The news that many a Vineyard and off-Island birder has been waiting for: the Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count will be held on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2014. If you are interested in joining a field team or submitting a bird feeder report, please contact Robert Culbert at [email protected]. Rob will assign you to a team or inform you of the time to report your feeder list and the number to call to do so.

The thought of alerting bird watchers to make sure their bird baths are full on Oct. 31 never crossed my mind. However, I find that with this drought, the birds in my yard and the woods and fields that surround my home are looking hard for sources of water.

Flip Harrington and I had our first yellow-rumped warbler and white-crowned sparrow in our Quenames bird bath on Oct. 19. The holly trees behind the bath provided shelter and probably insects for our first ruby-crowned kinglet.

The change of light in the fall is my cue to put up my feeders. I can remember the first of many feeders I have had over the years. It was a big pine cone stuffed with a mix of bacon fat, peanut butter and oatmeal.

Birding on the Vineyard and elsewhere has changed immensely with the invention of the cell phone and iPad. A good example occurred Oct. 5 in the late morning when Lanny McDowell, Pete Gilmore and Ken Magnuson spotted three Caspian terns on South Beach from the west side of Chilmark Pond.

A warbler seen in the Phillips Preserve and a thrush spotted in the Gay Head Moraine are members of groups of birds I have always had trouble disti