I agree it’s not an image that would have made the cover of Audubon, and there is not even enough flashing of chimney for Sweeping magazine, but there it perched: this bright blue harbinger waiting to crown this Happy New Year.

Fishers Island has not seen the Eastern Bluebird in quite some time, and for me these past six years it is a first. There are, though, many vacant bluebird boxes standing within dense grass fields alongside empty estates waiting and waiting for a sign of its return at long last.

I was winding and rounding my way toward West Harbor across from the softball field when four vibrant visitors flitted across the hood of the old beach car and darted upward.

Startled by brilliance of blue and, of course, smiling, I was “invited” to capture this one moment; these bluebirds of happiness accomplishing their mission with such finesse. And while we humans are at it — giving wildlife our own attributes — this happy “subject” even appears stalwart.

The island’s got a very different, even unusual, feel these days — and not just of winter. The Big Club up east has been razed; torn down, newly designed to be rebuilt and raised up again. Out with the old, in with the new this 2017.

With all the construction activities, the gate house, which for decades has delineated the Town of Southold from private property, remains manned — also a first for winter. To me, still monitoring by bicycle in January, there is no feel of east meets west. (Ask any bluebird!)

I continue to record remarks on this change of climate, these moments of renewal, and we Islanders resolve that happiness doesn’t come and go but should remain a constant for all.

Justine Kibbe is the island naturalist for the Fishers Island Conservancy. A lifelong environmentalist, Kibbe spent six years on Alaska’s Island of Saint Paul among the native Unungan people to study fur seals. Now a Fishers Island resident, Kibbe offers wildlife snapshots from her observations on the island. You can reach her at bjkibbe@gmail.com or visit www.fishersislandconservancy.org for more information.