There are three species of birds that have stirred bird-watchers’ interest this week: black skimmers, merlins and a barred owl. Two of these species have tried nesting on the Island although the Vineyard is out of the normal breeding range for both. One was successful, the other not. One has been reported on the Island only three times before, in 1918, 1929 and 1948.

How can we help birds in this intense heat? The most important way is to provide water for them. I find I fill my bird bath several times a day during hot days.

Bird watchers the world over experience the frustration of “the one that got away.” It isn’t that we don’t spot the bird, it is that we did not see enough of it or have the bird in sight long enough to make a final call (identify it).

What a thrill to see and hear grasshopper sparrows on the Vineyard for the first time in about 10 years! Twenty years ago I could see and hear grasshopper sparrows in the fields around our Chilmark farm house at Quenames no longer. Maybe I will be lucky enough to have them back again, as the birds we recently saw were in a neighboring field at Quansoo Farm. We saw three birds. Hopefully they were three males whose mates were sitting on their round, throne-like nests. Built at the base of clumps of grass, the grasshopper sparrow nest cup is upright with a canopy of grasses domed over the top. The results are a nest that is well camouflaged. However, one worries that as ground nesters they could easily be preyed upon by skunks, raccoons and feral cats.

Summer visitors are beginning to arrive. I have a few reminders for them and for locals as well. It is important to keep your cats inside. There are several bird species that nest on or very close to the ground on the Island. Ground nests containing young birds are very vulnerable to cat predation. Adults are fair game for cats as well. You say you feed your cat well and therefore they don’t hunt. Not so! Cats have a hunting instinct and no matter how full they are, they will hunt birds. And the bell you put around the cat’s neck does not effectively warn birds of cat strikes. A bit of information from the American Bird Conservancy: “Indoor cats live an average of three to seven times longer than those that are outdoors.”

A bird species that normally visits the Vineyard in the fall surprised Vineyard birders by appearing on Island on May 29. Jenifer Strachan feeds birds at her Waldron’s Bottom home and has a keen ear for bird songs and calls, thanks to her grandfather’s training. On May 29 she was inside and heard a one-note call that she was not familiar with. Slowly she ventured out on her deck and looked around. In an oak tree about 20 feet away a bird was perched, all fluffed up and looking, in Jenifer’s eyes, very confused. Jenifer knew she had not seen this bird before. She was able to return into the house and fetch her binoculars and study all the field marks of the mystery bird. Hitting the field guides and the Internet, she determined the bird in the oak tree was a western kingbird.