BIRD SIGHTINGS

Recent sightings on Cape Cod (through Jan. 9) as reported to Mass Audubon.

A Western grebe was discovered at Mashpee-Wakeby Pond.

A rufous hummingbird was seen briefly in Orleans, then it turned out two had been visiting a nearby feeder for at least a month.

The onslaught of Western tanagers continued, with two seen together near Scusset Beach reservation and across the canal at the Sandwich Marina, plus another continuing near Highland Light in Truro. Most sightings of these rare visitors have been in cedars where they are feeding with robins.

The Western kingbird, lark sparrow, and yellow-throated warbler continued at the Salt Pond visitor’s center in Eastham along with an Eastern phoebe.

Highlights from the Truro Christmas Bird Count included the aforementioned Western tanager from Highland Light area, an American oystercatcher at Great Island in Wellfleet, a Northern waterthrush at High Head, 2 sora along the Pamet River, and at least 130 tree swallows.

The recent nor’easter brought some seabirds close to shore in the bay, including 6 pomarine jaegers, an Atlantic puffin, 3 thick-billed murres, 86 dovekies, and 600 black-legged kittiwakes at First Encounter Beach in Eastham.

Sightings at Race Point in Provincetown included an amazing 4 Pacific loons, a harlequin duck, 430 razorbills, a thick-billed murre, 18 common murres, and 12 tree swallows.

Other sightings around the Cape included a thick-billed murre in Sandwich, a black-headed gull and a semipalmated plover in Hyannis, 2 killdeer in Centerville, a snowy egret and a great egret at Barnstable Harbor, a glaucous gull in West Dennis, a Western willet in Chatham, an American bittern in Nauset Marsh, 4 chipping sparrows in Eastham, late house wrens in Eastham and Truro, a dickcissel at a feeder in Wellfleet, and a blue-headed vireo in Truro.