they have seen, where they saw them and when. Other birders just sense when they are seeing a bird for the first time.

T here are many bird-watchers on the Vineyard. They come from all walks of life from architects to zookeepers. Some are liberals, some conservatives and maybe some are even Tea Party members. They have different ideas on what the definitions of conservation, ecology and green living are. The issue of turbines for the generation of electricity has caused some discomfort among the ranks.

“Look, there is a rose-colored bird on the feeder that looks like it’s been in a train wreck. Its bill is all bent out of shape.”

“Cool, it is a white-winged crossbill, and that is the way the bill is supposed to be. I have been hoping the crossbills would come to our feeder; they have been seen in several places on the Vineyard and even on Chappaquiddick.”

The adventure started when Matt Pelikan received a call from a graduate student in the Department of Natural Resources at the University of Rhode I

The Christmas Bird Count has been conducted since 1900, an amazing 111 years. It is a bird-watching activity that took the place of a Christmas side hunt, an old holiday tradition where teams of hunters would compete to see who could kill the largest number of wild birds on Christmas Day. It took Frank Chapman to change the tide. In 1900 he proposed that instead of killing the birds, shooters and others would count rather than kill the birds in their area.