Bird sightings

A male summer tanager surprised a resident of North Falmouth by showing up at their suet feeder this week.

It’s the time of year when interesting waterfowl begin to show up on the Cape, and this week a redhead was found among both greater and lesser scaup on Little Pond in Falmouth.

Ducks found during a birding round-up in Barnstable on Tuesday included a gadwall, a Eurasian wigeon, 96 American wigeon, 3 blue-winged teal, a green-winged teal, 101 ring-necked ducks, a bufflehead, a hooded merganser, 5 common loons, 5 pied-billed grebes, plus a blue grosbeak found in Marstons Mills.

Seabirds continue to be plentiful off the Outer Cape, and noted at Race Point this week were 9 red-throated loons, 10 common loons, 17 Cory’s shearwaters, 85 greater shearwaters, 1 sooty shearwater, 3 Manx shearwaters, 420 northern gannets, 95 black-legged kittiwakes, 40 Bonaparte’s gulls, 50 laughing gulls, 1 Iceland gull, 140 common terns, and 8 parasitic jaegers.

The hawk watch on Morris Island in Chatham counted 157 sharp-shinned hawks, 21 Cooper’s hawks, a merlin, 4 peregrine falcons, a great-horned owl, 55 tree swallows, 187 yellow-rumped warblers, and a snow bunting this week.

Birds noted in a Truro yard this week included 10 northern bobwhites, a white-crowned sparrow, and a purple finch, and seabirds in Truro included 5 common loons, 6 Cory’s shearwaters, 600 greater shearwaters, 5 sooty shearwaters, 7 Manx shearwaters, and 45 black-legged kittiwakes.

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.