Summer visitors are beginning to arrive. I have a few reminders for them and for locals as well. It is important to keep your cats inside. There are several bird species that nest on or very close to the ground on the Island. Ground nests containing young birds are very vulnerable to cat predation. Adults are fair game for cats as well. You say you feed your cat well and therefore they don’t hunt. Not so! Cats have a hunting instinct and no matter how full they are, they will hunt birds. And the bell you put around the cat’s neck does not effectively warn birds of cat strikes. A bit of information from the American Bird Conservancy: “Indoor cats live an average of three to seven times longer than those that are outdoors.”

A bird species that normally visits the Vineyard in the fall surprised Vineyard birders by appearing on Island on May 29. Jenifer Strachan feeds birds at her Waldron’s Bottom home and has a keen ear for bird songs and calls, thanks to her grandfather’s training. On May 29 she was inside and heard a one-note call that she was not familiar with. Slowly she ventured out on her deck and looked around. In an oak tree about 20 feet away a bird was perched, all fluffed up and looking, in Jenifer’s eyes, very confused. Jenifer knew she had not seen this bird before. She was able to return into the house and fetch her binoculars and study all the field marks of the mystery bird. Hitting the field guides and the Internet, she determined the bird in the oak tree was a western kingbird.

The breeding season makes birds do things they wouldn’t normally do.

The birding community welcomes home bird photographer Lanny McDowell! And speaking of the birding community, it is always fun to put 25 birders in one house and listen to the conversations. What follows is a sampler:

• “You heard a whippoorwill. I am envious, I haven’t heard one in years. Remember when you used to bump them off the dirt roads when you drove them at night? The darned feral cats, skunks and raccoons eat their eggs — easy prey as their nests are on the ground.”