The Christmas Bird Count was a lackluster event this year. All the teams had to work hard to find birds. However, we did okay and the weather was great in the early part of the day, but became gray, damp and cold later before snow knocked out the visibility all together.

The total seen presently is 121 different species. There were 120 reported at the CBC wrap up that was held at the Wakeman Center the evening of Jan. 3. Heidi and Ronnee Schultz, who live on State Road in West Tisbury, called in a late feeder report of a Baltimore oriole that brought the total to 121. There were only three snowy owls seen, a couple in Edgartown on South Beach and one on Chappaquiddick. One super bird was seen by the team that covers the Lagoon — a common moorhen. This relative to rails and coots tends to prefer fresh water and is distributed along the coastal states. Common moorhens are rare on the Vineyard and in the state breed inland and are usually south by now. White-crowned sparrows found at a Chappaquiddick feeder was another surprise. Although their cousins, the white-throated sparrows, are here in the winter, the white-crowned are usually south by now.

The prize bird of the Christmas Bird Count was found by the Squibnocket team of Tim Spahr, Wayne Petersen and Mary Pinard. The bird was a spotted towhee. The ornithologist used to call our towhee (or chewink) and the spotted towhee the same species: the rufous-sided towhee. These scientists have now divided them into two species, our eastern towhee and the western spotted towhee. It seems where these two species overlap in the center of our country, there is some interbreeding. Our eastern towhee has a plain back and the spotted towhee has a, yes, you guessed it, a spotted back. Our female eastern towhee has a brown back, the interbred towhee of the center of the country has a brown back with white spots. The females of the spotted towhees of Southern California do not boast brown heads; they are very similar to their male counterparts having black heads and black backs spotted with white.

The towhee that was found in the Squibnocket area has to be a bird from the middle of the country. It is brown on the head and back and therefore a female but bears the white spots of the spotted towhee. The Birds of Massachusetts by Wayne Petersen and Richard Veit show only three Massachusetts records of the spotted towhee. Congratulations go to Tim, Wayne and Mary for adding this species to not only the Christmas Bird Count, but also to the Island list.

Bird Sightings:

It was Sunday, Dec. 28, when I last spoke with Tom Rivers. I had a soft message on my answering machine from Tom saying he had a couple of nice birds. I called back and was able to speak to him. He told me about the hairy woodpeckers and eastern phoebe he had seen. Tom then spoke of his failing health and that he wasn’t eating much. I kiddingly scolded him and told him he had to eat. Tom laughed and said everyone was telling him the same thing. New Year’s Day Barbara Rivers called to say Tom had died that morning. Barbara also told me that on the afternoon of Dec. 31 an immature Cooper’s hawk perched on a post on the Rivers' kitchen for quite a spell. Barbara felt it was probably a sign of Tom’s passing.

Tom Rivers was an ardent birder both on Island and off. He came on a couple of Osprey Tour trips (including our first trip to Costa Rica) when Flip Harrington and I were running the tour company. Tom also birded with many other birding tour companies as well as taking many freighter trips with his wife Barbara. He always took his binoculars along no matter where he traveled. In the summers Tom and Barbara would volunteer to take a crew to Penikese Island on their boat the Barbara B, where I was banding herring and great black-backed gulls. The Island birding community will miss Tom dearly.

I received a happy New Year report from Rob Bierregaard about the ospreys we have been watching. Log onto his website ospreytrax.com and check out the winter map. In Rob’s own words: “This is that low-stress time of year when all our birds have settled down for their long winter rests. It makes for pretty boring map-watching, but with the sometimes gut-wrenching drama of fall migration, boring can be good. While the map-watching is boring on the continental scale, it’s interesting to zoom in on the wintering birds and see how they use the local environment. This also gives one a chance to see some really interesting local geography. Explore what the birds are doing on the interactive winter map.”

Nancy Weaver counted seven eastern bluebirds at Flat Point Pond on Dec. 30 and Robin Bray and David Nash heard a great-horned owl near Edgartown Marine on evening of Dec. 30. John Nelson and Jan Ratt were surprised to find a mixed flock near their Middle Road home on Jan. 4. They counted 30 American robins, 30 dark-eyed juncos and a red-bellied woodpecker to name a few. John and Jan also spotted a great egret at Lobsterville the same day.

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.