As I write this, we are forecast to experience tropical storm Isaias sometime from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning. I am amazed that we are already up to the letter I for named storms; remember back in 1991 when we thought that Hurricane Bob – the second named storm of the season – was an early hurricane for New England?
Looking on the bright side, if there is such a thing, this is an opportunity for us to find southern species carried northward by the storm as it moves up the Atlantic Coast. We do not know what might come our way, but you can bet that we will be out looking for them after the storm passes. Fortunately, the birds have excellent internal G.P.S. systems and generally find their way back south after the storm.
Bird Sightings
Migration is flying right along as the shorebirds are moving southward. We have a good showing of sandpipers and plovers, although there are no new species this week. The list of shorebirds that David Benvent found on the Tisbury Great Pond tidal flats on July 31 is typical: four American oystercatchers, 10 black-bellied plovers, 10 semipalmated plovers, one piping plover, two killdeer, one whimbrel, four ruddy turnstones, five sanderling, seven least sandpiper, 35 semipalmated sandpipers, seven spotted sandpipers, three greater yellowlegs, nine willets, four lesser yellowlegs, 12 laughing gulls, seven ring-billed gulls, 65 herring gulls, 25 great black-backed gulls, 40 least terns, 25 common terns, and one northern rough-winged swallow. He also spotted eight short-billed dowitchers at Black Point Pond on July 30.
On July 27, Jeff Peters spotted two red knots at Black Point Pond. Lanny McDowell spotted a black tern flying overhead as he was driving along State Beach on August 1, and Stephan Carlson saw a willet with one chick in the marsh at the southern end of State Beach on July 31.
Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary has been a busy place. Casey Dobel spotted a brood of downy mallard ducklings on August 2, the fifth brood there so far this season. David Padulo spotted a juvenile black-crowned night-heron, a spotted sandpiper in breeding plumage with the namesake spots on its chest, three killdeer and one greater yellowlegs on August 1. Kaushal Patel spotted the mallard brood, two juvenile black-crowned night-herons, two killdeer and five chimney swifts. She also visited Trapp’s Pond on August 2, where she found a common eider, chimney swifts and both great and snowy egrets.
In other waterbird news, Dennis and Doreen McCabe spotted a common loon off Lobsterville on August 1, which was also spotted by David Benvent. And also on August 1, Robert Gold reports there were six laughing gulls at Wasque Reservation.
Songbirds are also in the news. Dennis and Doreen McCabe have both Carolina and house wrens visiting their yard. A busy David Benvent spotted a house wren on Middle Road Sanctuary on July 29; other species of note he has observed include four species of warblers at Great Rock Bight: ovenbird, black-and-white, American redstart and yellow.
Speaking of yellow, he also spotted both a yellow-billed cuckoo and a brown thrasher along Waldrons Bottom Road. Morgan Hodgson spotted a yellow warbler near Lobsterville on July 31. And Philip Edmundson found a black-billed cuckoo, eastern wood-pewee and red-eyed vireos on August 2 near the southern end of Watcha Pond. At Katama on August 2, Hans Goeckel found chipping sparrow, American goldfinch, barn swallow and brown-headed cowbird. Mickey Carpa spotted an eastern kingbird at Lucy Vincent on August 1.
Raptors have also been spotted. Two people – Laura Hilliard and Sarah Kuh – have fledgling Cooper’s hawks regularly visiting their yards. And screech owls have been calling at Susan Straight’s in Chilmark and Will Turner reports one calling along Buttonwood Farm Road.
Robert Culbert is an ecological consultant with Nature Watch LLC living in Vineyard Haven.
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