Dick Jennings works for The Trustees of Reservations on Chappaquiddick. He is their natural history guide there and he seasonally leads tours that introduce people to the extraordinary stretch of coastline that connects Wasque Point at the southeast corner of the Vineyard to the tidal gut that defines the end of the long peninsula arching around Cape Pogue Bay. He has been observing this habitat for years and he is clearly in touch with what goes on there in the natural realm.

Thanksgiving gets people thinking about birds. For most folks it’s about eating one, the one upside down on the dining room table, with side dishes of tradition, heritage, community, family, good friends — all cause enough for gathering and celebration. As a former restaurateur living in West Tisbury is fond of saying about the entirety of life itself, “It’s all about the food.”

Somehow, birds that should not be here sometimes are here. According to the books these birds should be found far away. Then one shows up. The birds, as birders like to comment on occasion, do not read the books.

If you know people who bird along the coast, you know they get excited by the potential of tropical storms. Not just for all the usual reasons, but because terrible weather can be terribly good forbirding. Sometimes.

Nesting terns have for quite awhile been under pressure to find appropriate and safe nesting habitat on the beaches of New England. The coastal waterbird program at Mass Audubon and the Island’s management unit of The Trustees of Reservations both dedicate a lot of manhours and resources to the task of protecting tern colonies over the course of the breeding season, roughly from June until now.

Once the Christmas Bird Count has come and gone, memorable birding experiences can be hard to come by in the dead of winter. What tops the list for me is the avian activity that conveniently takes place right outside my kitchen window at the bird feeders. The number of birds using my feeders this winter is way down. It took me a while to catch on, but the reason eventually became clear. In past years a marauding Cooper’s hawk has been the culprit — sometimes a beautiful adult with blue-gray plumage, and sometimes a brown-backed youngster. Their stealth tactics are worthy of awe and their speed a little frightening.