Keep Calm and Bird On: May 2026
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews
Image of a Yellow Throated Warbler by Louis Dentiste
In May our thoughts turn to colorful migrants. But ocean-cooled Nantucket never guarantees mainland warmth or what we think of as spring-like weather. So, what of spring-like birds?
Weather aside, we never know what might turn up here unexpectedly. For example, Yellow-throated Warblers are very rare here. But if there is one thing we can say about Nantucket, it is “expect the unexpected.” In breeding plumage, warblers are at their most colorful and expressive, making identification easier. A good look at any warbler is hard to get; they are so fast, so flighty, so determinedly on their way elsewhere. To document a rarity, a photo is the accepted standard. But with a good, detailed description of exactly what you saw and how you eliminated any other possible—or more likely—species, you will still have your own personal observation. And if the bird hangs around, it may be confirmed by another observer.
It helps to know what is common. Six or seven species of warblers nest on Nantucket, and May is a great time to catch the early ones. Pine Warblers are among the first, followed by Common Yellow-throats, prospecting Northern Parulas, the ultra-yellow Yellow Warblers, and American Redstarts.
Summer one day, winter the next, is typical Nantucket weather. But even on the windiest, chilliest days, there is still plenty to look at. We can watch Ospreys delivering fish, American Robins carrying nesting material, or even, with luck, catch a glimpse of a Northern Harrier making a food-pass, “air-mailing” a vole to a mate whose nest is well-hidden in shrubs. Willets, our loudest saltmarsh nesters—will be giving their alarm calls as they set up nesting territory. And the hardiest beach-nesters—Piping Plover and American Oystercatchers—are already busy working to get the next generation underway.
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