The merlins that nested on Chappaquiddick have fledged three chicks. Lanny McDowell, Bob Shriber and I were invited by the owners of the house next to these falcons to come and photograph the hatchlings before they flew. Lanny took some great photos as usual, and we thank the owners for their hospitality and excellent observations. This is the second documented nesting of merlins in Massachusetts, the first being in the same area two years ago.

Bird Sightings

Greater shearwaters are a pelagic species of bird. They spend a very small percentage of their life on land. The short time they are on terra firma is to nest and they do not do so anywhere near Martha’s Vineyard. Greater shearwaters choose to rear their young in colonies on islands in the South Atlantic many miles offshore and well south of the Vineyard.

There are three species of birds that have stirred bird-watchers’ interest this week: black skimmers, merlins and a barred owl. Two of these species have tried nesting on the Island although the Vineyard is out of the normal breeding range for both. One was successful, the other not. One has been reported on the Island only three times before, in 1918, 1929 and 1948.

How can we help birds in this intense heat? The most important way is to provide water for them. I find I fill my bird bath several times a day during hot days.

Bird watchers the world over experience the frustration of “the one that got away.” It isn’t that we don’t spot the bird, it is that we did not see enough of it or have the bird in sight long enough to make a final call (identify it).

What a thrill to see and hear grasshopper sparrows on the Vineyard for the first time in about 10 years! Twenty years ago I could see and hear grasshopper sparrows in the fields around our Chilmark farm house at Quenames no longer. Maybe I will be lucky enough to have them back again, as the birds we recently saw were in a neighboring field at Quansoo Farm. We saw three birds. Hopefully they were three males whose mates were sitting on their round, throne-like nests. Built at the base of clumps of grass, the grasshopper sparrow nest cup is upright with a canopy of grasses domed over the top. The results are a nest that is well camouflaged. However, one worries that as ground nesters they could easily be preyed upon by skunks, raccoons and feral cats.