I called her Eglinor. Her real name was Eleanor Waldron. She died Feb. 22 at her home on Brandy Brow in West Tisbury.

The bell call of the bluejay wakened me. The list of projects to be accomplished ran through my brain.

Up at first light, three Vineyard birders met at Martha’s Vineyard Airport. Flip Harrington, Lanny McDowell and I were bound for Nantucket.

The day after Christmas, Ken Magnuson spotted a Pacific loon off Lobsterville, a rare and exciting find for Island birders.

A small group of veteran Island birders saw and photographed a white-faced storm petrel about 17 miles off the Vineyard over the weekend. The sighting is a record for the Vineyard and cause for great excitement in the birding community.

I was all set to write about the osprey population on the Vineyard but realized that shorebird migration was in full swing.