The weather is getting hot as I write this on July 4.

The Fourth of July, which can be called the peak of the nesting season for beach-nesting birds is this weekend.

This is the time of year for shearwaters. They are never common near us; generally we have to go offshore to see them.

Great shearwaters nest on small islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean when it is summer down there.

Who flipped the switch from migration to the breeding season?

Birds that are migrating northward are still pouring through, especially warblers, flycatchers and shorebirds.

About 321,500 birds migrated over Martha’s Vineyard on the night of May 21-22.

How many species of birds are on the Island?

May has arrived and brought the northward migration of warblers and other songbirds.

We have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the first ruby-throated hummingbirds.