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Birds : October arrives

By E. Vernon Laux
Published: October 1, 2009

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Early October is as good as it gets. This is a fantastic time of year for birding. There are birds everywhere, as everything comes together in a perfect synergy of weather, birds, fish, and shortening photoperiod to create the absolute perfect time of year. From common to rare, big to tiny, birds are on the move.
peregrine falcon, Martha's VineyardThis immature peregrine falcon rocketed around a field last week, making dives or stoops at killdeer, semi-palmated plover, black-bellied plovers, and American golden plovers without getting very close to any of them. Photo by E. Vernon Laux

Mixed in with the more common species are some bona fide rarities. Sorting through all the common birds to get to the rare birds is a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. At this time of year, the Vineyard is one of the finest birding locations in New England. Many "weekend warriors" come from the mainland to bird this under-birded Island.
 :falcon:
Peregrine falcons are on the move and almost a daily sight. These tremendously strong flyers can and do go wherever they want, whenever they want. The majority of the falcons passing by are birds that nest in northern Canada, Baffin Island, or Greenland. The Latin name of these birds is Falco peregrinus, which essentially means wandering falcon. They are found on every continent except Antarctica and on many remote and distant offshore islands.

They are capable of capturing and eating almost any bird. I have seen these birds, 300 miles from land, just coasting along a few hundred feet in the air, reaching down and taking bites out of some bird they took on the wing. Superbly adapted to their particular lifestyle, they don't need to land to eat or rest, and they fly with the greatest of ease.

The peregrines that pass by are mostly heading to southern South America. It seems the further north they nest; the further south they go to spend the winter. Other peregrine falcons that nest in Massachusetts may overwinter along the state's coast or move farther south.

This reminds me of Quest... :crying:
Unless one has been rigged up with a satellite transmitter, it is impossible to say what an individual bird will do. What is certain is that this species can and does do almost anything in terms of migration. This species, with its many subspecies, is clearly the most successful raptor on the entire planet. The osprey also has a worldwide distribution and is very successful, as well.

The Island has been jumping with lots of reports from lots of birders. Rather than list the birds, suffice it to say that the birding has been terrific and a wide variety of species has been seen. The mix is shifting away from insectivorous flycatchers, warblers, vireos and the like to more seed-eating (finches and sparrows) and frugivores types of birds. Robins, cedar waxwings, blackbird, raptors, sea ducks, and sparrows are increasing in numbers and many of these birds are now arriving to spend the winter here.



The appearance of large numbers of yellow-rumped warblers, the last of the warblers to appear in migration and a common overwintering species, signals the end of the warbler migration. Impressive numbers, hundreds of these birds, were visibly on the move over this past weekend. With so many yellow-rumps around, it essentially swamps the observer, making it difficult to find anything else.

The waters surrounding the Island are getting crowded with bird life. Migrating loons, grebes, a wide variety of ducks, northern gannets, and many species of gulls are enjoying the bounty of seafood present. With the gales of November just around the corner, not to mention the 40 mph winds on Friday morning, and decreasing water temperatures, small fish are slowing down and big fish and birds are there to eat them.

Over the next month, the waters continue to get increasingly productive for birds, while the land birding gets less interesting. Still, the next few weeks are inordinately good for rare birds. Vagrant flycatchers always come to this writer's mind as the calendar ticks into October. More typical, almost expected rarities like the western kingbird should appear, and the chances for an ash-throated flycatcher or some long-tailed tropical-looking beauty like a scissor-tailed flycatcher or fork-tailed flycatcher from South America are very real.

Blackbirds and sparrows are abundant right now. Several huge flocks of mixed blackbirds, comprised primarily of common grackles with smaller numbers of red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, and brown-headed cowbirds are roaming the Island. They can show up anywhere and one big flock has been daily visiting the woods on Lambert's Cove Road both in Tisbury and West Tisbury. Should they descend on your yard you can count on your feeders being quickly emptied.

Until next time - keep your eyes to the sky. :foxbinocs:

Person of the Week: Vernon Laux
Bird Watcher Vernon Laux Makes Rare Find
By Peter Jennings
Aug. 27, 2004

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The 50 million birders of America have a lot to thank Vernon Laux for. Some of them are probably pretty jealous.

"The red-footed falcon was not on anybody's radar screen," Laux said. "There had never been one seen before in either North or South America. This is the first one for the hemisphere. It was just like a mind-blowing experience to say, 'Oh my God, it is a red-footed falcon.' "

A few weeks ago, Laux, who lives on the island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, was out with friends looking at birds, when he spotted one he didn't recognize.

He took a picture and sent it to some experts. Lo and behold, Laux had seen a red-footed falcon.

"We were celebrating, eating steak tips, smoking cigars, it was really fun," Laux said. "This really is a once-in-a-lifetime deal to find a bird like this, so don't expect to happen again."

It was a very big deal because red-footed falcons usually migrate between the grasslands of Africa and Eastern Europe. The bird, who was only 13 months old, was really off course.

"A red-footed falcon!" said Laux. "It's like a Martian walking around among us here and it's so out of the box."

As soon as word got out, thousands of birders from around the country flocked to Martha's Vineyard to see for themselves.

"Somebody asked me what's so great about this. So I said, 'You know, falcons are sexy, raptors are great,' and I said, 'This ain't no stinkin' sparrow or flycatcher. This is an honest-to-God beautiful falcon!'"

Pretty soon the falcon had a nickname: "Red Sox."

Migration Theories

But how did he get here? There are a lot of theories.

Red Sox was most likely hatched in Ukraine and then migrated via Israel — where they are seen quite often — to southern Africa, most likely around Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It's a bit like going south for the winter.

When the weather changed, most of the red-footed falcons headed back to Ukraine, where they would mate and start the process all over again. But that was not the case for Red Sox: There was an outbreak of locusts in western Africa this year.

The falcons love locusts and Red Sox was distracted. After that he likely got caught up in the dust storms over the Sahara Desert, which left him disoriented. He was pushed out to sea as a result. When he began to look for land, he went west instead of east.

The guy is hardly a year old and he's been to four continents. No wonder people love birding.

"Just to get away from the cars and malls and do something different, like, 'Let's go to a beach and look for shore birds,'" Laux said. "People do want to connect with nature, especially people who live in urban areas."

Love at First Sight

Laux, 50, is a real estate agent when he's not looking at birds. When he was a boy he saw a cedar waxwing. Pretty soon, he was the only birder on the football team.

"I was a defensive tackle and I remember I had to get into a fight when I was a sophomore with some of the seniors because they didn't like it that I watched birds," he said.

Today he writes articles about birds. He recently wrote a book, and he will go almost anywhere to see a bird he hasn't seen before.

At the beginning of this week, Laux had a feeling that Red Sox was beginning to look antsy. On Tuesday, the bird left Martha's Vineyard.

The theory is that Red Sox will be headed south. He certainly made the biggest impression on Martha's Vineyard since Bill Clinton vacationed there.

"This bird sort of took people out of themselves," Laux said. "It was like a shooting star, a celestial event and it really, I was amazed how it just grew. The bird turned into a star, it was amazing."  :clap: