There is no reason to get the blues when the weather turns cold and outdoor bird watching is not fun anymore. Freezing temperatures and wind blowing not only makes your eyes water, but also makes your hands so cold that focusing your binoculars can be a chore. The solution: set up bird feeders, the contents of which include sunflower seeds, cracked corn, peanut hearts, thistle seed and millet as well as a couple of cages of suet. Fill your bird bath and put a warmer into it to prevent freezing, make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, grab your binoculars and settle down in a comfy warm chair that affords you a good view of feeders and the bird bath. Now, just relax and watch the show!

Each year when I first put up my feeders in the fall I am curious to see which species arrives at the feeders first. Usually it is a white-breasted nuthatch, but this year it was a tufted titmouse. The downy woodpecker is always the first on the suet cage and the American goldfinches the first on the thistle seed. You become familiar with the regulars that arrive, the black-capped chickadees, house finches, song sparrows, red-bellied woodpeckers and mourning doves. But wait, all of a sudden one of the birds visiting your yard doesn’t look familiar. This is the payoff for setting up your feeders — something new and rare!

White-winged dove visiting Larry Hepler's Quansoo bird feeder recently. — Larry Hepler

Larry Hepler had such an experience. On Nov. 9 he spotted a dove in his wheelbarrow bird feeder that wasn’t right for a mourning dove. He took several pictures and brought them over, saying he thought the dove was one that he had seen in the Caribbean. He was right on the money, the dove that is visiting Larry’s Quansoo feeder is a white-winged dove! There have been a few other sightings of white-winged doves on the Island. The first one seen on the Vineyard was near the Brickyard on the North Shore of Chilmark in 1965 and was spotted by Flora Harris Epstein. The Potters have seen this tropical dove on Chappaquiddick twice, once in 1993 and again in October of 2004. Matt Pelikan found one in Edgartown in 2000 and Flip Harrington and I had one at our Quenames, Chilmark, feeder in 2004.

Where is this dove coming from? The white-winged dove is from Mexico and Central America, the Bahamas and Greater Antilles, but does appear in southwest Ecuador and northern Chile. However, this dove has now established isolated year-round breeding populations from California to Florida and has been found straying as far north as the Maritime Provinces in the east and southeastern Alaska in the west. For those of you who have visited southern areas where these doves are plentiful, you can’t miss its call — “who cooks for you.”

Bird Sightings:

Larry Hepler was still seeing the white-winged dove as of Nov. 11.

A couple of other interesting sightings this week include a snowy owl seen on Veterans Day on East Beach by Versie Geary. Although this is early, it does not beat the Oct. 19, 1976 date of a snowy owl seen by Gus Ben David.

Matt Pelikan found a western kingbird in the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs on Nov. 8.

Charlie Kernick photographed a dickcissel in his West Tisbury yard on Nov. 9.

Happy Spongberg found a very tired pine siskin in her Middle Road, Chilmark, yard on Nov. 7. Happy also had a red-breasted nuthatch at her feeder.

Dianne McDonough-Silva was puzzled to see a bird that was feeding with juncos and looked somewhat like a junco but had a huge white patch on its head. She sent me a photo, the bird was a leucistic junco.

And speaking of juncos, it has been raining juncos for the last couple of weeks. Gus Ben David had 40 in his yard on Oct. 28, and Allan Keith, Luanne Johnson and I counted 76 at the Gay Head Cliffs and 57 at Squibnocket on Nov. 8. We then had reports of numerous dark-eyed juncos from Tashmoo, Indian Hill and North Tisbury!

Gus Ben David had a call from the alpaca farm in Oak Bluffs on Nov. 4 that there was a cattle egret in their field hawking insects — and indeed there was. The same day Allan Keith went to Cape Pogue and in Poucha Pond he counted 150 bufflehead and large numbers of hooded merganser in that pond and also in Shear Pen Pond. Allan counted nine great blue herons in his travels. There were still 20 laughing gulls at Norton Point and several black-bellied plovers and dunlin and two lone killdeer at Cape Pogue.

Others have been noting the arrival of sea ducks, diving ducks and puddle ducks either offshore or in our ponds and harbors. Jeff Bernier and Ken Magnuson have photographed white-winged scoters, harlequin ducks, hooded mergansers and ring necked ducks. Allan Keith, Luanne Johnson and I counted 50 ruddy ducks at Squibnocket and close to a hundred white-winged scoters in Tisbury Great Pond on Nov. 8.

While looking over the ducks at the south end of Tisbury Great Pond on Nov. 8, Allan Keith picked up a flock of 15 snow bunting flying over the beach dunes. He promptly showed them to Luanne Johnson and me.

In the warbler department, there are still palm warblers around. Allan Keith spotted a western palm at his Turtle Brook, Chilmark, home on Oct. 31 and Rob Culbert counted seven palm warblers at Thimble Farm on Nov. 9. Allan Keith spotted an orange-crowned warbler at his home on Oct. 31 and Allan, Luanne Johnson and I found one still lingering at the Gay Head Cliffs on Nov. 8.

Belted kingfishers can still be found — Ken Magnuson has photographed one at the Edgartown Golf Club and Jeff Bernier photographed one at the Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary.

I watched a gray catbird enjoying a bath in our Chilmark home bird bath on Nov. 8.

Please report your bird sightings to birds@mvgazette.com.
Susan B. Whiting is the co-author of Vineyard Birds and Vineyard Birds II. Her website is vineyardbirds2.com.