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This Week’s Bird Sightings

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Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, July 30 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

Birds at Race Point in Provincetown this week included a Pacific Loon, 2 Parasitic Jaegers, 24 Piping Plovers, 20 Roseate Terns, a Black Tern, 400 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, 3 Cory’s Shearwaters, 2 Manx Shearwaters, and a Merlin.

Merlins eat mostly birds, typically catching them in midair during high-speed attacks, and they prefer them in the one- to two-ounce range, according to the bird people at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dragonflies, bats, and small mammals will also do. Also, they write, “Catherine the Great and Mary Queen of Scots used Merlins for sport to hunt Skylarks. European and North American falconers continue to work with Merlins, hunting quarry that ranges from sparrow-sized to dove-sized.” (Photo by Bill Thompson/USFWS)

At Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary birders reported 40 Whimbrels, a Pectoral Sandpiper, 3 Forster’s Terns, a Black-Crowned Night-Heron, and 42 Purple Martins.

That same Chuck-Will’s-Widow is still at Nauset Light Beach in Eastham. 

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 an email to [email protected].

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