One of the many fun things about watching birds is the opportunity to observe unexpected and perplexing behaviors. Here are three examples.
Betsy Fink reports a robin repeatedly attempted to build a nest on a tire in the wheel well of her car! The robin prefers the front driver's side tire about 75% of the time, but has also used the other wheels. The empty nest is removed every day before the car is driven, but nest building resumes when the car returns. It matters not whether the car is parked by the house or the garage. “I am hopeful that the robin will figure out that trees are a better place to make her nest,” says Ms. Fink, noting that the only solution to this perplexing behavior has been to park the car in the garage and close the door.
On July 13 I observed a cedar waxwing acting like a flycatcher. It perched on a shrub next to Ames Pond at Cedar Tree Neck and sallied out only a foot above the pond, apparently catching bugs before returning to perch on another shrub. Waxwings are normally frugivorous. I had never seen them do this before, but the bird did this four times in succession.
And then there was apparently a very hot red-tailed hawk — perhaps expected in this weather — observed by Terry Morrison on July 7 as it was prostrate on the grass in her yard near Lake Tashmoo. It was not moving, its wings completely stretched out as it lay flat on the lawn. Then on July 14 Pat Schofield observed a similar behavior on Daggett Avenue in Vineyard Haven. This time the red-tail was just standing there on pea stone, rather than the nearby grass.
Bird Sightings
Matt Pelikan heard a red-breasted nuthatch calling from the pines near the State Forest headquarters on July 14. As he notes, this suggests that they are nesting there. We believe that small numbers of these nuthatches nest here every year, but more observations are needed to confirm this.
Field sparrows are not common on the Vineyard. We know they are present in some parts of the State Forest and in other frost bottoms, but Seth and Miles Buddy found one singing at the Menemsha Hills Reservation on July 6. They also heard them at Cedar Tree Neck and on West Chop, always in the dense shrubbery just inland from the beach.
Their other birding highlights included spotted sandpiper, common loon, immature northern gannet, eastern wood-pewee, eastern kingbird, red-eyed vireo, bank swallows feeding young and a black-and-white warbler feeding a brown-headed cowbird chick. The warbler incubated, hatched and raised the young cowbird after a female cowbird laid its egg in the warbler nest, likely to the detriment of the warbler’s offspring.
Ron Domurat has been enjoying watching two fledgling Baltimore orioles feeding with their parents at his jelly feeders for the past two weeks.
A short-billed dowitcher was observed on July 11 at Little Beach by both Jeff Bernier and myself. Warren Woessner observed two greater yellowlegs there the next day.
On July 9, Clifton Stone spotted a lesser black-backed gull at Quansoo, as well as two turkey vultures and a common yellowthroat. Philip Edmundson reports a laughing gull from the south shore on July 7. Two white-winged scoters were observed by Louise Nelson on July 8 in Vineyard Haven outer harbor, while somebody I talked to recently watched a flock of 30 black scoters at dusk in Menemsha Bight.
On a more depressing note, I found a dead great shearwater in the wave wash at Cedar Tree Neck on July 13.
Canada geese are beginning to flock up after their nesting duties have been completed for the year. From Felix Neck and the Thursday morning birders group, Steve Allen reports a flock of 150 Canada geese, as well as killdeer, great blue heron, great egret, green heron, eastern kingbird, chipping sparrow, Baltimore oriole, common yellowthroat, yellow warbler and pine warbler. Greg Power also observed the latter species at Mytoi Garden on Chappaquiddick on July 7.
Bob Shriber birded Old South Road in Aquinnah on July 9 and his highlights included eastern wood-pewee, great crested flycatcher, wood thrush and ovenbird.
Peter Enrich saw a pair of killdeer near the edge of Chilmark Pond at Lucy Vincent Beach on July 8.
Finally, here are some updates about questions I have asked in recent columns: Charlie Kernick has had tufted titmice all summer and now he has two fledglings visiting his West Tisbury feeder; Mike Tinus has also observed four pairs of titmice around his Oak Bluffs yard, and Jack Fruchtman reports that he has been hearing whip-poor-wills calling from Moshup Trail.
The nesting season is winding down and southward migrating shorebirds are starting to show up. Please report your sightings to birds@mvgazette.com.
Robert Culbert is an ecological consultant with Nature Watch LLC living in Vineyard Haven.
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