A few weeks ago in this column I wrote that other than by contributing photos, I had not ever reported an unusual bird sighting to the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee, the authority for such matters in our state.

It is not proper for birders, naturalists or any type of scientist to anthropomorphize: a 50-cent word that means giving a human personality to something that is not human. It’s often hard to avoid this, but the most difficult test for me is the Carolina wren.

Gay Head or Aquinnah has the Vineyard birders enraptured watching the movement of large numbers of raptors in the last two weeks. To steal the words of Pete Dunne, David Sibley and Clay Sutton from their book Hawks in Flight, bird watchers in Gay Head observed a collection of wind masters (buteos), artful dodgers (accipters), fish hawks (osprey), great foolers (northern harriers), falcons, and big black birds (eagles and vultures) passing over the Vineyard on their way to points south.

A Maine naturalist named Norm Famous, whom I mentioned in this past week’s column, recently sent me another e-mail about birds. This one contained a report from a researcher named Ron Pittaway up in Ontario, who issues an annual prediction for what various species of North American finches and some other non-finch species will be doing this coming winter.

Following are some much-edited excerpts from this forecast concerning northern species for the winter of 2007-2008:

About three weeks ago I received an e-mail inquiry from a Maine naturalist named Norm Famous, whom I met through a mutual friend when I was birding this last Spring up in Lubec, Me., just this side of the New Brunswick border.