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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, Aug. 5 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

A Brown Booby and an Atlantic Puffin were seen at Race Point in Provincetown, where other sightings this week included a Pomarine Jaeger, 2,500 Common Terns, 200 Roseate Terns, 130 Cory’s Shearwaters, 57 Great Shearwaters, 3 Sooty Shearwaters, and 12 Manx Shearwaters.

Truro doesn’t bird in summer, apparently.

The Audubon Field Guide calls the Pomarine Jaeger a “pirate of the ocean.” That’s because this bird does some of its foraging by harassing other birds and forcing them to drop their food. They breed in the high Arctic, feeding on brown lemmings, but they tend to roam farther afield, adding the occasional vole to their diets along with shorebirds and carrion when the lemming numbers are low. (Photo by Peter Pearsall/USFWS)

Birds at Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary this week included a continuing American Golden-Plover, 18 Whimbrels, 11 Forster’s Terns, and a Northern Waterthrush.

Then there’s the Eastham Chuck-Will’s-Widow. 

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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