Heavy rains make good puddles for birds. The water is cool and fresh and the birds are hot, dusty and dirty. Bath time!
Anne Carmichael Whiting saw an osprey bathing at the edge of a shallow pond in Oak Bluffs on July 27, and after the osprey left a turkey vulture moved in.
Jeff Bernier hit the jackpot in a roadside puddle near the right fork of South Beach on July 25: a family of cowbirds — male, female and juvenile — in their different plumages but with similar bill shapes hinting the same species. Red-winged blackbirds, American goldfinches and American robins also enjoyed that same puddle.
That same day I saw goldfinches, robins and a soaking wet semipalmated sandpiper all bathing in the shallow waters at the end of Pease’s Point Way.
Bird Sightings
An immature little blue heron — all white like our snowy and great egrets — was seen and photographed by Danguole Budris on July 25 at James Pond. From the photograph, Matt Pelikan used two features to identify it: the bill was neither black (snowy) nor yellow (great), and its overall body shape was not right for either of them. This is the first sighting of this species this year!
Speaking of egrets, Warren Gosson found a great egret in Butler’s Mudhole, which is part of Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary in Edgartown. He and the egret were treated to the sight of three black skimmers doing their skimming around the small pond. Cydney Cort observed two great egrets and one snowy egret at a little pond near Chilmark Pond on July 26. That same day, Steve Allen observed four species in the marshes at Felix Neck: great egret, snowy egret, great blue heron and green heron.
Shorebirds are passing through now in such numbers that you do not have to go to a hotspot to find them. Pete Gilmore visited Sepiessa Point on July 25 and found greater yellowlegs, semipalmated sandpiper, semipalmated plover and four least sandpipers. That same day at State Beach, Sarah Mayhew saw four ruddy turnstones, while on July 22 John Nelson found eight short-billed dowitchers, 11 least sandpipers, and four semipalmated plovers in the salt marsh at the southern end of that pond. On July 23 Lanny McDowell led the weekly Chilmark Community Center bird walk and found a whimbrel flying overhead at the western end of Chilmark Pond.
Virginia Jones found several killdeers at Pond View Farm on July 24, and she also commented that monarch butterflies are so much more common this season than they were just a few years back. Even now, though, they are nowhere near the incredible abundance of the early to mid-1900s. John Nelson also commented on the abundance of monarchs this year, especially at the Farm Institute.
Little Beach and Eel Pond are hotspots for finding shorebirds. Spotted sandpipers were reported there by Jesse Medford on July 27. On July 24 Luanne Johnson reports a lot of shorebirds were there, but later that day Jeff Bernier only found one least sandpiper. The next day I caught up with Warren Woessner at the Eel Pond boat ramp, where through his spotting scope he found a black tern, which was gone by the time I kayaked closer a few minutes later. I did find a flock of semipalmated sandpipers, which flew in from the north and shortly after flew away to the south, and there were ruddy turnstones, short-billed dowitchers and greater yellowlegs. These shorebirds are migrating and may move from one beach to another.
Another hotspot is Norton Point, where Lanny McDowell and Pete Gilmore spotted four adult black terns on July 29. On July 26. Warren Woessner found the first sanderlings of the season on July 23.
John Nelson also reports the first bobolink — a southbound songbird — of the season on July 22 at the Farm Institute. In the summer he captains the FV Skipper from which he often sees immature laughing gulls, and he found four Cory’s shearwaters on Hedge Fence off Oak Bluffs on July 28.
On July 25, Felix Neck’s weekly Early Birders Program spotted a northern harrier flying across the marsh, as well as pine warbler, common yellowthroat, and a family of four yellow warblers.
In the pines near Wasque Point, Tim Leland has been seeing red-breasted nuthatch, goldfinch, eastern towhee, chipping sparrow and mourning doves, and, unexpectedly, he saw a hummingbird visiting a seed feeder instead of the nearby sugar water feeder. Susan Whiting has also observed this and watched as the hummer caught insects near the feeder.
Sharon Simonin saw a family of four downy mallards at Farm Pond on July 27. Cynthia Hubbard is watching two families with small ducklings in some swampy areas on Chappy. And I saw a family of two at Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary on July 25/. One of the youngsters stretched out its neck to pick off a flying insect about 4 inches in front of it. These youngsters will be grown up by the end of August.
We close with Morgan Hodgson’s owl box, in which a great crested flycatcher nests every summer even though a screech owl calls it home all winter.
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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