Bird sightings

A weekend northeaster brought some offshore seabirds close enough to be seen from land at Race Point, First Encounter Beach in Eastham, Corporation Beach in Dennis, and Sandy Neck in Barnstable, including northern fulmars, Leach’s storm-petrels, and a few Atlantic puffins. At Race Point there were 8 northern fulmars, 7 red-throated loons, 185 Cory’s shearwaters, 1,590 greater shearwaters, 30 sooty shearwaters, 87 Manx shearwaters, a Wilson’s storm-petrel, 3 Leach’s storm-petrels, 4,630 northern gannets, a killdeer, 465 black-legged kittiwakes, a little gull, 1,250 common terns, 3 Forster’s terns, a pomarine jaeger, 5 parasitic jaegers, and an Atlantic puffin.

At First Encounter Beach in Eastham there were 2,700 common eiders, 200 white-winged scoters, 3,500 black and surf scoters, 14 red-throated loons, 2 northern fulmars, a Wilson’s storm-petrel, 7,100 northern gannets, a peregrine falcon, and a red-necked phalarope.

Birds seen during a high tide walk around the base of Fort Hill in Eastham included 2 American bitterns, 15 great blue herons, 4 black-crowned night-herons, a Virginia rail, a peregrine falcon, 2 great-horned owls, 2 marsh wrens, a house wren, 6 sharp-tailed sparrows, a seaside sparrow, a white-crowned sparrow, a Lincoln’s sparrow, and an Eastern meadowlark.

In other sightings around the Cape, a blue grosbeak and a clay-colored sparrow were in the Harwich community gardens, 2 harlequin ducks are back at Nauset Beach in Orleans, 4 ruddy ducks and a bufflehead were noted in Brewster, and 6 Forster’s terns and a Leach’s storm-petrel were seen at Scusset Beach.

For more information about bird sightings or to report bird sightings, call the Massachusetts Audubon Society at 781-259-8805 or go to www.massaudubon.org.