Recent bird sightings on Cape Cod (as of Oct. 16) as reported to the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
A Northern wheatear was found at Skaket Beach in Orleans . This highly migratory songbird travels between arctic Canada and Africa by way of Europe each fall, but is rarely seen in the lower 48 states.
A nice variety of fall migrants noted in the vicinity of Chatham Lighthouse included 9 green-winged teal, 150 surf scoters, 1,200 white-winged scoters, 25 black scoters, 18 common loons, 2 Manx shearwaters, 2 sharp-shinned hawks, 85 common terns, a parasitic jaeger, an Eastern screech owl, a yellow-bellied sapsucker, 14 Northern flickers, a white-eyed vireo, a warbling vireo, 100 blue jays, 41 red-breasted nuthatches, 5 ruby-crowned kinglets, 6 American pipits, 57 yellow-rumped warblers, a Lincoln’s sparrow, a dickcissel, 2 bobolinks, an Eastern meadowlark, 2 rusty blackbirds, 3 Baltimore orioles, and 92 pine siskins.
In the High Head area of Truro, birders reported 3 greater scaup, a Northern harrier, a red-shouldered hawk, a killdeer, a white-rumped sandpiper, 100 cedar waxwings, an orange-crowned warbler, 3 white-crowned sparrows, a purple finch, and 47 pine siskins.
Birds in Provincetown included 2 Cory’s shearwaters, 75 Northern gannets, 350 sanderlings, a Bonaparte’s gull, 30 laughing gulls, 200 common terns, a Forster’s tern, 10 parasitic jaegers, and a long-tailed jaeger.
On Nauset Beach in Orleans there was a green-winged teal, 2 red-throated loons, 4 Northern harriers, a merlin, a late piping plover, a pectoral sandpiper, 20 common terns, 4 yellow-bellied sapsuckers, a least flycatcher, 15 ruby-crowned kinglets, a brown thrasher, a prairie warbler, and a yellow-breasted chat.
Birds seen around Barnstable included a yellow-bellied sapsucker, a Northern parula, a yellow-breasted chat, an indigo bunting, a vesper sparrow, 2 clay-colored sparrows, 7 pine siskins, and a red crossbill.
Birds at Fort Hill in Eastham included a Western willet, 2 short-billed dowitchers, over 200 greater yellowlegs, 12 Forster’s terns, and a yellow-breasted chat.
Red-breasted nuthatches, pine siskins, and to a lesser extent purple finches continue to move through the area in numbers not seen for many years.