Birds are on the move after the remnants of sub-tropical storm Melissa finally left us on Oct. 12. A lot of birds arrived on the Island over the weekend, with only a few of them reported from the Gay Head cliffs. While migrants tend to congregate at the cliffs, they can be seen almost anywhere.
On Oct. 14 at the head of the Lagoon, Sharon Simonin spotted a flock of American wigeon and an American coot. Both species are new for this fall.
Lanny McDowell spotted and photographed a mystery nondescript brownish, olive-colored bird at his home on the morning of Oct. 14. While many feel that this description fits a lot of birds, it’s species identity has not yet been determined. We may never know.
Also on Oct. 14, Allan Keith spotted the first dark-eyed junco of the season at his house. He visited Squibnocket on the afternoon of Oct. 13 where he spotted the following firsts for the season: winter wren, yellow-breasted chat, field and swamp sparrows, yellow-rumped warblers, and ruby-crowned kinglets. He also saw palm warblers, an American redstart, and three species of vireos: blue-headed, Philadelphia and red-eyed. At the Gay Head moraine later that afternoon he added black-throated green warbler, black-and-white warbler, and northern parula.
Waskosim’s Rock Reservation had a few birds on the afternoon of Oct. 13, including the first golden-crowned kinglet of the season. In the meadows there I also saw seven eastern bluebirds, two western palm warblers, six pine warblers, and I heard numerous eastern towhees.
One report from the Gay Head Cliffs comes from Lanny McDowell. On the morning of Oct. 13 he saw a male and a female black-throated blue warbler, and a probable Tennessee warbler being carried off in the talons of a merlin.
Another new species for the season is the American pipits recently seen by Warren Woessner on both Little Beach and in the parking lot at the Gay Head Cliffs. Lanny McDowell spotted one in the short grass at the cliffs on Oct. 12.
Bird Sightings
Chipping sparrows are flocking together for their migration southward. Lanny McDowell reports a flock of about 30 chippies bathing in a puddle in the road near his house on Oct. 12. And Matt Pelikan observed five song sparrows and four chipping sparrows eating big bluestem (a grass) seeds in his yard in Oak Bluffs.
Nancy Weaver reports an osprey was sighted in Menemsha near the bike ferry on Oct. 13. It was seen by Captain Sean and Buddy Vanderhooop.
Penny Uhlendorf and Scott Stephens had an ovenbird foraging on the ground beneath their feeders on Oct. 11.
On Oct. 6, Allouise Morgan got an unusual extended view of a screech owl in her backyard, which “Sat for quite a while on the fence, jumped down to the ground and pranced around the yard for a few minutes, then gave a little whinny and flew into the neighboring tree.”
Nathalie Woodruff and Sharon Simonin visited Little Beach on Oct. 6 and found American oystercatchers, a semipalmated plover and sanderlings. The sanderlings will be here through the winter.
A species that will not be here much longer is the black skimmer. In what may be the last sighting of this species until next spring, John Nelson spotted nine black skimmers flying around the northern end of Sengekontacket Pond on Oct. 4. He also saw two Immature common eiders on the Harthaven jetties, and on Oct. 12 there were 12 great egrets roosting in a dead tree in the middle of the salt marsh at the southern end of Sengekontacket Pond.
Lastly, this column is always interested in sightings of leucistic birds, which have more white feathers than they are supposed to have. On Oct. 13, Penny Vaughn had a leucistic downy woodpecker that was almost all white but the black head pattern gave its identity away.
Southbound migrants are abundant now! 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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