The excitement started on a Thursday afternoon, July 25, when John Nelson texted me about his sighting of a ferruginous hawk that he just saw at Katama Farm.
The generosity and compassion of the late reknowned Island naturalist and teacher Gus BenDavid had a huge impact on the people and natural history of the Vineyard. Gus always seemed to be interested in sharing his natural history knowledge and experience with any and all.
Now migrating shorebirds return as the calendar turns its page to June. Birders have crowded Island ponds and beaches as ruddy turnstones, short-billed dowitchers, red knots, sandpipers, and dunlin return to their summer homes.
The continuing story this spring is another cloudy rainy day with wind from the North and Northeast. Birdwatchers love their breeding birds but the challenge is finding migrants that you don’t regularly encounter.
