On Sept. 7 Tim Spahr, an excellent birder from the mainland, was birding with Allan Keith in the Gay Head Moraine. They were on a small bridge over a trickling stream when Tim heard a chip note that Tim said was a hooded warbler. Allan Keith and I both have difficulty hearing and identifying chip notes so we are always willing to bird with someone with good ears. Allan was stunned that Tim not only heard the note, but identified it. With a little coaxing the bird came closer and Tim was able to photograph an immature female hooded warbler.

In 1974 my brother in law, Brian Harrington, while working at the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, developed International Shorebird Surveys to “gather basic migration information on shorebirds and the wetlands they use.” Later the Atlantic Canada Shorebird Survey joined in and the data collected by huge numbers of volunteers from both organizations showed that many species of shorebirds depend on flats and other wetland habitats to fuel up on food as they often move up to 11,000 miles per year.

The tide is changing for the bird population. The summer residents are slowly departing and other species are arriving to fill that niche. The most obvious difference for beachgoers is the terns. Where there were a good number of terns in early August, there are just a few lingering souls. The smallest of our nesting tern species, the least tern, is extensively gone, headed for Florida and points south. There are many fewer common and roseate terns loafing on the flats and beaches.

R.K. and Kathryn Warburton of Chappaquiddick were pleasantly surprised to have a rare raptor land in their yard for a spell on August 20. The Warburtons profess to be amateur birders, but they certainly knew that the bird in their backyard was one they had not seen before on the Vineyard. Kathryn was able to take several photos of the bird and their son sent them to me. Wow, a swallow-tailed kite! I wasn’t totally convinced until I saw the photos.

Tim Simmons, a restoration ecologist with the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife of the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, asked Flip Harrington and me if we could take him and Paul Goldstein, an entomologist with Smithsonian Institute, over to Muskegat Island so they could do a survey of the insects on that island. Muskegat is about seven miles east of Cape Poge and is surrounded by moving shoals and is just to the west of Tuckernuk and Nantucket.

Dick Jennings has finished the 2013 osprey nest site inventory for the Vineyard. He found 71 breeding pairs, 23 failed nests and even with that, 87 young ospreys fledged. By towns the breakdown is as follows: Aquinnah had two productive nests, Chilmark had 11, Chappaquiddick had seven, Edgartown had eight, Oak Bluffs had seven, Tisbury had nine and West Tisbury had six.

This week’s heat wave doesn’t seem to have bothered one group of feathered friends, the gulls. We had quite a show of rare and unusual gulls on the Vineyard’s South shore this week. The first gull to catch birders’ attention was created by a blurry photo of a bird with a strong black/white and gray wing pattern and a dirty looking head taken on July 14. The gull had a fine bill with a yellow tip. Sarah Mayhew took the original photo at Quansoo which was used to identify the bird.