September 9 – September 15, 2026

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

Late sightings of at least one Swallow-tailed Kite continued in Mashpee and Cotuit this week. 

Birds at Race Point/Hatches Harbor in Provincetown included an American Golden-Plover, a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, a remarkable 16 Stilt Sandpipers, a Pectoral Sandpiper, 7 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 2 Black Terns, an Arctic Tern, 250 Roseate Terns, 200 Common Terns, 27 Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, 6 Cory’s Shearwaters, 3 Great Shearwaters, 11 Manx Shearwaters, a Peregrine Falcon, and a Blue Grosbeak.

Birds in Nauset Marsh in Eastham included 11 American Oystercatchers, an American Golden-Plover, 300 Semipalmated Plovers, 19 Western Sandpipers, and 15 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

At the south end of Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, birds included 8 Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, a 22 Gadwall, 160 American Black Ducks, 3 Green-winged Teal, 8 Ruddy Ducks, 2 American Coot, 4 Pied-billed Grebes, an American Golden-Plover, 3 Red Knots, and 22 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Migrants along the Hering River in Wellfleet included a Sora, an Olive-sided Flycatcher, a White-eyed Vireo, a Philadelphia Vireo, and a Cape May Warbler.

Other sightings around the Cape included single Little Blue Herons in Barnstable and Harwich, a Leach’s Storm-Petrel off Chatham and 2 more in the bay off Barnstable, a Golden-winged Warbler at Fort Hill in Eastham, a Summer Tanager in Wellfleet, a White-throated Sparrow in North Truro, and 11 Red-necked Phalaropes and a Leach’s Storm-Petrel on Stellwagen Bank.

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 cape.sightings@massaudubon.org