The Vineyard Gazette – Martha’s Vineyard News
Black-bellied plover
— Lanny McDowell
I read through that my neighbor on this site — Lynne Irons of The Winery Gardener — has noticed all the fish crows that hang out around the Five Corners region. They like to dumpster dive in the neighboring trash dumpsters to get their foodstuff, as very well as scavenge for discards in the parking heaps. They will also perch on the electricity strains together Seashore Highway. Their softer nasal “cah-cah” seem generally fills the air, even in excess of the appears of automobile engines.
Why do they cling out there? This is one of the queries we cannot reply definitively but it probably relates to the abundance of comprehensive dumpsters to dive into.
These wintertime resident fish crows get there in October and keep into March or April. The place do they occur from? We do not know, despite the fact that there are tests that can convey to us the place they arrived from based mostly on an assessment of a single or two of their feathers and blood. The problem is catching the birds to acquire the samples.
Fish crows are a southern species that has distribute northward, just one of the lots of these kinds of species. Think mockingbirds, cardinals, Carolina wrens, tufted titmice and others. The overwintering birds 1st showed up about a decade in the past.
Japanese bluebird
— Lanny McDowell
We have suspected that some of these tiny crows nest right here, as we have been observing them in compact figures throughout the summertime. In the summer time of 2021, I was able to validate their nesting by observing one particular chicken feeding another as it perched on the electrical traces earlier mentioned the Reliable Market parking good deal alongside Kennebec avenue in Oak Bluffs.
A person remaining be aware about fish crows. We also have a significant flock of what we simply call commuter crows: each and every evening they commute from the Cape to roost someplace in the vicinity of Ice Household Pond and the Lambert’s Cove Inn. In the morning they commute back to the Cape to locate their foodstuff. They can be witnessed in excess of the Vineyard Sound on their commutes appear for them although using the Steamship Authority ferries.
On-Island, the greatest spot to see these commuter crows — each fish crows and the more substantial and extra popular American crows — is in all probability about the fields of the Hoft Farm. If you are there for an hour or two in advance of dark, you may see a lot more than 1,000 crows flying overhead.
Of training course smaller figures of American crows can be found just about any where. So considerably this December, I have reviews of 80 crows from 20 distinct locales throughout the Island, with each individual spot averaging four birds.
Blue jay
— Lanny McDowell
Blue jays are also a member of the crow family members hear to their raucous “jaayyy” get in touch with to verify this. My documents so much in December document 27 individuals from 11 locales, for an normal of nearly 2.5 crows per area. Their lessen abundance possible demonstrates tht they are typically identified only in woodlands and at bird feeders.
Ravens are the most recent addition to our avifauna: the to start with specific was observed about 10 years ago. They began nesting on the tower at the Verizon creating about 5 a long time in the past and I assume this is the first year they did not elevate any children. Are there other nesting pairs? Most likely. Retain your eyes out following spring.
Most likely the most fascinating sighting to report this 7 days is Tony Lima’s sighting of an ash-throated flycatcher, a species that is intended to be in southern California, Arizona and Mexico at this time of the yr. This is only the 3rd history of this species on the Atlantic Price north of Virginia this December. The fowl was found early in the morning of Dec. 11, on a Land Bank property that is not however open up to the community. Nobody else has witnessed it but, thankfully, Mr. Lima posted a photograph and a movie to ensure the identification.
Clay-coloured sparrow
— Lanny McDowell
Lanny McDowell identified a flock of at minimum 60 horned larks in a plowed discipline at Katama Farm on Dec. 8, as effectively as pretty much as a lot of mourning doves. He went to Katama to productively locate the snow goose that Bob Shriber spotted earlier that working day, although Margret Curtin noticed a snow goose at the Edgartown Golfing Club.
A clay-colored sparrow or two showed up at the Homosexual Head Cliffs not too long ago. Nancy Nordin noticed just one there on Dec. 5. Bob Shriber noticed one particular there on Dec. 9. Was it the similar chicken that lingered there or was it two various birds?
Tim Leland noticed a single grackle at his feeders on Dec. 5 but was shocked the future working day when a flock of at least 80 grackles descended and cleaned out his Wasque feeders. And on Dec. 4, Richard Couse noticed an jap meadowlark at Tisbury Terrific Pond.
A preferred of many, jap bluebirds are becoming far more widespread. So significantly this month, Nancy Nordin spotted 1 at her feeders on Dec. 2. Richard Couse spotted 4 at Very long Level on Dec. 4 and just one at the Hoft Farm on Dec. 8, Thaw Malin watched eight at his West Tisbury feeders on Dec. 9. Margaret Curtin, Nancy Weaver and Luanne Johnson observed just one on Dec. 11 at Thimble Farm. On Dec. 12, Ellen Bunch had a flock pay a visit to her feeders even though Isaiah Freedman identified five at Tilton Cove Way.
Yellow-rumped warbler
— Lanny McDowell
A related thrush — a hermit thrush — was noticed in an strange site as it perched on Lynn Buckmaster-Irwin’s Indian Hill Road kitchen window.
Back again on Nov. 14, Keith Correct noticed a yellow-breasted chat at Scrubby Neck. Also of observe, the only warbler sighting documented this 7 days had been two yellow-rumped warblers — formerly myrtle warblers — at Nancy Nordin’s feeders on Dec. 12.
More Chook Pics
Remember to email your sightings to [email protected].
Robert Culbert is an ecological guide with Nature Check out LLC dwelling in Winery Haven.
