March 20, 2010
Winter does not want to leave, regardless, spring has slowly "walked through the door" officially arriving on the calendar today. Despite the brutal northeaster of last week, the earth's annual rotation around the sun is proceeding right on schedule and summer is rapidly approaching. The days are getting longer and warmer and many birds, including that large and conspicuous harbinger of spring on the Cape and Islands — namely ospreys — are on their way back to our region for another breeding season.
This first column of the spring arrives just as the weather has changed to beautiful spring-like conditions. As this is being read, ospreys are arriving back at last year's successful nest sites. There is little to compare to one's first certain view of an osprey each year. Fortunate observers might see a migrant osprey dropping down from a great height and arriving back on the Cape and Islands at the moment of its return. The sight of one of these large, black and white beauties, dropping out of the sky from a high altitude, is breathtaking.
The return of ospreys in March shows the great interest and perhaps good fortune associated with one's first look at these impressive birds by hundreds of people. There is something awe-inspiring, some primitive satisfying feeling akin to deep meditation or the feeling of well-being after intense physical exercise, that lodges somewhere, somehow, in the recesses of the ancestral human mind.
In other words, it feels good-to see that first osprey of the spring.
Still, the birds that are here are just a fraction of the birds that are headed this way. The birds continue to steadily arrive, from now right through April 15. Keep an eye on a nest site near you and watch the action as last year's returning birds vie with newcomers for breeding rights.
While out looking for or at ospreys, it will be hard not to notice the increased level of land bird activity as well as the noise from all the bird calls and song. Roving flocks of blackbirds, some numbering well over a hundred birds, can be heard and seen as they visit the Vineyard briefly on their way further north. While listening to the creaky, rusty hinge sound emanating from the grackles, red-winged blackbirds and brown-headed cowbirds that comprise the mixed blackbird flocks, it is almost impossible not to hear singing northern cardinals and song sparrows.
The season progresses rapidly now, the pace accelerating in the annual "land grab" that birds instinctively follow to ensure their ability to reproduce their respective species. The males secure a territory, the females inspect the territory and male and decide which best suits their needs in order to build a nest, incubate eggs, brood and feed chicks and fledge young. All this must be achieved in the limited time available.
A few pine warblers have been heard singing. These birds probably spent the winter — they will soon be joined by returning migrants. The migrant pine warblers are still a couple of weeks out. This species nest in mature pitch pines in this area.
The northeaster of last week and persistent easterly winds has been putting a damper on migration but hardly stopping it. Large numbers of both common and red-throated loons are on the move both in Vineyard Sound and along the south and east shores of the Cape. A steady stream of these "funny looking" birds in flight can be seen moving easterly virtually every morning at first light. Large numbers of sea ducks are also on the move.
The abundance of bird life flying about over the near shore waters is impressive. Northern gannets, football-sized razorbills, several species of gulls and all kinds of waterfowl are engaged in migration. Many of the ducks are also performing courtship displays. To the human observer most of these displays provide a large dose of comic relief.
On the beaches, the prettiest bird on the beach, the toucan of the Cape and Islands if you will, the American oystercatchers are returning daily. The beach still has a winter feel to it: it is cold, the vegetation is brown and all is dull, which all make the impact of that first flaming orange-beaked oystercatcher all the more striking. Piping plovers, a few individuals of which are probably here as well but have yet to be reported, will be making a push to the region shortly. The majority of Cape and Islands nesting plovers will be appearing within the next two weeks.
Until next week, keep your eyes to the sky!
E. Vernon Laux's birding column appears every Saturday in the Cape Cod Times. Laux is the resident naturalist for the Linda Loring Nature Foundation on Nantucket. You can also hear him on "The Point" with Mindy Todd at 9:30 a.m. the first Monday of the month on the Cape's NPR station, WCAI, 90.1. He can be reached at
vlaux@llnf.org.
