Where do hummingbirds go in nasty weather? I know that in the tropics there is a plethora of large-leafed palms and plants under which these tiny birds can perch to wait out a storm. But on the Vineyard what do they do? I have never seen a hummer hunkered down during a storm, but I would imagine that they go into a thick shrub or bush and hang out until the worst is over.

Dick Jennings sent me a photograph of a shore bird he found out on the shore of Cape Pogue Bay. The caption was “What is this, it looks like a willet, but it is the wrong color?” Dick was correct, it was a willet and his confusion was legitimate. There are two subspecies of willets found in the United States. One is the eastern (Tringa semipalmata semipalmata) and the other the western willet (Tringa semipalmata inornata).

Shorebirds, waders, peeps, squatters, twiddlers, tattlers or sandpipers, it makes no difference what you call the members of the Scolopacidae family. They have hit the beaches, flats and fields of the Vineyard running. The shorebirds are visiting the Vineyard now and will be for the next few weeks. Visiting from where and why here?

The merlins that nested on Chappaquiddick have fledged three chicks. Lanny McDowell, Bob Shriber and I were invited by the owners of the house next to these falcons to come and photograph the hatchlings before they flew. Lanny took some great photos as usual, and we thank the owners for their hospitality and excellent observations. This is the second documented nesting of merlins in Massachusetts, the first being in the same area two years ago.

Bird Sightings

Greater shearwaters are a pelagic species of bird. They spend a very small percentage of their life on land. The short time they are on terra firma is to nest and they do not do so anywhere near Martha’s Vineyard. Greater shearwaters choose to rear their young in colonies on islands in the South Atlantic many miles offshore and well south of the Vineyard.