During the past month, it seems as though raging winds have never been more than a few days off. While intense weather, usually in the form of a powerful low pressure system with big winds and lots of precipitation (a three-day-long event called a Nor’easter), is almost a certainty on the Cape and Islands, it can be too much! The storms are disruptive and often damaging to pelagic birds, driving them toward and onto land – but they are an expected, predictable and ongoing experience that bird life has evolved to deal with.
The aforementioned being a roundabout way of saying that Nor’easters shake things up, especially during November. It historically has been the best time to see “wrecks” of birds in the Family called Alcidae (alcids). These include razorbills, thick-billed and common murres, puffins and the tiny dovekie (or pine knot as they were called by old Cape Codders) that would periodically appear after fearsome November Nor’easters in ponds, yards and fields. Once ashore these cute little black and white birds resembling a miniature penguin are quite helpless and incapable of taking flight.
Should you, during a nasty Nor’easter in the coming weeks, encounter one of these magical little birds, pick it up and transport it to the nearest saltwater. Take a look around to make sure there are no great black-backed or herring gulls nearby watching for an easy snack of a tired alcid, and put the bird in the water. It will be very thirsty – they drink saltwater. And it will be very excited at the prospect of getting back to where all its needs are met - the ocean. It will look around and then plop underwater, where they propel themselves with their wings, flying at great speed. This family of birds can fly in the air and through the water.
Northern gannets – large seabirds that plunge-dive headlong into the ocean to feed – have been widespread in impressive numbers along our local ocean shorelines. All sorts of pelagic (ocean loving) seabirds are being seen, and when the current storm blows itself out Saturday night the birding may be off the charts on Sunday morning. Shearwaters, alcids, jaegers, phalaropes and many gull species are just some of what might be encountered. More on this next week!
Harlequin ducks – small, beautiful ducks that many observers claim are the most spectacular ducks in the world – are reliably found in the same locations, year after year. These high-surf, rock-loving ducks are hardy in the extreme. On one recent Martha’s Vineyard Christmas Bird Count, some 300 individuals were counted, making the south side of the Vineyard from Lucy Vincent Beach in Chilmark to the Gay Head Cliffs in Aquinnah the best locale in the U.S. to find these attractive and fun to watch ducks. They are very active and when feeding are underwater a lot more than they are above it.
