Some unusual birds have been floating around in Menemsha Harbor in recent weeks. The most recent addition to the list is a red-necked grebe, a winter resident seabird that is usually a ways offshore while spending as much time underwater as swimming on the surface.
Jeff Bernier spotted this bird on Feb. 10 in Menemsha. More unexpected, though, is that the same species showed up that day at the northern end of Tisbury Great Pond, where the Tiasquam River joins Town Cove. This is an unexpected location for this seabird as that end of the pond is mostly fresh water.
Bird Sightings
A number of people have been finding robins around. Ed Grazda spotted one at Peaked Hill, Penny Vaughn has a flock of about 20 of them visiting her yard, as does Gail Avakian. Allouise Morgan had a flock of a dozen or more, Sharon Simonin had a flock, as did Gail Avakian, while Laurie Meyst only had one in her yard. And I observed a flock of 15 robins flying back and forth between the trees and the shrubs along the causeway at the Oak Bluffs pumping station on Feb. 11, in addition to the eight that have come into my yard and finished off the holly berries. These robins are from the north and will not be a harbinger of the coming spring until they depart for their northern breeding grounds.
Lanny McDowell found the immature male northern shoveler and two northern pintails at the Mill Pond in West Tisbury on Feb. 11, as well as the more expected mallard and Canada geese. On Feb. 10, Jeff Bernier found three immature snow geese in with a flock of 450 Canada geese at the Farm Institute.
On Feb. 11, I visited the Oak Bluffs pumping station in that afternoon’s heavy rains. There were three black-crowned night-herons perched in the shrubs on the Vineyard Haven side of the pond. But the most exciting event was when five red-breasted mergansers were chasing a male that had caught a fish too big to swallow quickly. He would run/fly along the surface using his wings like oars. After a minute he was able to get far enough ahead of the others that he could swallow the fish head first.
That day, Karen and Stephen Caliri found a lone killdeer at the Sweetened Water Farm field. It still is a bit early for this to be a migrant from the south, but we have had some warm temperatures and southerly winds, so it could be a migrant as they do not often spend the winter here. Another possible migrant from the south are the red-winged blackbirds reported at several feeders recently. Sheila and Tim Baird had one in their yard on Feb. 4.
Laura LaVigne found a handsome male hooded merganser in the shallows along the edge of Eel Pond on Feb. 9.
I have reports of at least 18 snowy owls around the Island, but have no idea how many of another large predator — bald eagles — are here. Ken Magnuson reports that there were four of them hanging out around Edgartown Great Pond on Feb. 12, including one subadult and three immatures. And last week Martha Moore reported two bald eagles — one subadult and one immature — on Tisbury Great Pond. Are they different birds, or do they move back and forth between the ponds? And are there yet other eagles around on other ponds?
Last but not least, here is the final list of species we observed on the Dec. 29, 2017 Christmas Bird Count. There were 23,222 individuals observed comprising 120 species on count day, plus four recognizable subspecies or hybrids, and eight other species were observed during count week, which is three days before and after count day. Thank you to Luanne Johnson for taking the time to compile and vet all the data.
Our many winter residents are here; please report your sightings in this new year to birds@mvgazette.com.
Robert Culbert is an ecological consultant living in Vineyard Haven.
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