And now, finally in late April, the rate of first-of-the-year sightings has picked up. Although we have not had the mildest weather of the month, it has certainly been favorable for bird migration.
We all look forward to the first ruby-throated hummingbirds of the season, and this past week has added several more sightings. Ann Richards put out her hummingbird feeder at 5 p.m. on April 24, and observed a male hummer partaking of the sugar water one hour later. Also on April 24, Dan Waters observed his first at his Christiantown home and Penny Uhlendorf observed her first that day. Happy Spongberg had to wait until April 26 for her first. And Nelson Smith had a male hummer at his Edgartown feeder on April 26 and 27.
Yellow warblers also arrived this week and because the males sing a lot, they are often heard before they are seen. I was leading a guided birding tour with Harle Thomas and Minda Bernstein on April 20, and there were at least three of them singing away at the Head of the Lagoon. We were able to track them down and get a good look at them. Nelson Smith also observed a yellow warbler at his suet feeder on April 25, and on April 26 both Ken Magnuson and Luanne Johnson found one at the Head of the Lagoon. Ken Magnuson observed another warbler species, the northern parula, at Waskosim’s Rock Reservation on April 26.
Rose-breasted grosbeaks are a species that often shows up at feeders at this time of the year. Their huge beak and their startling black, white, and bright rose-red makes them hard to confuse with anything else. On April 21, Janet and Jay Sigler observed a male at their Edgartown feeder. Three more sightings followed in rapid succession: Catherine Deese saw a female in Chilmark, Jim Harrison spotted a male in Island Grove on April 22 and 23, and Andrea Hartman saw one at Quenames on April 25.
Indigo buntings are about as blue as blue can be. My guided birding tour found three of them, two males and a female, foraging madly along the grassy shoreline of the small pond next to the State Forest headquarters on April 20. Nancy Weaver, Margaret Curtin, Greg Palermo and Libby Ellis spotted one at the Head of the Lagoon on April 24, and Ira Certner observed a male next to the pond in his garden twice between April 24 and 26. And Liz Lewenberg has had an indigo bunting feeding on the ground under her Chilmark feeder from April 25 to 28.
Competing with the buntings for blueness is Wink Winkleman’s sighting of a blue grosbeak at his East Chop feeder on April 24.
We are not done with the bright colors yet. Marion Hammond spotted a bright red and black scarlet tanager at Pilot Hill farm on April 22. And bright orange and black Baltimore orioles showed up at the Head of the Lagoon on April 24, observed by Nancy Weaver, Margaret Curtin, Greg Palermo and Libby Ellis. They also report a never-common blue-gray gnatcatcher and a ruby-crowned kinglet.
Other spring arrivals of interest include a whippoorwill heard by Geoff Kontje on Chappaquiddick on April 22. And Penny Uhlendorf found a great-crested flycatcher at West Chop Woods on April 23. This latter sighting is unusual in that it seems to be the only species that arrived earlier than expected; my recollection is that they usually arrive on one of the last days in April.
Gray catbirds and eastern towhees are two species present in small numbers through the winter that are becoming more abundant as our summer residents arrive. The first catbird was spotted by Luanne Johnson on April 26 near Lagoon Pond. The next day Nora Papian found a catbird at the parking lot at Felix Neck. Towhees have been spotted on April 23 by Jim Harrison in Island Grove in Edgartown, and by three others on April 26: Luanne Johnson at Lagoon Pond, William Waterway at his Katama bird bath, and Sioux Eagle at her West Tisbury feeder.
A bald eagle is still hanging around, as Steve Spongberg is the latest person to observe on April 25; this time it was at Seven Gates.
Other miscellaneous sightings of birds of interest follow. Luanne Johnson reports a bobwhite quail along the road to Cedar Tree Neck on April 23. On April 24, Nelson Smith observed a pair of phoebes at Sepiessa. Penny Uhlendorf found a house wren singing and nest building in a box at Ripley’s field on April 25, and at Tradewinds she found chipping sparrows, pine warblers and a brown creeper. On April 26, Pete Gilmore found three field sparrows singing along Hopps Farm Road in West Tisbury, and a pair of eastern bluebirds building a nest in one of his nest boxes.
So far we have only dealt with land birds. There are waterbirds to report as well.
Our breeding willets are returning from a winter’s absence. On April 22 Nathalie Woodruff observed two willets at the Bend-in-the-Road marsh at State Beach. And that same day, Jeff Bernier observed two willets and four greater yellowlegs in the marsh at Eel Pond.
On April 24, Pete Gilmour found a flock of shorebirds on Norton Point that included a ruddy turnstone and a dowitcher. Was it a short-billed or a long-billed dowitcher? I observed the same flock when it was on the boat launch side of Mattakessett Bay; since it was smaller and stockier than nearby black-bellied plovers, we can conclude that it is a short-billed dowitcher (it is incredibly difficult to identify dowitchers to species). There were also sanderling, dunlin, black-bellied plover and a great egret in that flock.
And speaking of egrets, the first great egrets of the year were found by Allan Keith at his Chilmark farm on April 20. Then, on April 26 Sharon Simonin found a great egret in a marsh near the lobster hatchery, and on April 27 Nathalie Woodruff found a snowy egret at a marsh at Bend-in-the Road.
Another first for the season was a green-backed heron spotted at a small freshwater wetland near Edgartown harbor by Greg Palermo.
Michael Ditchfield observed a pair of black-crowned night-herons at Crackatuxet Cove, along with a killdeer in a nearby parking lot on April 21. Nora Papian and I both observed two of these herons at Sheriff’s Meadow on April 24; one of these birds was very pale as it is molting from its brown with white spotted immature plumage into its gray, black and white adult plumage.
The highlight on the waterfowl front has to be the two wood ducks spotted by Luanne Johnson at the Head of the Lagoon on April 26. These must be recent arrivals as many have been looking for them recently, and they most certainly did not spend the cold and icy winter here.
Last but not least, Happy and Steve Spongberg report five ospreys circling over the big open field at Quansoo, calling between themselves with their distinctive kip-kip-kip-kip. Their comment is worth repeating: “Quite a sight and sound. Too bad they can’t vocalize in harmony!”
And too bad there is not any bird news to report this week!
There are lots of birds around, so please get out looking for them, and be sure to report your bird sightings to birds@mvgazette.com.
Robert Culbert leads guided birding tours and is an ecological consultant living in Vineyard Haven.
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