Bird News
Gus Ben David, Dick Jennings and Rob Bierregaard and a crew of volunteers have been erecting osprey poles for many a year.
Oh, good grief. It is an Empidonax flycatcher. They all look the same, they are not very bright — drab greenish, as one bird field guide suggests. They all have whitish wing bars during nesting season and they all boast eyerings.
’Tis the time of year young birds are fledging from nests Islandwide. I have taken a section from the Massachusetts Audubon Society Newsletter to answer the many questions I have been asked recently. It is headlined, If You Care, Leave Them There:
Are they back?
Coming home to the Vineyard’s common birds is always a pleasure. “Our” black-capped chickadee with an unusual white blaze is back on the shelf feeder. The red-headed woodpecker looks very uncomfortable as it balances on the Droll Yankee tube feeder extracting seed. The white-breasted nuthatch is working upside down on the sycamore maple headed for the suet cage. The regulars are around the feeders.
It was twilight as the deck crew dropped the lines onto the wharf at Tauranga, New Zealand. We had stowed our bags in our cabins, cleared customs and had a lifeboat drill. The 46 bird-watching passengers were chomping at the bit, anxious to get out on deck to see what birds were about. The only species we saw with the fading light were pied shag (cormorant) and white-fronted terns. On the other hand, we were delighted to watch a full moon rise out of the sea and beam a path over the waters.