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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, March 18 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

They aren’t on the Outer Cape yet, but thought you’d want to know: the first returning Piping Plovers were spotted this week in Orleans, Hyannis, and Sandwich.

In an essay on the American Birding Association website, Jean Iron describes watching the 250-meter-high cliffs of Nunavut on Canada’s Prince Leopold Island for the departure of Thick-Billed Murres for their winter swimming migration. “Every few minutes, a tiny, young Thick-billed Murre threw itself off a lofty ledge and fluttered to the sea below or floundered onto rocks, where Glaucous Gulls and a polar bear patrolled the beach. As each fledgling landed on the sea, it uttered plaintive piu piu cries to contact the male parent that accompanied it on its first downward flight. If the two became separated, the cries helped them locate each other.” If and when they’re reunited, the two swim together up to 1,000 kilometers from there to ice-free waters in the Davis Strait off the west coast of Greenland. (Photo by Art Sowls/USFWS)

Provincetown is like the land that time forgot. At least that’s true for the Spotted Towhee at the airport (yes, still there) and the Thick-Billed Murre at MacMillan Pier.

Birds at Race Point in Provincetown this week included 2 Pacific Loons, an early Manx Shearwater, 52 Razorbills, 4 Common Murres, and 40 Iceland Gulls.

Three Barrow’s Goldeneyes were espied in Wellfleet Harbor.

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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