Susan B. Whiting
Katherine Colon and Laurie Walker three weeks ago reported a sharp-shinned hawk sitting leisurely on the Colon’s back porch on Skiff avenue in Vineyard Haven. Lanny McDowell in stealth mode fully stalked and photographed the sharp-shinned hawk which has been haunting his West Tisbury feeder. Katherine hadn’t seen her sharpie for a while and then during a walk on Feb. 15 found this hawk harassing a flock of house (English) sparrows at the other end of Skiff avenue.
A reminder: The Great Backyard Bird Count starts today, Feb. 12, and continues through Monday, Feb.15. For details on the count, visit birdcount.org,
Thirteen years ago, in 1997, we first heard about the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Fla. The venue for this festival is the Brevard Community College North Campus. Strategically located next to Cape Canaveral, the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and many other birding hot spots, this festival is in a prime location for bird watching.
Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary invites the public to join them at Felix Neck for a Full Moon Walk between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30 and then gather inside to meet the wildlife photographers who contributed to the 2010 Felix Neck Wildlife Calendar.
The question all the people that are sharing the Baltimore orioles on Lambert’s Cove Road, and now one in Oak Bluffs, are asking is, why are they still on Island? There are two answers, and they both have to do with genetics. Unlike many of the waterfowl that learn how to migrate from their parents, passerines or dickie birds are programmed by the genes of their parents. Therefore orioles, which are passerines, can innately navigate to their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America. However sometimes there is a glitch in these inherited programs and either the young birds remain in their summer digs or, more commonly, a youngster makes a 180-degree turn and reverse migrates. So the Baltimore orioles here on the Vineyard were either born here and didn’t leave this fall, or came from points south. Unfortunately most of these birds will not survive the winter — although some do. The crew on Lambert’s Cove seems bent on keeping the young male alive with oranges and jelly! Good luck.
Our Southern Ocean trip is still fresh in our minds. We have visited Chatham Island with you but we still had many miles of ocean to go. The islands we visited included: Mangere, Pitt, Bounty, Antipodes, Campbell, Enderby, The Snares, Ulva and Stewart. There were special sightings and views whenever we stopped, and to tell it all would require a tome!