Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, May 19, included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
An astounding fallout of migrants was tallied in morning flight near the Provincetown Airport Saturday, with 130 species noted in five hours. Highlights included 9 Green Herons, 210 Eastern Kingbirds, 2 Clay-colored Sparrows, 59 White-crowned Sparrows, 66 Lincoln’s Sparrows, 250 Savannah Sparrows, 420 Black-and-white Warblers, 181 Cape May Warblers, 890 Northern Parulas, 114 Bay-breasted Warblers, and 27 Scarlet Tanagers.
Birds at Race Point included 7 Little Gulls, 800 Bonaparte’s Gulls, an Iceland Gull, a Glaucous Gull, a Caspian Tern, and a Bald Eagle.
Also in Provincetown this week: two sightings of a Pileated Woodpecker, a species almost unheard of on Cape Cod; a Sandhill Crane; a Common Nighthawk.
A King Rail continues in N. Truro, where another impressive fallout of migrants on Saturday morning included 21 species of warbler highlighted by a Golden-winged Warbler, plus a Caspian Tern, 2 Wilson’s Snipes, 8 Least Flycatchers, 31 Eastern Kingbirds, a Yellow-throated Vireo, 5 Veeries, 3 Swainson’s Thrushes, 2 Wood Thrushes, 6 Lincoln’s Sparrows, 14 White-crowned Sparrows, 21 Baltimore Orioles, a Rusty Blackbird, 3 Scarlet Tanagers, and 17 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.
There was a Golden-winged Warbler in 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 an email to [email protected].
