Weekly Bird Report On Wcai

It’s not even May, and the “Swallow-tailed Kite triangle” of Cape Cod is already popping off with early sightings. There were no fewer than five reports of this improbably graceful hawk over the last week.

Let’s talk about everyone’s favorite garden accessory, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Quite a few have been reported already, with the first sighted back on the 17th in Brewster.

It’s a classic birding bummer — sometimes a rare bird comes to light too late for birders to see it, to the chagrin of those who missed out.

On Sunday, a rare bird was discovered on Great Pond in Eastham, driving local birders loony. This unassuming gray and white waterbird was in the wrong kind of water in the wrong town on the wrong coast.

This year it turned out that, as I was heading to Florida, Florida was heading to Cape Cod. As soon as I got down there I saw the rare bird alert from back home blowing up with Florida birds, most of which I didn’t even see while I was in Florida.

March may come in like a lion, but around here it goes out on the crooked wings of an Osprey.

They’re baaaaack! Here on the cusp of astronomical spring, those adorable little beach goers that certain people love to hate have arrived, or at least the first few scouts have. Piping Plovers have been seen in Orleans, Hyannis, and Sandwich, and more are likely out there on the bleak beaches of March

When Bald Eagles took over an Osprey nest on the Outer Cape two years ago it meant that, for the first time since the 1800s out here, the eagle had landed.

A lanky and mysterious stranger arrived in Provincetown last week, where he is often seen loitering near the famous Boy Beach at the west end. Flamboyantly arrayed in feathers, this visitor has developed quite a following, but it’s not for a drag show at the Post Office Cabaret.

As I write on this coldest day of the season thus far, it seems wise to discuss an indoor birding activity almost universally enjoyed by bird fanciers – backyard bird feeding.

I thought it might have been a female Ring-necked Duck, but a view through my spotting scope showed the characteristic cowlick of a female Tufted Duck, a rare visitor from Europe.

We are overdue for another episode of everyone’s favorite made-up, bird-related, Cape Cod-based award show: the Bird Grammys!

By mid-winter, the prize rare birds have all been established and often settle into a routine.

As this throwback winter plods on, with ice fishers on the ponds and ice floes on the bay, one of the most common questions us bird folks get is “how do birds survive these brutal temperatures?”

Suddenly a big bird rocketed into view – a Peregrine Falcon, death missile of the tidal flats, no doubt hunting the shorebirds.

With just a few days left in 2024, the undisputed bird of the year for Cape Cod was found in Chatham.

Amidst the silent majesty of this cold Christmas morn, I can only assume you are all gathered around the radio, in the warm embrace of kith and kin, waiting to hear the latest results of the local bird counts.

This is one of those cases where a bird in the hand was going to be worth at least two in the bush. We needed a licensed hummingbird bander to catch and examine it.