There has been a good deal of talk about crows recently, so I thought I would put my oar in. There probably have been fish crows on the Island for several years, but to tell the fish crows from American crows is tough. Recently I met up with Alvaro Jaramillo, who is a bird tour operator and author of books and articles about birds in bird magazines. We were talking about tough ID problems (gulls) and I mentioned the crow problem. He said that he had written a piece recently on the subject in Bird Watcher’s Digest. I immediately dug up that issue and will do my best to summarize what Alvaro had to say, as it was the best comparison I have seen so far.

Adam deBettencourt sent us this e-mail while we were attending the festival in Florida: “I have observed what appears to be a conjunctivitis infection in both a male house finch and male American goldfinch that have been visiting my feeder in Chilmark. Has this been noted elsewhere on the Island? I have done some reading and research on the subject and am wondering if there is anything else I should do besides cleaning my feeders and feeding stations? Is there a risk of this infection being passed to other species that visit my feeder?”

We ran away. The reason was the 15th annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Fla. Now, Flip likes to look for birds, but fishing is his real passion. So when we first heard about this festival 16 years ago, run by a female commercial fishing boat captain, I had no problem convincing Flip to attend.

There has been a collection of 1960s songs going through my head, so when Wendy Weldon called to say she and James Langlois had found a stranded bird, could I come and tell them what it was and what to do with it, my mind snapped and starting playing Jim Dandy to the Rescue.

This is the season not of the witch but the razorbill. They have been seen from every side of the Vineyard and Chappaquiddick. Unlike their cousins the puffins, dovekies, murres, guillemots, murrelets and auklets that remain offshore except to breed, the razorbills will come into harbors, bays and estuaries that are less salty than the ocean to feed. Razorbills will also enjoy a bit of R& R on a breakwater in the sun. The waters around the Vineyard are full of sand lances (sand eels) and still even mackerel, and where there are fish there are razorbills.

The 112th annual Christmas Bird Count has been completed nationwide. The Vineyard started participating in the count years later, so conducted its 52nd annual CBC on Jan. 2.