BIRD SIGHTINGS

Recent sightings (through Jan. 2) on Cape Cod as reported to Mass Audubon.

An amazing three Western tanagers were found: one at Scusset Beach State Reservation in Sandwich, one in Truro, and another in Dennis.

The Western kingbird and lark sparrow continued at the Salt Pond visitor’s center in Eastham along with up to two Eastern phoebes.

Highlights revealed thus far from the Mid-Cape Christmas Bird Count included a sora, a clay-colored sparrow, and a dickcissel in Hyannis; a short-billed dowitcher and a red knot at Chapin Beach in Dennis; a Baltimore oriole near Corporation Beach in Dennis; and a Eurasian wigeon in Yarmouth Port.

The Stellwagen Bank ship-based Christmas Bird Count was held and, despite heavy fog, surveyors tallied an Atlantic puffin, 1,470 white-winged scoters, 5 pomarine jaegers, 17 razorbills, 585 common murres, 110 black-legged kittiwakes, 7 Iceland gulls, and 260 Northern gannets.

Sightings at Race Point in Provincetown included a Pacific loon, a pomarine Jaeger, a thick-billed murre, 9 common murres, 3 dovekie, a black guillemot, 30 Iceland gulls, a glaucous gull, and an American pipit.

Other sightings around the Cape included a whimbrel in West Dennis; single great egrets in several locations; an American woodcock in Wellfleet; 3 Western willets in Chatham; 100 lingering tree swallows in Wellfleet; and a lesser yellowlegs in Truro.

If you have questions about these sightings, or want to report a sighting, call the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at 508349-2615 or send email to cape.sightings@massaudubon.org.