Cape Cod Bird Sightings — Tuesday, May 12, 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 May 6 and May 12, 2026.

A Gull-billed Tern was reported in Mashpee on the 9^th.

Two Swallow-tailed Kites were reported in South Sandwich and singles were reported from Mashpee to Marstons Mills.

Three Chuck-will’s-widows are back for another season by Nauset Light Beach in Eastham.

Single Summer Tanagers were reported in a few places, including a jelly feeder at Wild Birds Unlimited in Yarmouth.

A shorebird survey on Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge in Chatham tallied 17 American Oystercatchers, 258 Black-bellied Plovers, 196 Willets, 63 Ruddy Turnstones, 2 Red Knots, 266 Sanderlings, 366 Dunlin, 370 Least Sandpipers, 20 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 2000 Laughing Gulls, 7000 Common Terns, 1000 Double-crested Cormorants, and 4 Glossy Ibis.

Sightings at Race Point in Provincetown included a Pacific Loon, 325 Black Scoters, 5 American Oystercatchers, 2 Little Gulls, a Glaucous Gull, 90 Bonaparte’s Gulls, 2200 Laughing Gulls, 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a Thayer’s Iceland Gull, 3 Black Terns, 900 Common Terns, 19 Roseate Terns, 3 Manx Shearwaters, 150 Northern Gannets, 2 Black Vultures, 3 Bald Eagles, and a Summer Tanager.

Other sightings around the Cape included a Mourning Warbler and a Blue Grosbeak in Falmouth, the usual breeding Worm-eating Warblers in Falmouth and Mashpee, an Orange-crowned Warbler and a Harlequin Duck in Mashpee, one or two Black Vultures reported several places, a Red Crossbill in Brewster, a Ring-necked Duck in Hyannis, a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in Harwich and two more in Barnstable Harbor, and single White-rumped Sandpipers in Chatham and 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].