Cape Cod Bird Sightings — Tuesday, August 4, 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 July 22 and August 4, 2026.
At least 2 Swallow-tailed Kites continued along rt 28 in Cotuit and nearby areas.
The oddly friendly Bridled Tern that tried to land on the back of a birder at Race Point last Sunday was next seen on Nantucket, then Martha’s Vineyard, where it perched on a yellow lab. It was last seen on someone’s deck railing in Duxbury on the 1st.
Birds at Race Point this week included an Atlantic Puffin, a Leach’s Storm-Petrel, a Black Guillemot, and an Iceland Gull.
Birds seen during shorebird surveys at Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge on the 31st included 11 American Oystercatchers, 350 Semipalmated Plovers, 1207 Short-billed Dowitchers, 61 Willets, 136 Ruddy Turnstones, 4 Stilt Sandpipers, 2400 Sanderlings, 4 Western Sandpipers, 5180 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 1200 Laughing Gulls, and 1000 Common Terns.
Other sightings around the Cape included 2 Blue Grosbeaks at Crane WMA in Falmouth, 5 Bobolinks in Mashpee, 3 Black Vultures in Bourne, 2 Little Blue Herons and a Marbled Godwit at Forest Beach in Chatham, a Little Blue Heron in Harwich, a Merlin in Orleans, at least one Chuck-will’s-Widow continuing at Nauset Light Beach in Eastham, 4 Western Sandpipers and 4 Long-billed Dowitchers in Nauset Marsh in Eastham, a Dickcissel at Wellfleet Bay sanctuary, 2 Least Bitterns in North Truro, 2 American Golden-Plovers and a Western Sandpiper at First Landing Park in Provincetown, and a Caspian Tern on Stellwagen Bank.
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].