It is really starting to feel a bit more like winter. It is the arrival of our winter resident waterfowl that confirms the seasonal shift.

It is 6 a.m. There isn’t a breath of air. The sun is barely peeking over the wood line at edge of the field.

Crows are supposedly year-round residents in most of their range, but we have crows that migrate to Martha’s Vineyard for the winter.

Most of the spotted sandpipers are now well south of the Vineyard, as their migration peaks in August and September.

We saw these species last winter or last spring, so they are not new sightings for the year.

If you think sandpipers and sparrows are difficult to identify, you have not tried hummingbirds.