Christmas has special meaning depending on who you are and what you believe. Bird watchers are riveted to the weather forecasters and are cleaning up their binoculars and spotting scopes. The bird photographers are making sure they have extra batteries and memory chips so they can record what they see and hopefully get a shot of something rare and unusual. Why so? The annual Christmas Bird Count!

The first Christmas Bird Count was conducted in 1900 and had only 27 bird watchers in 25 areas in the United States and Canada. Now, it is a different story. There are over 2,200 bird counts and well over 60,000 people counting not only the different species of birds but also how many of each. These different counts are scheduled between Dec. 14, 2014 and Jan. 5, 2015, and are located in circles set up in areas “from above the Arctic Circle to the waters of the Drake Passage off Tierra del Fuego,” according to the National Audubon Society.

One may ask why we do these counts, which, by the way, are the “largest and longest-running citizen science program in the world,” again according to the Audubon Society. Birders enjoy birding and getting together with other birders, but we are also pleased to be able to gather an early winter snapshot of the birds of our area so scientists can develop an understanding of the bird populations not only on the Vineyard but also across North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean islands.

This is the Vineyard’s 55th annual Christmas Bird Count and the 113th for many other areas of the United States and Canada. The 1998 data collected from all the Christmas count was available on the internet so scientists could access the info easily. According to the National Audubon Society “Researchers have recently completed the first large-scale analysis combining CBC data with those from the Breeding Bird Survey and the ensuing new trend data resulted in the 2007 report on Common Birds in Decline and the new Watch List 2007. CBC research into the effects of climate change have demonstrated that a majority of birds that are widespread in North America during the CBC have shifted their ranges north in response to warmer winter weather.”

Robert Culbert, who is the Vineyard’s CBC compiler, asks people to join in on the Vineyard’s CBC, which will be held on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2014. You can join a field team for part or all of a day, or you can watch and count the birds that come to your feeder that day. Please contact Rob at rculbert1@verizon.net or at 508-693-4908. The Vineyard birders are a bit competitive and we hope to break our old record set in 2007 of spotting 130 species during the CBC. Come help us do so!

Bird Sightings

I can’t think of a better way to be welcomed home if you are a birder. Sarah Mayhew caught a glimpse of a snowy owl as her plane landed at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport on Dec. 18. Later, Tim Johnson sent along a great photo of the same owl.

An extremely interesting sighting was made by Tim Simmons of the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, which is part of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, when he was down doing a survey of conservation properties on the Vineyard on Dec. 11. Tim spotted three common ravens in a pine tree at Makonikey. Being a doubting “Tomisina,” I questioned him at length and found that he lives in an area where there are ravens in his backyard, so he is familiar with the species. Ravens are changing their distribution and are moving east from Western Massachusetts. There has been one other record from Chappaquiddick and that is all. Vineyard birders have been waiting for this species to arrive on the Island. It will be interesting to note if they start breeding here. Tim also spotted a peregrine falcon at Wasque the same day.

Sharon Simonin sent a series of shots of Bonaparte’s gulls she took off Owen Park in Tisbury, on Dec. 18. The same day Lanny McDowell took an action shot of a merlin hunting along State Beach in Oak Bluffs.

Charlie Kineck sent a message to say the Baltimore oriole that had been at his West Tisbury feeder “had packed its bags” and was no longer around as of Dec. 19. Interestingly, Hugh Taylor reported a Baltimore oriole at the Outermost Inn in Gay Head on Dec. 20; perhaps Charlie’s oriole wanted a change of venue!

Gus Ben David has constructed ponds by his home, and this last week he found a first-year great blue heron fishing for goldfish at the edge of a pond. Gus said his barn owls are courting and that he is hearing screech owls in the evening. Eastern bluebirds are around in good numbers checking out boxes.

Linda Ziegler watched a great blue heron on Dec. 19 at the edge of Mud Creek, which is the name of the little slough across the bridge from Maciel Marine, in Tisbury. She added that the heron was “snapping up tasty morsels at the base of the reeds.” Pamela Brock found an eastern screech owl perched on a limb just off her Vineyard Haven home the same day.

Robert Culbert found an adult lesser black-backed gull at the Oak Bluffs pumping station on Dec. 20. He added that he also spotted three black-crowned night herons, three great blue herons, two American coots, a pied-billed grebe and several American wigeon.

On Dec. 21, Happy, Nia and Steve Spongberg, along with John Flender and Maggie Bruzelius, birded Great Rock Bite in Chilmark. Their best birds were an eastern phoebe and two pintail ducks. Other birds they spotted included common eider, greater scaup, common goldeneye and both red-breasted and hooded mergansers.

Also on Dec. 21, Michael Ditchfield sent photos he took on South Beach of two snow buntings. At Sarah Mayhew’s West Tisbury feeder a leucisitic house finch appeared along with a crew of normal plumage house finches.

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.