Cape Cod Bird Sightings — Tuesday, August 18, 2026
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 August 12 and August 18, 2026.
The famously friendly Bridled Tern summering in Scituate once again visited the Cape, this time interacting with a woman and her dog at Seagull Beach in Yarmouth on the 13th.
At least 3 Swallow-tailed Kites continued along Rt 28 in Cotuit and nearby areas.
Birds tallied at Nauset Inlet in Orleans/Eastham included 4415 Semipalmated Plovers, 21 Piping Plovers, 40 Short-billed Dowitchers, 7 White-rumped Sandpipers, 1130 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 115 Least Terns, 4 Forster’s Terns, and 12 Roseate Terns.
A survey of a remote part of Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge turned up 20 American Oystercatchers, 1015 Black-bellied Plovers, 1665 Semipalmated Plovers, a Hudsonian Whimbrel, 2 Hudsonian Godwits, 4 Marbled Godwits, 1695 Short-billed Dowitchers, 159 Ruddy Turnstones, 359 Red Knots, 2755 Sanderlings, a Baird’s Sandpiper, 9 White-rumped Sandpiper, 3230 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 200 Common Terns, and 300 Roseate Terns.
Other sightings around the Cape included the continuing Harlequin Duck in East Falmouth, a Blue Grosbeak and a Dickcissel at Crane WMA in Falmouth, another Dickcissel Harwich, a Tricolored Heron and a Little Blue Heron at Bell’s Neck conservation area in West Harwich, a Stilt Sandpiper in North Chatham, and 3 Black Vultures in Eastham.
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].