by Lanny McDowell on October 20, 2010
This is prime season for peregrines to move through Martha’s Vineyard. One guy up at the Gay Head Cliffs at Aquinnah saw eighteen the other day, with four visible at one time. Right place at the right time.
Sometimes the falcons exert what seems from my vantage point like a lot of energy acquiring a meal, like chasing down a Sanderling, maneuvering one out over open water and cutting off its climb for height or an escape back to the flock. Recently I have been noticing, instead, some almost casual chases. [click to continue...]
by Lanny McDowell on September 11, 2010
This was a sweet surprise for six of us this morning, up at the Gay Head Cliffs. We observed this guy for almost an hour. It was a lifer too for some in our group, a bonus prize and surely unanticipated, just the way it ought to be.
I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog. There are also more frequent times when I just send out photos to that list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve. Not on the list? Want to be? Just contact me saying you want to be on the list . Also, please subscribe to this blog using the Feedburner sign up field above – it’s really easy - in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email. Getting off the list is just as simple.
These images and Lanny McDowell Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.
by Lanny McDowell on August 8, 2010
The TTOR shorebird techs had been waiting to see what would hatch from under the Black Skimmer pair out at Norton Point at Katama Bay inside the southeast corner of Martha’s Vineyard. The birds had laid one egg, annexed two Least Tern eggs into their nest and laid a second of their own. According to observers, one or two of the tern eggs hatched but did not make it for long. One of the skimmer eggs hatched into a healthy chick, which we saw today. We were told a second pair had arrived and laid eggs – it turned out to be three of them. Four of us, including Martin, the Swedish Phd candidate taking a three week intensive on molecular biology over in Woods Hole at the Marine Biology Lab, then discovered a third pair of skimmers in residence. All very exciting. The skimmers are incredible on the wing!
The beginning:
Three adults are a little tight, but not so bad:
The casual ease of flight:
Albatross wannabe:
This is for the guys who went out with me today:
Best shot – a trio of grace on the wing:
Birds are cool! Lanny
These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.
I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog. There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve. Not on the list? Want to be? Just contact me saying you want to be on the list or, better yet, subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email. Getting off the list is just as simple.
by Lanny McDowell on January 4, 2010
They were also the first in quite a while on Martha’s Vineyard. They sort of had to be the first of the year, since it was the first of the year, about ten thirty in the morning.
The checklist for the Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count, which takes place tomorrow, on January fifth, due to a weather delay, says the CBC has recorded one Tundra Swan since 1999. Soo Whiting’s book, Vineyard Birds II, says tundras were seen more frequently and more regularly on CBCs up until ‘92 and then, for the most part, not seen after that. She writes, “Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are the two best places in Massachusetts where an observer might expect to see this rare visitor.” It’s only a guess, but I would be quite surprised if [click to continue...]
