Last week’s column was too good to continue. The three or four days of gorgeous weather with southwest winds could not continue forever, bringing multitudes of new migrants back to their summer homes. The weather this past week featured more easterly winds, which are headwinds that impede their advances toward the Vineyard. But migration continues on, we added nine new species to the Island’s year list this week.
May 8 added wood thrush to the list of arriving migrants. I visited the Frisbee golf course at dusk and a wood thrush was singing in the distance. Also heard was at least one ever-hopeful male woodcock performing his courtship dance, and then a whip-poor-will’s chant drowned out both of the other species.
Norma Holmes observed a yellow warbler in her yard on May 1, and it has been there every day since then. Other reports of yellow warblers include Norma’s and Susan McCoy’s sighting of one at Fulling Mill Brook on May 4, and my sighting of three or four of them at Wompesket Preserve on May 7. Jeff Bernier found some of them on May 8 at Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary.
There are several other new arrivals on the warbler front. Norma observed a black-and-white warbler at Great Rock Bight on May 3, and I saw one in my yard May 8. Also on May 3, Chesca Zayda heard ovenbirds singing in her neighborhood. Norma and Katherine Colon found many ovenbirds at Fulling Mill Brook on May 4, including one cooperative individual that was easily visible from the parking area. On May 7, I heard ovenbirds and a common yellowthroat singing from one of the myriads of wetlands near Wompesket Preserve. And Jill Bouck observed a magnolia warbler in her yard on May 8.
Ken Magnuson observed four least sandpipers in Slough Cove on May 5. He also observed his first chimney swifts of the season on May 3, a much more usual arrival date than the April sighting previously reported.
Maria Thibodeau observed the first eastern kingbirds arrived on Island on May 4, spotted at Wasque. While there, she also spotted a merlin. John Nelson found them at Katama on May 8. That same day at Katama, Jeff Bernier found what appears to be a hybrid between an eastern kingbird and a western kingbird. The photos are being examined closely, and hopefully the bird will be found again so it can be studied in more detail.
Another new species is a blue grosbeak, which appeared at Michael Cutler’s Christiantown feeders on May 5. This species is slightly larger than the indigo buntings that arrived en masse in late April, and has a much heavier bill. Jill Bouck also observed one in her West Tisbury yard on May 8.
Bird Sightings
Ann Floyd had been seeing indigo buntings on Tom’s Neck Farm on Chappaquiddick since May 1. And Josey Kirkland, Kenny Ivory and I saw a dull-plumaged male in the rain at Felix Neck on May 6, only 15 minutes or so after my birding program ended. Too bad it did not pop around the corner a bit earlier so all attendees could have seen it.
A pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks have attended Peter Gallagher’s feeder since late April. Ann Floyd also observed two of them at her feeder on May 3. The next day Ed Grazda observed a female at his Chilmark feeder, while Susan McCoy found both a male and a female at Fulling Mill Brook.
Carolyn Brand found a summer tanager — all red with only a little gray on parts of the wing — in her yard on May 2.
Sue Hruby observed a leucistic chipping sparrow at her bird feeder on May 6. There was barely enough color on its head to enable the identification. Speaking of leucistic birds, the leucistic song sparrows that lived at Crystal Lake have not been observed since last fall. Amazingly, they (there were two of them for a while) were there since May 2013.
The Edgartown barred owl has been heard again. This time Michael Ditchfield heard it calling from near his house at 4 a.m. on April 5. This is a little north of its usual location, but he heard it there last year too.
Patricia Correia reports that seven black-crowned night-herons appeared alongside Jernegan Pond in Edgartown on May 7. Some of these birds were still in their juvenile streaked plumage. They will soon be molting into their adult plumage.
Last week black skimmers showed up at Little Beach in Edgartown, and Jeff Bernier found skimmers on May 8 in Katama Bay, feeding as they skimmed over the surface on little aquatic creatures swimming. Which beach will they nest on this year? Maybe both?
And the brant are still hanging out in Oak Bluffs. I observed 45 of them on Sarson’s Island on May 7, probably the same flock that hangs out in Ocean Park.
And speaking of geese, Josey Kirkland reports the first Canada goose chicks were observed at Felix Neck on May 4. There were two broods near the barn when I visited on May 6. And speaking of Felix neck, this weekend is their annual Felix Neck bird-a-thon, which takes place from 6 p.m. on Friday May 12 to 6 p.m. on May 13. It is never too late to make a pledge to support their educational programs.
The spring northward migration is in full swing. Please keep us up-to-date by reporting 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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