Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s Tuesday, March 24 deadline included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
Reports from Race Point in Provincetown include a Pacific Loon, an American Oystercatcher, a Black Guillemot, 650 Razorbills, 4 Common Murres, 64 Iceland Gulls including a ‘Thayer’s’ Iceland Gull, a Glaucous Gull, 2 Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, a Manx Shearwater, 500 Northern Gannets, and an American Pipit.
It must be a rare thing to see a “Thayer’s” Iceland Gull in Provincetown, because the people over at Cornell’s All About Birds website say this is a West Coast bird (when it comes down from the Arctic, where all Iceland Gulls nest). Cornell is rather grumpy about these birds: “The Iceland Gull has been a headache for taxonomists. It is divided into three subspecies, one of which (Thayer’s Gull) was considered a separate species until 2017. To give a sense of how confusing these gulls can be, Thayer’s was at one time thought to belong to a completely different species, the Herring Gull,” they write. Thayer’s Gulls tend to have dark wingtips. (Photo courtesy University of Puget Sound)
What’s wrong, outermost twitchers? Or is it just that you’re in Vieques or somewhere until April? No birds were reported in the other Outer Cape towns. Meanwhile, people in Sandwich say they saw a King Eider and a Sand Hill Crane.
If you have questions about these sightings or want to report a sighting, call the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary at 508-349-2615 or send an e-mail to [email protected].