If you’ve been hearing more birds that sound like they’re hollering “Horatio! Horatio!” or “Hey, Rachel! Hey, Rachel!” at each other — here’s why: Carolina wrens are making a comeback on Martha’s Vineyard, with more than 200 spotted during the annual bird count Jan. 2.
Previous counts had averaged fewer than 150 of the vociferous brown-and-white songbirds, according to records from past years.
“It’s been building over the past few years, since that bad winter of 2013-2014, when they got wiped out,” veteran Island birder Robert Culbert said Sunday during a Zoom call in which more than 30 of the 54 bird count participants reviewed the results of their day-long survey.
Other birds whose numbers trended upward this year included brant — a chunky brown goose, smaller than the Canada goose, that was counted in hundreds at Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs — and one of the Island’s most noticeable year-round species, the wild turkey, which also topped 200 individuals spotted.
Matt Pelikan, whose bird count territory included the state forest, said many of the turkeys he saw were young birds.
“They must have just had incredible recruitment this year,” Mr. Pelikan said, sounding a bit like a sports fan assessing an up-and-coming team.
This was the Vineyard’s 61st year as part of the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count, which was founded in 1900. Thirteen teams, from one to more than a half-dozen birders each, fanned out across the Island, each team surveying a defined area.
Backyard birdwatchers also took part, phoning in their feeder observations to the Biodiversity Works office in West Tisbury for executive director an bord count coordinator Luanne Johnson to transcribe into the bird count spreadsheet.
Even for Island birders accustomed to braving winter weather, Saturday morning brought challenging conditions.
“It was super foggy, super windy — gross, I would say, until 1 p.m.,” said Olsen Houghton, captain of the team that counted birds — including the day's sole snow goose — at Seven Gates Farm. “Then boom, it really lit up.”
Birding Chappaquiddick beaches, Antone Lima also saw the sun come out at 1 p.m.
“But I also got sandblasted with the winds,” added Mr. Lima, whose sightings for the day included flocks of snow buntings and yellow-rumped warblers.
Along with the weather, count teams faced a new and unexpected obstacle to finding birds in their usual habitat: non-birding humans.
“There sure were a heck of a lot of people out on the beaches, when normally it’s just us out on bird count,” said Ms. Johnson, whose team was assigned to Oak Bluffs.
“The birds were getting pushed all over the place on the beaches . . . There were just way too many people out there. It was rough going,” she said.
Mr. Pelikan and Mr. Lima also reported finding more vehicles in trailhead and beach parking lots than during past bird counts.
“Once the weather broke on Chappy, there were probably 10 or 12 trucks,” Mr. Lima said.
Other birding spots were off-limits for the first time because houses on the properties were occupied, Ms. Johnson said.
“A lot of places we could normally get into, there were people staying in the houses.”
Mr. Culbert, who writes the Bird News column for the Gazette, reviews the count in greater depth this week.
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