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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, August 6 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

A Pacific Loon in breeding plumage was off Coast Guard Beach in Truro this week, a rare sight away from Race Point.

Pacific Loons sometimes show up on the Atlantic coast in winter, according to the people at the Cornell Bird Lab. It certainly did not walk here. “Like other loons, Pacific Loons have their feet positioned far back on their bodies,” the Cornell website says. “This makes them strong swimmers, but they can only barely walk on land and cannot take flight from land at all. They must flap and patter across 30-50 yards of open water to take flight.” (Photo by Ryan Askren)

Other birds at Race Point in Provincetown included 2 Pacific Loons, 2 Marbled Godwits, 20 Piping Plovers, 12 Whimbrels, a Royal Tern, 11 Black Terns, 130 Roseate Terns, a Lesser Black-Backed Gull, 2 Parasitic Jaegers, 1,100 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, 7 Cory’s Shearwaters, 12 Great Shearwaters, 6 Sooty Shearwaters, 15 Manx Shearwaters, and 7 Cliff Swallows.

There was a Worm-Eating 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].

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