The Vineyard’s woodlands are beginning to undergo that fall change. The oaks are slowly turning a yellow-brown and dropping their leaves. The roads are covered with acorns, as this season has produced a bumper crop. There are many deer tracks amongst the acorns, for the white-tailed deer adores acorns. I discovered another creature that loves the nuts of the oaks, common grackles!

Grin, sharpie, modo, rump, red nut, limey and bobo — what kind of gibberish is that? No, it is not baby talk or profanity, but nicknames that bird watchers have for certain species. Grin for the majestic peregrine falcon, sharpie for the sharp-shinned hawk, modo for the mourning dove, rump for the yellow-rumped warbler, red nut for red-breasted nuthatch, limey for English or house sparrow and bobo for bobolinks.

The Vineyard’s familiar terns have left and headed south. The smallest, the least tern, is the first to go in early September. The common and roseate follow later in the month. Their cousins the black terns usually are around into late September but the Forster’s terns are the Vineyard’s terns of the fall and early winter.

“I’m seeing a weird warbler, it looks kind of like a chickadee” said Flip Harrington. That was the beginning of an exciting morning at the Gay Head Cliffs in Aquinnah. The bird was identified by the two birders who have spent time in western United States, Lanny McDowell and Pete Gilmore. The mystery bird was a black-throated gray warbler. This was a life bird for me, Flip and Pete Lenkowski, which means in birding jargon, that we had never seen the bird before anywhere.

Hurricane Earl was a bust for bird watchers. A cast of thousands, all the Vineyard’s most active bird watchers, met at the Gay Head Cliffs on Saturday, Sept. 4 with high hopes. Although the winds were not much more than a northeaster, we were hopeful that some unusual bird species may have been carried to our Island from afar. No such luck. There were more bird watchers than birds.

The Vineyard birding community would like to thank the town of Aquinnah/Gay Head, the Vineyard Conservation Society and all the others involved in protecting the fragile lands along Moshup Trail. This area is one of the premier birding spots during the fall and we are glad it will stay forever wild. Thanks!