Recent bird sightings on Cape Cod reported to the Massachusetts Audubon Society as of Friday:
A hummingbird originally suspected of being a rufous that has been present for two weeks at a feeder in Scituate was banded Thursday and conclusively identified as an adult female Allen’s hummingbird, only the second ever recorded in Massachusetts and one of only a handful reported on the East Coast. The homeowners have requested anonymity, and birders are asked to respect their privacy.
The LeConte’s sparrow found in the Cumberland Farms fields in Halifax and Middleborough nearly two weeks ago was still present as recently as Thursday. Also seen were 65 migrating common loons, a rough-legged hawk, four black-bellied plovers, two lesser yellowlegs, six Wilson’s snipes, 18 American pipits, and a pine siskin.
A group of five sandhill cranes present for the past several weeks in Wareham was seen departing Thursday in a southwesterly direction and was spotted in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Hundreds of seabirds continue to be reported off Race Point in Provincetown, when the windy conditions midweek produced tallies of 380 Northern fulmars, 16 Cory’s shearwaters, 1,650 greater shearwaters, 14 sooty shearwaters, 4,750 Northern gannets, 1,000 black-legged kittiwakes, 25 laughing gulls, 30 common terns, seven pomarine jaegers, two parasitic jaegers, 31 dovekies, and four razorbills.
At Andrew’s Point in Rockport, the same conditions produced 222 Northern fulmars, 625 greater shearwaters, two sooty shearwaters, 890 Northern gannets, 75 black-legged kittiwakes, 21 razorbills, and two black guillemots.
At the Parker River Refuge on Plum Island, there were 30 gadwalls, 50 American wigeon, 25 Northern shovelers, 30 green-winged teal, three great egrets, two peregrine falcons, two Northern shrikes, an orange-crowned warbler, a Lapland longspur, and 65 snow buntings.
At Great Meadows Refuge in Concord, there were 19 Northern pintails, 12 green-winged teal, three pied-billed grebes, a lesser yellowlegs, and an American tree sparrow.
Reports from Nantucket included two blue-winged teal, a Northern shoveler, two great egrets, 15 American golden-plovers, 18 pectoral sandpipers, 36 white-rumped sandpipers, and a long-billed dowitcher.
Miscellaneous reports last week included three canvasbacks, 97 ring-necked ducks, and 11 ruddy ducks at Fresh Pond in Cambridge; a Eurasian wigeon and a blue grosbeak in the Marstons Mills section of Barnstable; a common raven in Mattapoisett; a summer tanager in North Falmouth; and fox sparrows in Lexington, Boston’s Public Garden, and Duxbury Beach.
For more information or to report sightings, call the Massachusetts Audubon Society at 781-259-8805 or go to www.massaudubon.org. ![]()

