The annual Great Backyard Bird Count concluded on Feb. 20. The results are not yet complete. So far only eight observers have posted 14 checklists, totaling 52 species.
The highlights so far include northern pintail, hairy woodpecker, yellow-bellied sapsucker, brown creeper, red-breasted nuthatch and fox sparrow. If you saw any birds between Friday Feb. 17 and Monday Feb. 20, it is not too late to include them in the results for this event.
Bird Sightings
As expected for February, blackbirds are on the move. They are especially likely to arrive because of the mild weather and southerly winds of this past weekend (can you believe 62 degrees on Feb. 19?). While we have had some stay through the winter, if they arrive at your feeder now they may be migrants. And should you hear them singing in the marshes and flashing their red epaulettes, they are likely “our” blackbirds that will nest in that marsh. Pam and Rob Davey report red-winged blackbirds at their Oak Bluffs feeder on Feb. 20. And Maggie Bresnahan had three grackles in her West Tisbury yard. The northward migration has begun.
Also expected in February are the first of the “spring” courtship flights of the American woodcock. Liz Loucks heard them in West Tisbury on the evening of Feb. 18. We do not know whether these are migrants or whether they are winter residents emboldened by the warm weather.
Most observers report lower activity at their bird feeders during the warm weather of Feb. 18 to 20. This is totally expected. In the warmer weather more natural foods are available since many insects will be more active. So the birds do not need to supplement their diets as much. This does not mean that there is no activity, though, and Paul Bailey reports a yellow-bellied sapsucker visiting his Chilmark feeder on Feb. 18 and 19.
Snowy owls are back in the news, as they are now starting their northward migration back to the Arctic. Simon Hickman found one near the opening into Chilmark Pond on Feb. 20, and Lanny McDowell spotted one near dusk on Feb. 18 at State Beach. These are not the usual locales for the snowies this winter, so they likely are migrants passing through. They may or may not stick around. It is important to respect these owls by keeping your distance from them so they can focus all their energy on getting back to their breeding grounds. It is tempting to get a little closer so they are bigger in your photographs, but if they are staring at you, then do not move any closer. Let them stay there for the next person to see. And if you are in a car when you see one, it is best to stay in the car as getting out of the car may cause them to fly off.
Jeff Bernier photographed a common eider in Menemsha Channel on Feb. 20. There are almost always some of them there, but he observed a male swallow a blue mussel – shell and all — that was about two inches long. Then it dove down and caught another mussel. They grind up the shell and digest the mussel in about one hour.
John Nelson birded Edgartown and Oak Bluffs on Feb. 12. His highlights included a flock of 50 robins at the Thomas Cooke House in Edgartown and another 50 at the cedars on East Chop, four ring-necked ducks, six black-crowned night-herons and a pied-billed grebe all at the Head of the Lagoon, and three razorbills off East Chop. He has also been hearing a great horned owl calling in Harthaven.
The latest sighting of the Barrow’s goldeneye at Eel Pond was on Feb. 11, when Allan Keith got a good look at a female with its yellow bill. He also notes that a field sparrow occasionally visits his Chilmark feeders. And he saw at least 40 harlequin ducks – the most he has seen there this winter – at Squibnocket on Feb. 18. Red-throated loons and horned grebes were also present, along with one razorbill.
On Feb. 5, Pam Goff observed a hermit thrush alongside a narrow dirt road in Chilmark.
Winter residents are plentiful and the first northbound migrants are starting to arrive; can spring be far behind? Please report your sightings to birds@mvgazette.com.
Robert Culbert leads Guided Birding Tours and is an ecological consultant living in Vineyard Haven.
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