BIRDS  OF  NANTUCKET
A SOUND FROM THE DEEP SUMMER WOODS
BY KENNETH TURNER BLACKSHAW
The whistled call caresses your ear and any tension you feel just evaporates from your

The Eastern Wood-Pewee Contopus virens

body. This is such a relaxing and reassuring sound. Most birders are content to just stop and listen for a moment, glad to be hearing it one more season.

The call is a high whistled - "Peeeee - ah - weeeee" - with the last syllable rising. Then there often follows - "Peeeee - ahhhhh" - the last syllable falling. This song is sung slowly, repeated several times a minute throughout the day.

Its sound alone makes it enjoyable, but another reason this call is such a treat on Nantucket is that we have to wait for it. Long after most of our other nesting birds have arrived, established territory, courted, nested and even fledged their young, this species is still leisurely making its way up the East Coast towards us.

Our bird this week is the Eastern Wood-Pewee, a member of the Tyrant Flycatcher family. These are known as "tyrants" because of the aggressive way in which they defend their nesting territories. Pewees are a sub-group of nine species, including one with the oxymoronic-sounding name "Greater Pewee." They are, however, named for their calls, not their size.

The Latin name, Contopus virens, means "shortfooted" and green, and tells us that Linnaeus, the 18th-century Swedish scientist who named the bird, had only a dead specimen from which to work. Even the slightest experience with a live pewee would have allowed him to come up with something more meaningful.

So what of this echoing voice from the forest? The singer is a sparrow-sized bird, olive green above and grayish below. There are two white wingbars. You might confuse it with the Eastern Phoebe except for the bars on the wing and the fact that it lacks the tail twitch of that other flycatcher. Only they can tell the boys from the girls. When you see one it is normally perched in a commanding location from which it can sally forth to catch insects in flight.

Eastern Wood-pewees nest from northern Florida into southern Canada. Though the pewees out West have been split into their own species, you must hear their call to be sure, but finding their nest - that is the challenge. The nest is a shallow affair on a horizontal limb, typically 20 feet up, trimmed with the same lichen that surrounds it so it looks like another knob on the tree. The three eggs hatch in about two weeks and in about the same period the young are ready to fly. Their "short" feet are apparently quite strong because attempts to remove them from the nest for study result in their grasping the nest and bringing it along with them.

This species was first found nesting on Nantucket back in 1949. I remember hearing the song almost constantly when I built forts and tree houses in the State Forest back in the '50s. The birds seem scarcer in 2006, only being reported in the hardwood forests near Squam Swamp.

Perhaps this is indicative of a greater trend. The data from breeding bird censuses over the last decades of the 20th century show a 35-percent decline in this species. Scientists suggest this is due to habitat loss both in North America and on their wintering grounds in Central and South America. It's also suggested that the increasing White-tailed Deer population may be a factor. The over-browsing of forest undergrowth by these creatures is removing habitat where the insects these birds need to live have been hiding.

The across-the-board reduction in the level of insectivorous birds like the Eastern Woodpewee is worrisome. These are our natural controls for those beasties that buzz in our ear and bite at our scalp. With them gone it means people will call for more pesticide use. There are many species in trouble at the top of the food chain and the poisons we are placing in the environment may be the cause.

Now is the time to listen for the haunting "Peeee - ah - weee" calls in Nantucket's woodlands. Squam Swamp is a great place to hear them and also their relatives, the Great Crested Flycatchers.

When fall migration gets going in September and October, this bird becomes more common here but silent. My first introduction was in the pitch pine groves at the west end of the island where they congregate, perching on fence wires and sailing out to catch insects. The sound of their tiny bills snapping as they pursue insects through the air is exciting to hear. These little flycatchers, many only a couple of months old, are stoking up for a 3,000 mile trip, down past Mexico into Central and South America.

With a diet that is 99 percent insects they are wonderful to have around. By the end of October, they, and the insects, will be gone. Then you'll have to wait until their calls once again echo again from the deep summer woods in June.

Ken Blackshaw is the author of the "A Year of Birding Nantucket" series. Volume Two is currently available at island bookstores and gift shops.

Illustration by George C. West.

The Maria Mitchell Association sponsors "birdwalks" on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30 a.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m., starting from the Hinchman House at the corner of Vestal and Milk streets. There is a fee.

To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 888-224- 6444, option 4.

Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy@copper.net.

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