Long-billed or short-billed dowitcher, that is the question.

It was Nov. 28 and Lanny McDowell and Luanne Johnson were on their way to meet Warren Woessner, Pat Hughes, Hal Minis and myself for a trip to Norton Point, but Lanny and Luanne just had to check the newly plowed fields at Katama. It was the right move because they found a dowitcher. The crew in the Woessner car followed Lanny and Luanne to the spot and we all saw the bird. The trouble is that we were not sure which it was, a short-billed or long-billed dowitcher. Lanny luckily took several photographs, which he sent to all of us and to Island birders who were not present as well as off-Island birders.

When I looked at Lanny’s photo I figured that it was a short-billed dowitcher because of a strong supercilium, yellowish — not greenish — legs, and the tip of the bird’s bill was thick.

Matt Pelikan called the mystery dowitcher a short-billed dowitcher. Matt said, “It’s a hatch-year bird that has molted out its scapulars. Structure (short bill, legs) helps rule out long-bill, which would have darker, more sharply delineated gray on the breast and heavier, more extensive barring around and under the base of the tail.”

Lanny McDowell sent the photo to Marshall Iliff, a bird ID hot-shot who coordinates eBird, and he agreed with Matt that the bird was a juvenile short-billed dowitcher because it had retained juvenile tertials.

Then Luanne sent Lanny’s photo to Brad Winn of Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, Shorebird Recovery who also confirmed the dowitcher was a short-billed due to “The slight bend in the bill is masked in the photo by mud, but you can kind of see it. The loral angle is tricky, but the supercilium does have a brow shape, and is short and thick. The sides are lightly marked with chevrons, the overall gray wash seen in long-bills in basic is missing. So I would say this is a hatch-year short-billed dowitcher.”

Using Lanny McDowell’s photo and the opinion of several birders, who amazingly all agreed, we found there was a short-billed dowitcher at Katama. This is an unusual time of year for this species. We usually have long-billed dowitchers this late in the fall/early winter, although in checking Vineyard Birds II, I see that we have two late date records of this dowitcher; one on Dec. 15, 2005 and another on Jan. 18, 1984.

If the technical terms used above are foreign to you, check the front of any bird guide for the plumage terminology diagram. Now we can relax for a while until the next bird ID puzzle presents itself.

Bird Sightings

Nov. 30: a short-billed dowitcher found and photographed at Katama is the bird of the week!

Other good birds included an osprey seen by Whit Griswold over James Pond on Nov. 28.

Geoff Muldaur, his friend Peter Steultjens from Holland, and I found two tree swallows at Black Point on Nov. 25. Geoff and Peter found a brown creeper and an eastern screech owl in the Quansoo woods Nov. 27 and a great blue heron on Big Sandy. I spotted a brown creeper on an oak tree in our Quenames yard on Dec. 1. On their way to Woods Hole, Geoff and Peter spotted what we three finally agreed were two Iceland gulls in Vineyard Sound.

Chris Murphy and David Amaral spotted an immature bald eagle at Chocker’s Creek while they were scalloping on Nov. 23.

David Stanwood heard a great horned owl “in the stillness of sunset” on the northwest side of Lake Tashmoo on Nov. 29 and then again on Dec. 1. Penny Uhlendorf and Scott Stephens heard the great horned owl near Pilot Hill first on Nov. 25 and several other nights. Penny feels the poor owl is looking for a mate! Penny and Scott sense that they are sharing a fox sparrow with fairly close neighbor Lanny McDowell. Lanny saw the fox sparrow under his feeder on Nov. 27. Penny and Scott saw their fox sparrow on Nov. 24 and Nov. 29 and also had a tree sparrow on the 29th. A chipping sparrow was seen at the Pilot Hill feeder of Penny and Scott on Dec. 1, and Scott Stephens has seen a snowy egret at the Maciel Marine end of the Lagoon in Tisbury between Nov. 26 and Dec. 1.

Bert Fischer has also had a fox sparrow at his West Tisbury feeder. He saw it last on Nov. 27. Bert added that he rarely had hairy woodpeckers at his Aquinnah feeder, but he has had one frequently at his West Tisbury feeders as well as four downy woodpeckers. Both Bert and I find we are getting more tufted titmice at our feeders than black-capped chickadees.

Tim Rich reports that he and Laurisa have had purple finches almost daily all fall at the Aquinnah feeder.

Michael Ditchfield sent nice photos of greater yellowlegs, dunlin and horned larks that he took by the Edgartown Lighthouse on Nov. 29. Jeff Bernier caught on camera a series showing a dunlin eating a fiddler crab. Jeff took the shots at Little Beach right around the corner from the Edgartown Lighthouse the same day.

Kate Fowle Meleney was given a Thanksgiving present; the leucistic song sparrow that she has been seeing on and off for a year was flitting around in the bushes off East Chop Drive when the Meleneys arrived for the holidays.

Charlie Kernick and Morgan Hodgson shared an experience probably minutes apart at the Chilmark Landing. Charlie photographed a young red-tailed hawk which had just killed a snake and shortly thereafter Morgan Hodgson drove up, found the hawk in the road and then watched it fly off over Quitsa Pond on Nov. 28.

Allan Keith has been birding around his Turtle Brook Farm property and reports having seen an eastern phoebe between Nov. 21 and Nov. 30. There were seven killdeer in his fields on Nov. 29 and three to seven green-winged teal in his small pond between Nov. 20 and Nov. 28. On Nov. 30 Allan was surprised to count over 150 common grackles in the trees around his home, rather late for migration! And, finally, a couple of red-winged black birds have frequented his Turtle Brook Farm feeders between Nov. 25 and Dec. 1.

Warren Woessner counted 20 horned larks at the Farm Institute on Nov. 30.

Please report your bird sightings to birds@mvgazette.com.
Susan B. Whiting is the co-author of Vineyard Birds and Vineyard Birds II. Her website is vineyardbirds2.com.