Mass Audubon Tallies Autumn Birds Across Cape Cod
Lists compiled through Oct. 20 record species counts at Race Point, Cold Brook Preserve and other Cape Cod locations.
By Julia Wang ·
Mass Audubon's Cape Cod bird sightings, compiled through Oct. 20, record specific counts of waterfowl, hawks and seabirds at sites from Provincetown to Eastham. The listings give birders and photographers dates and locations tied to individual species.
At Race Point in Provincetown, observers logged 1,500 white-winged scoters, 1,000 black scoters, 335 surf scoters, 1,200 Northern gannets, 250 Cory's shearwaters, 155 great shearwaters, 155 Bonaparte's gulls, 25 Lesser black-backed gulls, 350 tree swallows, 5 American golden-plovers, 7 pectoral sandpipers, a razorbill, 2 parasitic Jaegers, 24 American pipits, 8 Manx shearwaters, 2 sooty shearwaters, 2 Wilson's storm-petrels, an Iceland gull, 5 common ravens, 3 American wigeon, 6 Northern pintail, and 1 raven.
An immature purple gallinule turned up at the Stay Fresh cranberry farm in West Yarmouth, where birders and photographers were able to approach it closely. A rough-legged hawk appeared near the Sandwich marina.
Cold Brook Preserve in Harwich held 4 blue-winged teal, 2 Northern shovelers, 9 gadwall, 6 American wigeon, a ring-necked duck, an American coot, 2 Northern harriers, a late green heron, and 17 Eastern bluebirds. Other Cape Cod records include up to 5 yellow-crowned night-herons in West Barnstable, a hooded warbler at Wing Island in Brewster, 3 Western sandpipers in Nauset Marsh in Eastham, 48 pine siskins and a black guillemot in North Truro, and 4 purple sandpipers flying over Stellwagen Bank.
Mass Audubon accepts sighting reports by telephone at 508-349-2615, the line for the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, or by e-mail at cape.sightings@massaudubon.org.
Source: The Boston Globe
