It is heartening to hear birds singing! This past week I have heard the loud cheer-cheer-cheer of the northern cardinal, the three-syllabled whistle of the Carolina wren, the much softer whistled peter-peter-peter of the tufted titmouse, the whistled feee-beee (both notes on the same pitch) of the black-capped chickadee, the soft tea-cup of the usually boisterous blue jay and the jumbled notes of young song sparrows trying to learn their complex song.
Of course, these are all signs of the coming spring. Hopefully rising temperatures will soon follow.
On both Feb. 4 and Feb. 6, I heard what I consider a non-musical chatter from a flock of 15 European starlings near the Hillside Village bus stop. Presumably, those sounds are musical to the ears of other starlings. On Feb. 5, I saw wild turkeys displaying to adjacent hens in the middle of Delano Road in Vineyard Haven. I had to stop the car as they were not inclined to get out of the road. Of course, the toms were also giving their not so musical gobbling.
Fresh water has been mostly frozen since Jan. 25, which affects birds that feed in the water. The MV Bird Club’s birding trip to Oak Bluffs Harbor on Feb. 7 had 10 intrepid observers and found 15 species: 10 brant, 32 Canada geese, three American wigeon, four mallards, 40 greater scaup, five common eiders, four surf scoters and two red-breasted mergansers. This is a greater variety than normal because tides have kept some water liquid while other bodies of water are frozen.
Birds can detect changes in air pressure and know when storms are coming, so birds may migrate further south to avoid bad weather. For example, greater yellowlegs have not been reported since Charles Morano found two at Mud Creek on Jan. 14, the same day that Bob Shriber spotted one in Aquinnah. The Dec. 28 Christmas Bird Count found a dozen of them.
Twenty-one great blue herons were found on the Bird Count, and while they have been reported 10 times this year, they have not been seen since Livia watched one at Felix Neck on Jan. 23 and Nancy Weaver located one at Tashmoo Springs on Jan. 24.
Since the Jan. 25 to 26 snowstorm there have been only two sightings of black-bellied plovers. I found two at Sarson’s Island on Jan. 28 and two at Eel Pond that were foraging on the ice flows on Feb. 5. What were they eating? The Bird Count counted 36 black-bellied plovers.
There were 425 ruddy ducks on the Dec. 28 Christmas Bird Count. Their most recent sightings include Bob Shriber finding two at Town Cove on Jan. 9, Nancy Nordin saw nine on Jan. 17 at Squibnocket Beach, and Janet Norton and Nancy Weaver finding one in Oak Bluffs Harbor on Feb 2.
Christmas Bird Count Results
The 66th annual Christmas bird Count was held on Dec. 28, 2025, with 60 field observers and 20 feeder watchers counting birds. We counted 21,031 individuals of 124 species, and four other species seen in count week, within three days of the count. A big shout-out to the wonderful sunny weather on Count Day — a slight breeze and a high of 41 — and to Luanne Johnson, who compiled these data with the help of Biodiversity Works staff.
Here are the results: snow goose 14, brant 106, Canada goose 3,192, cackling goose 1, mute swan 90, wood duck 2, gadwall 11, American wigeon 95, Mallard 592, American black duck 493, northern pintail 1, green-winged teal 6, ring-necked duck CW, greater scaup 732, lesser scaup 19, greater/lesser scaup 50, common eider 1,374, harlequin duck 63, surf scoter 256, white-winged scoter 336, black scoter 488, long-tailed duck 155, bufflehead 1,564, common goldeneye 430, Barrow’s goldeneye CW, hooded merganser 340, common merganser 1, red-breasted merganser 263, ruddy duck 425, wild turkey 282, rock pigeon 92, mourning dove 149, rufous hummingbird 1, Virginia rail 1, sora 1, American coot 1, American oystercatcher 1, black-bellied plover 36, killdeer 1, greater yellowlegs 12, ruddy turnstone 13, sanderling 159, dunlin 152, purple sandpiper 27, razorbill 65, Bonaparte’s gull 69, ring-billed gull 248, American herring gull 904, great black-backed gull 54, lesser black-backed gull 1, gull species 3, horned grebe 46, red-necked grebe 6, red-throated loon 34, common loon 104, northern gannet 4, great cormorant 69, double-crested cormorant 8, black-crowned night heron 27, snowy egret 1, great blue heron 21, turkey vulture 37, sharp-shinned hawk 4, Cooper’s hawk 16, northern harrier 13, bald eagle 7, red-tailed hawk 36, American barn owl 9, eastern screech-owl 17, snowy owl 1, short-eared owl 1,belted kingfisher 16, yellow-bellied sapsucker 9, red-bellied woodpecker 76, downy woodpecker 100, hairy woodpecker 17, northern flicker 70, American kestrel 1, merlin 5, peregrine falcon 1, eastern phoebe 1, blue jay 360, American crow 670, fish crow 22, common raven 5, black-capped chickadee 862, tufted titmouse 157, horned lark 64, tree swallow 7, ruby-crowned kinglet 3, golden-crowned kinglet 34, white-breasted nuthatch 104, red-breasted nuthatch 61, nuthatch sp. 1, brown creeper 10, winter wren 1, Carolina wren 200, European starling 805, gray catbird 32, brown thrasher 1, northern mockingbird 30, eastern bluebird 104, hermit thrush 33, American robin 531, cedar waxwing 111, house sparrow 132, American pipit 6, evening grosbeak CW, house finch 399, American goldfinch, 243, Lapland longspur 2, snow bunting 13, chipping sparrow 15, field sparrow 7, American tree sparrow 2, fox sparrow 8, dark-eyed junco 298, white-crowned sparrow CW, white-throated sparrow 299, Savannah sparrow 67, Savannah ‘Ipswich’ sparrow 9, song sparrow 377, swamp sparrow 22, eastern towhee 50, yellow-breasted chat 2, Baltimore oriole 3, red-winged blackbird 32, common grackle 1, orange-crowned warbler 2, pine warbler 7, yellow-rumped warbler 463, northern cardinal 228, passerine species 7.
Please email your sightings to birds@vineyardgazette.com.
Robert Culbert is an ecological consultant living in Vineyard Haven.
This article appears in February 13, 2026.