Vocalizations are starting up on land and although it may not feel like it, spring is almost here.

There is a reason why many birds migrate south for the winter! Food can be scarce.

The annual Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count was held on Saturday, Jan. 4.

The vegetation on Martha’s Vineyard has changed dramatically over time, yet it has also shown remarkable consistency. How can both of these statements be true?

Hummingbirds are surprisingly abundant for mid September. A request for information sent out yesterday generated 19 responses, 14 of which still had either females or immatures at their feeders on Sept. 16. Wow! I did not expect that many responses. Charlie Kernick was the only one to report that a male was still present, so the males have apparently left already. The other five responses had observed hummers either last week or over the weekend. Thanks to all the respondents; there are too many names to list them all.

Abundance is a difficult thing to judge. Changes to the abundance of a particular species are relative to our perception of its abundance when we first observe the species. Our first observations become our baseline against which we measure changes in our natural world. Is this appropriate? Consider horseshoe crabs.