Cape Cod Bird Sightings — Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Cape Cod Weekly Wildlife Sightings is sponsored by the Bird Watchers General Store in Orleans and Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. The following sightings were reported between April 16 and April 22, 2025.

The Cape and Islands’ first record of White-faced Ibis was identified after the fact from a photo of 15 Glossy Ibis flying over Sandy Neck in Barnstable. Other sightings at Sandy Neck included 150 Long-tailed Ducks, 137 Horned Grebes, 2 Northern Harriers, and a Brown Thrasher.

The first Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were reported from several places between East Falmouth and Chatham this week.

Continuing rarities included the Yellow-throated Warbler visiting a feeder in Dennis, the Black-necked Stilt in North Chatham, and the Pacific Loon on Great Pond in Eastham.

Birds at Race Point in Provincetown this week included 2 Pacific Loons, a Harlequin Duck, 2 Black Guillemots, 2 Common Murres, 22 Razorbills, 20 Iceland Gulls, a Glaucous Gull, 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a Parasitic Jaeger, 100 Red-throated Loons, a Manx Shearwater, 88 Turkey Vultures, 4 American Kestrels, 40 migrating Northern Flickers, and 2 Lapland Longspurs. A Rusty Blackbird and a Solitary Sandpiper were at the nearby airport.

At Bell’s Neck conservation area in West Harwich sightings included a Little Blue Heron, a Least Sandpiper, a Pectoral Sandpiper, 30 Greater Yellowlegs, 12 Lesser Yellowlegs, 32 Snowy Egrets, 16 Great Egrets, 11 Black-crowned Night-Herons, and 14 Ospreys.

Seven Snow Geese, a Black-necked Stilt, and a Louisiana Waterthrush were at Wellfleet Bay sanctuary, and other sightings around the Cape included 2 Black Vultures in East Sandwich, an early Green Heron in Mashpee, a Willet in Cotuit, 2 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons in Barnstable Harbor and another in Chatham, 3 Baltimore Orioles that successfully overwintered in Cummaquid, continuing Orange-crowned Warblers in yards in Barnstable and Brewster, a Grasshopper Sparrow at Cold Brook Preserve in Harwich, a Whimbrel on Nauset Beach, and an early Northern Parula at Beech Forest in Provincetown.

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 [email protected].