




Recently I had back to back "visiting firemen" and had an excuse to put aside the bloody income tax preparation and go birding! To find out where, and what we saw, go to http://www.mvgazette.com and then click on Bird News.

It is a fifty cent word-leucism. Loosely translated it means the bird has a pale plumage but is not stark white with the red eyes of an albino. Over the years I have received photos and sighting reports of many leucistic birds on the Vineyard. So I started thinking, is leucism more common on islands than on the mainland? Check out the Bird News at: www.mvgazette.com for more.

Leucistic Black-capped Chickadee
Photograph by Meg Spokus