Cape Cod Bird Sightings — Tuesday, May 20, 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 May 14 and May 20, 2025.

The first Anhinga for the Cape and Islands was photographed at Pogorelc Sanctuary in Barnstable on Saturday but not subsequently refound. Other birds there included a Tricolored Heron and a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron.

Three Swallow-tailed Kites, including the continuing pair, were seen this week near Santuit Pond in Mashpee where other sightings included a continuing Ring-necked Duck and Tricolored Heron.

A Kentucky Warbler was found in Foss Woods in Provincetown.

Birds at Race Point in Provincetown this week included 2 Pacific Loons, a Harlequin Duck, a Black Guillemot, 1 Little Gull, 50 Bonaparte’s Gulls, 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 4 Black Terns, 880 Common Terns, a Sooty Shearwater, and 5 Manx Shearwaters.

A survey of Minimoy Island in Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge tallied 2 Northern Pintail, 12 American Oystercatchers, 5 Short-billed Dowitchers, 40 Willets, 225 Ruddy Turnstones, 50 Red Knots, 1800 Sanderlings, 3200 Dunlin, 1500 Laughing Gulls, a Lesser Black-backed Gull, 10000 Common Terns, 10 Glossy Ibis, 2 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, 30 Black-crowned Night-Herons, 12 Snowy Egrets and 4 Great Egrets.

Other sightings around the Cape included two Blue Grosbeaks at Crane WMA in Falmouth plus 4 Worm-eating Warblers elsewhere in Falmouth, 2 Black Vultures in Dennis, a Little Gull in Chatham, an American Pipit in Orleans, 2 late Dark-eyed Juncos in Brewster, a Chuck-will’s-widow and 2 Common Nighthawks in Eastham, and a Hooded Warbler in a yard 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].