Birdwatching can be an addictive hobby. The rush you feel seeing a dazzling display of color or beautiful song, or identifying a bird you have never seen can create a high that lifts your spirits and puts a spring in your step. I’ve been a birder for about 25 years, and I had never experienced what birders refer to as a fallout event until last week when I visited Soo Whiting in Sarasota, Fla.
The morning after heavy rain and wind passed through the area, Soo and I birded Pinecraft Park. This forested riparian area is a hot spot in Sarasota and was literally full of weary migrant songbirds that had crossed the Gulf of Mexico. No matter where you looked or listened, a songbird was calling or flitting about, and other birders were more than willing to help you locate each species. Life birds for me included a worm-eating warbler and a yellow-throated vireo. In four hours of birding, we observed 54 species! Birdwatchers and birds were mingling along every trail in this small park, and it was nothing short of spectacular. When we departed around mid-day, I was riding on a cloud of euphoria that is still with me as I recall it today.
Martha’s Vineyard is not a migratory fallout hot spot, but we do have some migration events on a smaller scale. One occurred on April 17, as reported below.
Bird Sightings
Allan Keith went birding in Aquinnah and Chilmark on April 10. He observed six razorbills, six red-throated loons, 60 common loons, and more than 150 long-tailed ducks along the Gay Head Cliffs and Lobsterville shorelines. At Squibnocket, he counted 64 harlequin ducks and was pleased to see two horned grebes in breeding plumage.
The Edgartown barred owl is still around the Plantingfield Way/Sheriff’s Pond Preserve area and was last heard calling on Thursday evening, April 12 by Maria Thibodeau. Jeff Bernier observed and photographed six Wilson’s snipe, a greater yellowlegs, and four killdeer foraging along the mucky shorelines of Slough Cove on Friday, April 13.
Many birders were out and about on Saturday, April 14. Allan Keith was birding in Chilmark and found golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglet as well as two hermit thrushes, pine warblers, and his first eastern towhee of the season. I was birding with Margaret Curtin and Jodi Angevin at the head of the Lagoon and down near Katama. We had a nice look at an Eastern phoebe and some yellow-rumped warblers at the Lagoon. Of note at the Farm Institute were a brightly colored savannah sparrow, an Ipswich sparrow, a flock of 68 dunlin and 21 black-bellied plovers. In the state forest, Matt Pelikan noted a field sparrow singing on its territory. On April 15, Allan Keith observed a flock of six American pipits at the Farm Institute, and had a peregrine falcon fly by his home in Chilmark.
Surprisingly, snowy owls were still around as of Saturday, April 14. Liz Baldwin and Kayla Smith observed three on the beach at the Edgartown Great Pond while surveying for piping plovers, and Officer Craig Edwards photographed a snowy owl consuming a rabbit along the edge of Clevelandtown Road while on patrol that evening. On Sunday, April 15, a female blue grosbeak made an appearance at Saskia Vanderhoop’s bird feeder. Saskia was quick to notice the larger beak and size of this bird compared to the house sparrows there.
The south winds of the April 16 stormfront brought a colorful assortment of spring migrants to the Island. On the morning of April 17 the Martha’s Vineyard Bird Alert was buzzing with reports from feeder watchers and birders around the Island. Indigo buntings were reported by Nancy Slate on Chappy and Nelson Smith at Head of the Pond Road. Scarlet tanagers were seen by Mike Zoll at Farm Neck and Jo-Ann Eccher in Aquinnah while Leslie Freeman had one visit her feeder. Rose-breasted grosbeaks made an appearance at Cathering Deese and Sioux Eagle’s bird feeders.
Luanne Johnson is a wildlife biologist and director of BiodiversityWorks, a Vineyard nonprofit that focuses on wildlife research, monitoring and education in field biology.
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