The data from the 63rd Annual Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count has been crunched, analyzed and crunched again.

Memories of birding Wasque and Cape Pogue throughout the 1980s and 1990s flashed through my head as I read Shea Fee's report of seeing 10,000 common eiders and 1,000 black scoters in Muskeget Channel.

In common usage, the expression "bird brain" is not very complimentary.

On the Island we do not get to see a lot of pelagic species, primarily because they generally do not come this close to land.

We have had a string of less than ideal weather during recent Christmas Bird Counts.

We were lucky that we did not get battered by the Christmas storm!

A wish list of species I hope will be found before the end of the year are as follows.

I read that my neighbor on this page — Lynne Irons of The Vineyard Gardener — has observed all the fish crows that hang out around the Five Corners area.

Help us ring in the new year! The 63rd annual Martha's Vineyard Christmas Bird Count will be held Jan. 1.

The numbers of birds in the U.S. has declined by fifty percent since 1966!