Cape Cod Bird Sightings — Tuesday, July 21, 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 15 and July 21, 2026.

A Curlew Sandpiper was found in Nauset Marsh in Eastham this week.

Three Swallow-tailed Kites were in Barnstable this week near Lovell’s Pond, a traditional area for the now annual and likely breeding population of these southern raptors.

Sightings from Race Point in Provincetown this week included a Gull-billed Tern and a Royal Tern, plus 2 American Oystercatchers, 18 Piping Plovers, 25 Bonaparte’s Gulls, 1100 Common Terns, 200 Roseate Terns, 25 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, and small numbers of all four species of shearwater.

At Pogorelc Sanctuary in West Barnstable there was a Hooded Merganser, 4 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, 3 Black-crowned Night-Herons, and a Glossy Ibis.

Other sightings around the Cape included a Bobolink in Mashpee, a Merlin and a Little Blue Heron at Mud Pond in Harwich, at least 2 Chuck-will’s-Widows continuing at Nauset Light Beach in Eastham, a Northern Waterthrush at Wellfleet Bay sanctuary, and an American Golden-Plover at First Landing Park 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].