BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
My notes tell me I saw this bird on Nantucket in 1956. That would be my ‘life’ bird. The first time you see a species it goes on your ‘life’ list. I really can’t remember the instance. Sad to say 50 years later not everything has made a lasting impression, although this bird certainly should have. I hope young people nowadays are keeping better records than I did. It’s hard to explain, but 50 years from now they might care.

Evening Grosbeak

I certainly remember its call, a brittle ‘cleep-cleep’ high in the air. In the late ’70s I heard this same call high in the air over Sandy Springs, Georgia, and knew immediately Evening Grosbeaks were visiting. Last spring in Stowe, Vermont — same thing. I finally tracked the bird down visiting a backyard feeder.

This is an amazing and fascinating bird, one that has visited Nantucket by the hundreds — cleaned out people’s bird feeders and destroyed their sunflower seed budget as recently as 20 years ago. Now — where are they? Back to their original haunts?

I plan my columns a year in advance and late in 2005 it seemed likely that this might be the year Evening Grosbeaks would return. Do any of you remember ever seeing one? Chances are that if you were lucky enough, the memory would stick in your mind.

These are chunky yellow and black birds, between a sparrow and robin in size — chunky. They were not known to science until 1825 when a specimen arrived on William C. Cooper’s desk in New York. Cooper was one of the founders of the New York Lyceum of Natural History and subsequently had a very ferocious hawk named for him that we often see on Nantucket.

A Chippewa Indian had shot this bird with bow and arrow near Sault Ste. Marie in northern Michigan two years before. The Indians knew the bird well, calling it ‘Pashcundamo,’ referring to its heavy seed-crushing beak. Major Joseph Delafield who was surveying our northern boundaries in that era, took excellent notes about this bird and was responsible for its fascinating name, Hesperiphona vespertina. This goes romantically back to the Greek Hesperides, the daughters of the night who dwelt on the western edge of the world.

This whole genus later disappeared when scientists decided that our Evening Grosbeaks were actually closely related to the Eurasian Hawfinch, so now they are Coccothraustes vespertinus, the first name meaning ‘seed cracker’ but the second, still connecting the bird to the evening.

Turns out the whole thing is a misnomer anyway. Delafield was confused. These grosbeaks turn out to be morning birds, very sedentary and seldom seen after noon. But the romantic name continues, and birdwatchers who like jokes say things like, “Morning (sic) Dove, Evening Grosbeak, and Night-Heron.”

If you are younger than 20, you probably have never seen this bird on Nantucket. It is an irruptive species. Its movements depend on success or failure of certain tree seed crops. Evening Grosbeaks’ absolute favorite food is the seed of the box elder, a species of maple that was widely planted in the early twentieth century. But due to their heavy, seed-crunching bill, most any seed will do and none are too tough.

They go through cycles when they are here and when they are not. Griscom and Folger note the first in 1933/’34. Our Christmas Bird Count data provide invaluable insights into this behavior. We can see incursions from 1956 to 1960, then 1964 to ’66. None in 1967 but again in ’68 to ’72, and finally in ’75 to ’85. The high count was 175 in 1977. You can see five of them in the Edith Andrews bird collection at Maria Mitchell’s Hinchman House.

These are really striking birds to see, very different sexually. The males glow with mustard yellow below shading to dark gray-brown on the head with a yellow stripe above the eye and around the front of the head. Wings and tail are black except for a brilliant white wing patch. Mrs. Grosbeak is light gray all over except for wings that are similar to the male’s. On both sexes, it is difficult to ignore the large whitish beak.

So why are these flashy birds now missing from our winter landscape? An obvious reason might be the global warming trend that is allowing them to stay farther north. Another might be broad-ranging changes in forestry practices in Canada. But perhaps this 140-year excursion to the east from their original range has just been another of nature’s experiments.

You, as a citizen-scientist, can help us understand this and other phenomena by participating in the Christmas Bird Count here on Nantucket this December 30. Another opportunity is Project Feederwatch. You can learn about that at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/index.html. This is a data collection effort by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Today’s computerized society provides us with tools to help us visualize what’s happening with

Evening Grosbeaks and other interesting species. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy ‘social’ birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228- 1693 for more information.

To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast.net.