We drive by a pond many times a week, and decades pass without seeing anything other than mallards, Canada geese and crows. Then, on March 31, John Nelson drives by Sunset Lake and finds a pair of northern shovellers, a duck that is an uncommon transient during its migration. He happened to drive by at the right time.
That afternoon I am out birding around Lake Tashmoo where my highlights are osprey, American oystercatchers and piping plovers, species that are flooding back to the Island. I give up and decide to get a pizza — supporting an Island business that remains open during this pandemic. So I visit the Lagoon Pond boat ramp to take up the 15-minute wait for the pizza, and there, toward Prime Marine and the museum, no more than 50 yards away is a goldeneye that does not look quite right because there is too much black on its back. Its face, with its white crescent, confirms a Barrow’s goldeneye, another uncommon transient. Serendipity. I would not have seen my best bird of the day if I had not ordered the pizza. Neither duck was found the next day despite several people searching for them.
And on April 5 my family walked from John Presbury Norton Farm to Wompesket. Along the border of one of the farm fields we spotted a first of season broad-winged hawk and heard singing white-throated sparrows.
You never know when you will find something interesting.
Bird Sightings
Albert Fischer reports that on April 5 the northern gannets started their northward migration as he estimates there were 2,000 birds flying past Squibnocket beach every 10 minutes! Last year they started migrating past on March 31. They might have arrived earlier but that was the first day in April where strong northerly winds were lacking.
That same day, Scott Stephens reports seeing many gannets, many razorbills, a dovekie, all three scoter species, long-tailed ducks, and common eiders as he navigated between Menemsha and Noman’s Land. Yet looking over the calm seas that day, Allan Keith notes that for the first time since last December there were no razorbills visible from the Gay Head Cliffs.
Phoebes are increasing in abundance. The trio of Luanne Johnson, Margaret Curtin and Nancy Weaver saw a phoebe at the Fuller street Beach in Edgartown on April 5, and Fransesca Zeta found two of them in West Tisbury on the same day. Penny Uhlendorf reports a phoebe at Pilot Hill Farm on April 4. That same day Connie Alexander heard one singing near Lake Tashmoo. On the topic of bird song, Jeff Peters heard a ruby-crowned kinglet singing at Mink Meadows on March 31.
On the windy morning of April 4 I ventured forth to find some pelagic gulls that could have been blown into shore by the strong northerly winds. I looked all over Oak Bluffs but to no avail. My last best shot was Ocean Park, where at mid-day I found two adult lesser black-backed gulls and a glaucous gull as well as larger than usual numbers of herring, great black-backed and ring-billed gulls.
Meanwhile, in nearby Waban Park Matt Pelikan found an early laughing gull and an immature Iceland gull. That’s seven species of gulls in two parks in downtown Oak Bluffs. These are the first sighting of “white-winged” gulls (glaucous and Iceland) this season. Bob Shriber found two lesser black-backed gulls (the same birds?) at Katama on April 2 and March 29. Bob Shriber added an eighth gull, a Bonaparte’s gull, to this list of gulls, which he spotted at Little Beach on March 31.
Matt Pelikan reports that the American crows were mobbing a raven in his
Oak Bluffs yard on April 4 — the “best yard bird in a long, long time.” He also reports three gadwall at West Basin (Aquinnah) and a few harlequin ducks still hanging out at Squibnocket.
Blue geese at the Farm Institute were seen by Olsen Houghton on April 1, and on April 4 by John Nelson in the morning. Hans Goeckel saw them in the afternoon and they were still there when I saw them in the late afternoon. Bob Shriber reports the greater white-fronted goose was still at the Farm Institute on March 29.
Penny Uhlendorf saw the yellow-breasted chat that has been hanging out in a thicket near Lambert’s Cove Road on April 4. She also reports that the commuter fish crows are still commuting daily from the Cape.
Robin Lloyd has been seen a pair of northern harriers on Lambert’s Cove Beach, James Pond and Duarte’s Pond. There have been courtship flights and vocalizations have been heard.
Francesca Zeta reports a solitary tree swallow zooming around Pond View Farm on April 5, the same day that Gus Ben David observed a half dozen of them in his yard. His winter resident yellow-rumped warblers had molted into near full breeding regalia but were last seen on April 3. The pine warblers are still around and are singing.
Richard Knight emailed to report that he found a woodcock nest with four eggs in it on Chappaquiddick’s North Neck. Two quick notes to close out this column. Lanny McDowell still has red-breasted nuthatches keeping him company in his yard, and perhaps the last snowy owl sighting of the season was spotted by Barbara and Miguel de Bragança along the south shore of Chilmark.
Watching birds helps relieve the isolation of social distancing! Stay healthy and 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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