The male king eider was seen again this week in the canal from a parking lot off rt. 6 in Bournedale.
A thick-billed murre was at Macmillan Wharf in Provincetown on Sunday, and a dovekie was seen in very close at the Corporation Beach breakwater in Dennis on the 5th.
Birds seen in West Barnstable and Marstons Mills on Monday included 18 gadwall, 8 American wigeon, 2 northern pintail, a green-winged teal, 143 ring-necked ducks, 15 lesser scaup, 29 common merganser, 2 great blue herons, 2 turkey vultures, 2 red-breasted nuthatches, 2 winter wrens, an eastern bluebird, a hermit thrush, a savannah sparrow, 40 red-winged blackbirds, and 4 common grackles.
Good ducks on the mid-upper Cape this week included 4 redheads, a Eurasian wigeon, and 800 scaup in Little Pond in Falmouth, plus a northern shovelor in Cotuit.
American woodcocks were displaying at various spots around the Cape including Long Pasture Mass Audubon sanctuary in Cummaquid and Crane Wildlife Management Area. Two other early arriving members of the shorebird family had first arrivals this week: a killdeer was seen in Mashpee on the 8th, and the first American oystercatcher was seen on Nantucket on the 10th.
A flock of 80 brown-headed cowbirds and 12 common grackles joined the red-winged blackbirds at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary this week.
Piping plovers will be returning to Cape beaches soon. If you happen to see a piping plover with colored bands on its legs, please note the color and leg position of the bands and report them to Mass Audubon, as these were birds banded by researchers in the Bahamas during the past winter.
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 e-mail to sightings@massaudubon.org.
The Cape Cod Natural History Hotline is sponsored by the Bird Watchers General Store in Orleans and Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
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 e-mail to sightings@massaudubon.org.
