Recent sightings (through March 10) as reported to Mass Audubon.
A male painted bunting, likely the same one that’s been wintering at a feeder in the area, was found off Breakwater Road.
A male king eider and 3 piping plovers were discovered in Sandwich.
The traditional first osprey on the Cape returned to his nest at Cedar Pond in Orleans, where he was seen battling the local bald eagle pair.
The first American oystercatcher was seen in Chatham, along with the overwintering Western willet.
Widespread new early spring migrants arriving in recent days include common grackles, killdeer, fish crows, and a few tree swallows.
Reports from Race Point in Provincetown included a Pacific loon, 7 green-winged teal, 2 killdeer, 120 razorbills, 3 common murres, a thick-billed murre, a dead Atlantic puffin, 2 lesser black-backed gulls, 60 Iceland gulls, a Thayer’s iceland gull, a glaucous gull, and the first laughing gull of the spring.
Birds at High Head in North Truro included a Northern pintail, 110 greater scaup, a lesser scaup, a glaucous gull, and 16 Iceland gulls.
A Baltimore oriole was seen coming to a mealworm feeder in West Yarmouth since the storm, and other sightings around the Cape included a Northern shrike and a marsh wren in Falmouth, a Barrow’s goldeneye in Sandwich, an orange-crowned warbler continuing at a feeder in Mashpee, a black-headed gull in Hyannis, a lesser yellowlegs in West Harwich, a continuing dickcissel at feeders in Chatham, and single brown thrashers in Brewster and Wellfleet.
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.