Bert Fischer had a spectacular avian experience on May 29. He was returning on his tractor from doing work in the field when he spotted a kettle of hawks flying overhead. A kettle of hawks is a basically a flock of hawks enjoying a thermal and circling in the sky. Bert didn’t recognize the hawks, so he drove home and ran and grabbed his camera and took two quick shots.

A rare Wilson’s plover arrived on-Island May 18. It was discovered by Liz Baldwin and Luanne Johnson, the team from Biodiversity Works that is monitoring piping plovers and American oystercatchers on many of the Island beaches. They spotted the Wilson’s plover at Squibnocket and found it was keeping the company of a piping plover. Turns out the Wilson’s plover is a female and the piping plover a male; ah the odd couple!

The Felix Neck Bird-a-thon was a success! There were four teams; Suzan Bellincampi and the Felix Neck staff, Al Sgroi and crew, Lanny McDowell and Pete Gilmore, and Rob Culbert. Sally Williams tended her feeder and Richard Greene added whip-poor-will and American woodcock from his West Tisbury property. The combined effort resulted in 124 species of birds seen from Friday night to Saturday night.

Suzan Bellincampi wants to thank everyone who participated in the field and those who donated money to Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary.

‘Tis spring migration and time for the annual Bird-a-thon. What is a Bird-a-thon? It is a fundraiser for Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary that is fun and educational. This year is special as the monies will go to raising funds for Felix Neck’s Coastal Waterbird Program. The chain of events goes thusly: contact friends and businesses and ask them to pledge a certain amount per bird or a flat rate donation. Then go out birding with friends between 6 p.m. tonight, May 11 and 5:59 p.m. tomorrow, May 12. Submit your list of birds to Felix Neck and collect the money that you received pledges for, or you can pledge through firstgiving.com/fundraiser/suzan-bellincampi/bird-a-thon-2012.

One would think the birds that return from their winter haunts in the south are mimicking our summer residents. One group of bird species arrives and immediately checks out last year’s nest, tidies it up, and proceeds to start a new family. This group is similar to our summer human residents who own a home here. Another flight of birds returns to the Island and looks for a fresh nest site and proceeds to build a new nest. These are akin to summer renters who often have to find a new house each season. And finally there is the bird species that drop in to visit the Island briefly and then fly north. These birds migrate through the Vineyard on their way to nesting areas elsewhere, mirroring the ways of the day trippers.

The Vineyard experienced a mini fallout last week. We are not talking nuclear, but bird! If there is a strong wind that comes from the southwest in the spring, birds coming up from the southern U.S. and Central and South America are carried on their way north at a good clip. Then if the wind comes around from the north, the birds basically hit a wall and stop. If the migrating birds are over the Island at that time they fall out onto same. The indigo bunting is the bird species that fell out in the largest number on the Island, scattering patches of electric blue from Chappaquiddick to Aquinnah!