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Friday, May 9, 2008
Joe, Elizabeth, Ingrid and Ian Jims, along with their dogs Brillo and Brawney, were walking on the land bank property at Farm Pond in Oak Bluffs when they spotted a weird purple bird.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, May 2, 2008
Those mighty mites are back and a few days early at that. Ruby-throated hummingbirds have been reported in Chilmark and Ocean Heights so wash your feeders well, fill them with sugar water and hang them up! Don’t forget that the feeders should be cleaned frequently, especially in warm weather.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, April 25, 2008
The attendant at the Phalaborwa gate of Kruger National Park in South Africa greeted us with the words: “Are you going to look for the big five?”
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, April 18, 2008
Northern bobwhites are about as tall as robins, but are considerably chunkier. They are also called quail, and they prefer a combination of shrubs and grass, especially hedgerows in agricultural fields. These ground-nesting birds are now scarce, although they were abundant year-round residents as recently as the 1980s. Numerous reasons may explain the current scarcity of these birds.
» Full Story By Robert A. Culbert

Friday, April 11, 2008
Mid-April this year looks even less like spring than it usually does on the Vineyard. Although conditions were looking up a bit during the middle of this week, the last few weeks have averaged cloudy and cool. Accordingly, there appears to have been little activity among Island birders, and the migration appears to be running slightly behind schedule. But all this is poised to change.
» Full Story Matt Pelikan

Friday, April 4, 2008
The Waskosim’s Rock Reservation is a Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank holding which can be reached off North Road at the West Tisbury-Chilmark line. Because of its habitat diversity, its elevation changes, its lack of so-called improvements, its overall acreage (just under 185 acres), its beech-lined stream and excellent trails, it is a great find for birders as well as other people seeking recreation.
» Full Story By Lanny Mcdowell

Friday, March 28, 2008
Between now and mid-April, occasional migrating small birds arrive on the Island exceptionally early.
» Full Story By Allan Keith

Friday, March 21, 2008
“You got to be in it to win it” and “You can’t win if you don’t play” are lottery slogans that also ring true when it comes to birding. The nice thing about birding on the Vineyard is that, if you can get out the door, you can find birds, and find them in a variety of inspiring habitats.
» Full Story By Lanny Mcdowell

Friday, March 14, 2008
Birds that come to bird feeders change over the seasons. Sure, that sounds obvious, but this point was driven home by recent observations at my feeder. There were six to eight American goldfinches that were regulars at my thistle feeder from October through January, but I have not seen them in the past month or so. Also, three tufted titmice and two red-breasted nuthatches used to be present daily, gorging on sunflower seed, but now are only here about once per week. This reduced number of birds is consistent with my need to fill the bird feeder about half as frequently as before.
» Full Story By Robert A. Culbert

Friday, March 7, 2008
No matter how many times I visit Costa Rica, there is always something new to experience. Many think of lush tropical rainforests or jungles when Costa Rica comes to mind, but there is another biome in this small Central American country that is equally fascinating. That is the tropical dry forest.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, February 29, 2008
Although spring is in the air, the recent snow still makes birders dream of different habitats and warmer weather. Travel out of the country is becoming dearer and air travel is about as irritating as it gets. So perhaps a road trip to Florida is an option. The image that comes to mind for most folks when I mention Florida is Disney/Epcot, Miami or Cape Canaveral. There is much more to Florida than those areas and the birding is spectacular, even in Miami and Cape Canaveral.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, February 22, 2008
“Guyana — isn’t that where all those people drank Kool-Aid at Jonestown? Why would you want to go there?”
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, February 15, 2008
Which is it, a short nasal cah-ah or a full-voiced caaw? That is the question that will help distinguish between the unusual fish crow and the ubiquitous American crow.
» Full Story By Robert A. Culbert

Friday, February 8, 2008
The Vineyard bird hot line received a fascinating report from Edo Potter, out on Chappy, who noticed a rowdy mob of crows outside her house around dawn last Friday.
» Full Story Matt Pelikan

Friday, February 1, 2008
Driving around the Island recently, one is likely to encounter flocks of American robins. They seem a little more conspicuous at this time of year since, other than starlings, there are few flocks of anything around.
» Full Story By Allan Keith

Friday, January 25, 2008
Late January is the coldest point of the year, and it leads into the snowiest. Such harsh weather is a two-edged sword for birders.
» Full Story Matt Pelikan

Friday, January 18, 2008
Now that the annual Christmas Bird Count is fading into pleasant memories and a lot of fascinating data, we might be lulled into thinking that we can put citizen science aside until next winter. Nope! Such is not the case, as we have a request for help with a winter waterfowl survey of sites where people feed wild ducks and geese.
» Full Story By Robert A. Culbert

Friday, January 11, 2008
We had a beautiful day on Saturday, Jan. 5 for the Vineyard’s forty-eighth consecutive Christmas Bird Count. We beat Nantucket, sort of, but more on that later. It was a day of fair weather with a bit of wind, but no rain or fog to dampen the birds’ or birders’ spirit. We had a great turnout with 69 field participants including six from Nantucket, a couple from Cape Cod and a couple from the Boston area.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, January 4, 2008
Tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 5 is the Vineyard’s Christmas Bird Count. We hope for good weather, although last Saturday, Dec. 29, Nantucket had lousy weather and a good number of birds still were seen on that Island’s count.
» Full Story By Susan Catling

Friday, December 28, 2007
Hippie, beatnik, bohemian are all words that have been used to describe someone who is different than the norm. Other definitions of the adjective bohemian are wanderer or vagabond. And that is exactly what is occurring in Massachusetts with a particular bird which was given a perfect name: bohemian waxwing.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, December 21, 2007
We climbed off the plane wearing turtlenecks, fleece jackets and hats and were hit by blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the 70s. We were in Savannah, Ga., on our way to participate in St. Catherine’s Island’s 21st Christmas Bird Count.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, December 14, 2007
I guess I will call him lonesome George for want of something better. Last year Gus Ben David got a call from someone at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport saying they had a weird partridge-like bird hanging around. Gus identified the bird as a chukar.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, December 7, 2007
Chappaquiddick has a powerful and stunning visitor from the North. Olsen Houghton and Joel Graves were between the Cape Pogue Gut and Cape Pogue Lighthouse on Dec. 2 and spotted a snowy owl working over the dunes. They were able to videotape the bird and watch it for quite a while.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, November 30, 2007
It is fun to catch up on what has been seen on Island while we were away. I think this is the first time in years a rare bird didn’t show up while we were away. Maybe the jinx is broken.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

Friday, November 23, 2007
I woke up in that daze created by flying for 10 hours and waking up in an unfamiliar bed.

“Leaping lemurs — did you hear that, Flip?’

“Yes, if we weren’t in Madagascar I would swear it was a turkey,” he replied.
» Full Story By Susan B. Whiting

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