Cape Cod Bird Sightings — Tuesday, September 29, 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 September 23 and September 29, 2026.

A Bell’s Vireo was discovered at Fort Hill in Eastham on Tuesday.

The Crested Caracara continued at Duck Harbor in Wellfleet this week.

Several days of strong northeast winds brought offshore seabirds into Cape Cod Bay, most notably hundreds of Leach’s Storm-Petrels from the Cape Cod canal to Eastham, including almost 700 tallied at Sandy Neck in Barnstable on the 26th. Other sightings included a Common Murre at Sandy Neck, single Long-tailed Jaegers at Sandy Neck and First Encounter, Northern Fulmars a few places, and a Red-necked Phalarope in Dennis.

High day counts of birds passing Race Point over the several days of northeast winds included 3 American Golden-Plovers, 2 Pectoral Sandpipers, a Baird’s Sandpiper, a South Polar Skua, 2 Long-tailed Jaegers, 60 Parasitic Jaegers, 30 Pomarine Jaegers, a Razorbill, 12 Black-legged Kittiwake, 2 Sabine’s Gulls, 2- Lesser Black-backed Gulls, an Iceland Gull, 5000 Common Terns, 50 Roseate Terns, 70 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, a Leach’s Storm-Petrel, 275 Northern Fulmars, 750 Cory’s Shearwaters, 300 Great Shearwaters, 2 Sooty Shearwaters, 175 Manx Shearwaters, 220 Northern Gannets, and 2500 Tree Swallows.

When the winds finally swung northwest on Tuesday, seabirds were piled up at First Encounter Beach in Eastham, including a Long-tailed Jaeger, 20 Parasitic Jaegers, 5 Pomarine Jaegers, a South Polar Skua, 2 Sabine’s Gulls, a Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, 70 Leach’s Storm-Petrels, 4 Northern Fulmars, 15 Cory’s Shearwaters, 30 Great Shearwaters, 20 Manx Shearwaters, and 3500 Northern Gannets.

Birds in Nauset Marsh in Eastham this week included 2 Long-billed Dowitchers, 15 White-rumped Sandpipers, 6 Western Sandpipers, and 4 Saltmarsh Sparrows.

Other sightings around the Cape included a Baird’s Sandpiper at Crosby Beach in Brewster and 3 early Snow Geese in a flock of Canada Geese over Orleans.

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].