There are times when I receive a bird sighting from individuals that I morph into a person resembling a detective. I proceed to grill the bird-watcher in a similar fashion to an investigator questioning a perpetrator of a suspected crime. So how do you think I felt when I heard that Tim Rich, the past chief of police of Chilmark, had reported an immature red-headed woodpecker at his Chilmark feeder?

Belted kingfishers are found throughout North America; as a matter of fact they are considered one of the most widespread land birds in same. They are not considered year-round residents on the Island, but if the winter is mild and there is open water, belted kingfishers can be seen on the Vineyard all year long. Small numbers of belted kingfishers breed on the Vineyard. We are pretty sure that these breeding birds do not remain year-round, but migrate south to areas in Central and northern South America. However those kingfishers that breed north of the Vineyard come to spend the winters on-Island.

The occurrence of a late hummingbird on the Vineyard is always exciting.

Every birder has a nemesis bird, a bird so frustrating you might consider tearing your hair out. Allan Keith’s nemesis bird on Martha’s Vineyard was a yellow-headed blackbird. Allan can now relax; he saw the yellow-headed blackbird at the Maxner home on Oct. 20 thanks to Joyce Thigpen, Matt Pelikan and yours truly.

Once a boy met girl. They bought a sailboat and used it to do marine mammal, bird and lizard research between Maine and the Lesser Antilles.

Peter Brannen’s article on the State of Birds in the Gazette two weeks ago was interesting and included excerpts from the information gathered over the last 40 years by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, Manomet Bird Observatory and the Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife Department. Vineyard birders can relate to these findings, but there are significant differences between conditions on the Island and even southeastern Massachusetts.