Cape Cod Bird Sightings — Tuesday, July 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 July 16 and July 22, 2025.

Sightings at Race Point in Provincetown this week included 14 Piping Plovers, a Black Guillemot, 2 Parasitic Jaegers, 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 2 Black Terns, 500 Roseate Terns, 1900 Common Terns, an Arctic Tern, 40 Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, 300 Cory’ Shearwaters, 45 Great Shearwaters, 11 Sooty Shearwaters, and 22 Manx Shearwaters.

Some folks in a boat off Pamet Harbor in Truro were lucky enough to see two Atlantic Puffins last week.

Up to 4 Swallow-tailed Kites continue in the Cotuit area this week.

Saltmarsh bird surveys at Wellfleet Bay sanctuary last week tallied 2 Clapper Rails, 14 Whimbrels, 70 Short-billed Dowitchers, 52 Willets, and 16 Saltmarsh Sparrows.

Other sightings around the Cape included an American Bittern in Bourne, 4 Blue Grosbeaks in Falmouth, 3 Black Skimmers and a Little Blue Heron in Chatham, a Leach’s Storm-Petrel east of Chatham, at least one endlessly continuing Chuck-Will’s-widow in Eastham, and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at Wellfleet Bay 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 [email protected]