Recent sightings (through May 27) as reported to Mass Audubon.
An incredible five swallow-tailed kites were seen flying and roosting together near Santuit Pond in Mashpee, with multiple sightings of birds carrying nesting material.
A spring nor’easter brought some nice seabirds within view of bay side beaches, with Race Point in Provincetown sightings including 64 red phalaropes, 28 red-necked phalaropes, 14 parasitic jaegers, 4 pomarine jaegers, 5 common murres, a little gull, 7 black-legged kittiwakes, 20 Bonaparte’s gulls, a black tern, 325 Arctic terns, 1,800 common terns, 7 roseate terns, a Pacific loon, 9 Wilson’s storm-petrels, 84 Leach’s storm-petrels, 54 sooty shearwaters, 17 Manx shearwaters, and 1,600 Northern gannets. Four Caspian terns passed the point.
Other sightings around the Cape included a yellow-crowned night-heron in Falmouth, three blue grosbeaks at Crane WMA in Falmouth plus 4 worm-eating warblers elsewhere in Falmouth, a Royal Tern in Sandwich, a black-headed Gull in Mashpee, a yellow-throated vireo in Centerville, 2 black vultures in Barnstable, a gray-cheeked thrush in West Barnstable, a chuck-will’s-widow in Eastham, single common nighthawks in Truro and Falmouth, and a hooded warbler in a yard in Provincetown.
If you have questions about these sightings, or want to report a sighting, call the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at 508-349-2615 or send e-mail to cape.sightings@massaudubon.org.